New York Songlines: Walker Street

with Beach Street and Ericsson Place

Lafayette | Centre | Mulberry | Mott | Elizabeth | The Bowery | Chrystie | Forsyth | Eldridge | Allen | Orchard | Ludlow
Essex | Norfolk | Suffolk | Clinton | Attorney | Ridge | Pitt | Columbia

Walker Street is named for Benjamin Walker (1753-1818), Revolutionary War officer who was aide-de-camp to Gen. Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben--with whom he was rumored to be romantically involved, and who left much of his estate to Walker upon his death. Walker later served on Washington's staff, and was a Federalist representative to the U.S. Congress from 1801-03. I suspect it's his post-war real estate enterprises, though, that got him a street named after him.

Though Beach Street used to extend to the Hudson shore, before the westernmost edge of Manhattan was created via landfill, the street was originally named for Paul Bache, son-in-law of Anthony Lispenard. Lispenard owned the Lispenard Meadows, an expanse of marshy fields that extended approximately from Broome Street to Duane Street. Laid out in the late 18th Century, Bache Street-- later corrupted to Beach--is said to have been the first street laid out to cut across the Meadows.

One block of Beach Street is renamed Ericcson Place, after the designer of the ironclad Monitor, John Ericsson, who lived on the block.



Smith Barney

388 Greenwich Street: This 1989 building by Kohn Pedersen Fox was once the headquarters of the Travelers Group insurance company, of which Smith Barney was the brokerage arm; when Travelers was bought by Citigroup, the largest financial services company in the world, the building was given to the former subsidiary--but it retains the enormous and garish light-up Travelers umbrella that outraged neighbors.


S <===     GREENWICH STREET     ===> N

When the Hudson River came to the foot of Beach Street, America's first steam locomotive landed here in 1829, en route from England to Pennsylvania--the Stourbridge Lion, with a top speed of 10 miles per hour.

South:

62 (corner): The Fischer Mills Building, an eight-story brick warehouse from 1860 converted to condos in 1999















129 (corner): Baker Tribeca

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North:

Corner (399 Greenwich Street): Greenwich Street Tavern, pub

57: Beach Street Eatery, weekday-only sandwich/smoothie spot



COLLISTER ST         ===> N




Corner (135 Hudson): An attractively industrial warehouse from 1886, now artists' lofts


S <===     HUDSON STREET     ===> N

South:

36 (corner): Pompanoosuc Mills, a Vermont furniture showroom, is in an award-winning 2001 condo building known as 124 Hudson Street, whose materials and design reflect its late 19th Century Romanesque Revival neighbors. John Ericcson, the naval engineer who designed the ironclad Monitor, lived at this Beach Street address from 1864--two years after his creation sank the Merrimac--until his death in 1889.




















NYC - TriBeCa: NYPD 1st Precinct by wallyg, on Flickr

16 (corner): NYPD's 1st Precinct covers all of Manhattan south of the Brooklyn Bridge, plus everything south of Houston and west of Broadway. There was one murder in this area in 2004. The building dates to 1912 (when this was the 4th Precinct), a Renaissance Revival landmark by Hoppin & Koen.

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North:

Hudson Square

Once known as St. John's Park, this place was described by the New York Evening Post in 1847 as a ''spot of eden loveliness...retiring from the din and tumult of the noisy town to enjoy its own secret solitude.'' Then, in 1869, it was sold by Trinity Church to Commodore Vanderbilt for a railroad terminal, and in 1927 it became the rotary that the Holland Tunnel emerges into.

From 1807 until 1918 there was a church, St. John's Chapel, on the Varick Street side.


HOLLAND TNL   ===> N

Holland Tunnel by 24gotham, on Flickr

The Holland Tunnel, con- necting Man- hattan to Jersey City, was started in 1922 and completed in 1927, allowing cars to drive into New York City from New Jersey for the first time. Though the name evokes New York City's Dutch heritage, it actually honors Clifford Milburn Holland, chief engineer of the project, who died on October 7, 1924, the day before the tunnels dug from New York and New Jersey were connected. The project was completed by famed tunnel designer Ole Singstad, whose pioneering ventilation system allowed the Holland Tunnel to be the first vehicular tunnel of substantial length.

On I Love Lucy, Lucy is said to have made U-turn in the Holland Tunnel, tying up traffic all the way to East Orange. The mutant insect in The Deadly Mantis is killed here with nerve gas.

S <===     VARICK STREET     ===> N

South:

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Tribeca Cinemas

NYC - TriBeCa: TriBeCa Cinemas by wallyg, on Flickr

Corner (24 Varick): A restaurant and a art-house miniplex that opened in 1996 as The Screening Room, it was at the time Manhattan's only cinema below Canal Street. It closed in 2003, a victim of Downtown's post-September 11 depression. Now known as the Tribeca Film Center, it's used for special events like the Tribeca Film Festival.


ST JOHNS LN   ===> N

3: On the site of the American Thread Building was the address of James Fennimore Cooper's home in 1823-24, where he wrote The Pilot, his attempt to write a nautically accurate sea novel.

American Thread Building

NYC - TriBeCa: American Thread Company Building by wallyg, on Flickr

260 (block): Built in 1894-96 in Renaissance Revival style by William B. Tubby. It was originally the New York Wool Exchange, an attempt by the New York Wool Warehouse Company to wrest the wool trade away from Boston. The venture failed in 1898, and from 1901-1964 this was a factory for the American Thread Company, whose name is still on the building. American Thread Building by epicharmus, on Flickr

Keith Haring painted a mural here in 1979, when it was some kind of exhibition space; the mural was forgotten and rediscovered in 2008 when the top floor were being transformed into a spectacular triplex. Supermodel Naomi Campbell is said to have lived in the building.


S <===     WEST BROADWAY     ===> N

South:

1 (corner): Tribeca Park Gourmet















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North:

Tribeca Park

New York City by Joshua David Clayton, on Flickr

Once part of the Lipsenard Meadows, this area was made a park in 1810, when the city purchased it for $3,950. Long known as the Beach Street Park, it got its present name in 1985.


S <===     6TH AVENUE     ===> N

South:

Tribeca Grand

Tribeca Grand + clock by allert, on Flickr

Block (2 6th Ave): This fancy hotel opened in 2000. Owned by Hartz Mountain Industries, the pet food company that also owns the Soho Grand and (formerly) the Village Voice. I went to a very wild party here once.

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North:

AT&T Building

The AT&T building by Shiny Things, on Flickr A 28-floor Art Deco landmark built in 1930 to a Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker design. Originally AT&T's Long Distance Building, since 2001 it's housed the telecom company's main offices.

S <===     CHURCH STREET     ===> N

South:

Corner (301 Church): Bread Tribeca, Ligurian


























Corner (395 Broadway): Self-Service Stores-- ''Serve Yourself and Save.''

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North:

Corner (305 Church): Stuzzicheria, spinoff of Bar Stuzzichini. Was Burrito Bar, hipster hangout with 1960s motif--now reincarnated in Brooklyn.

36: David Gage String Instruments, selling and restoring basses and cellos since 1978.

44 1/2: The Blue Angel Cabaret, which opened in the basement here in 1994, has been credited as the birthplace of the New Burlesque--though its eclectic acts were far raunchier than the shows that it inspired. Hipsters like Lou Reed, Jim Jarmusch and Ralph Fiennes were customers, and Drew Barrymore spontaneously took off her clothes here. It survives in a tamer version as Le Scandal at the West Bank Cafe on 42nd Street. Skyward by MGChan, on Flickr

60 (corner): A 29-story 1930 Art Deco office tower designed by Jardine, Hill & Murdock. Also known as 401 Broadway, it has (or maybe had) a concentration of Chinese-American lawyers, so much so that that address is said to be known in China as the place you find a lawyer in New York. Broadway Cafe is on the ground floor.


S <===     BROADWAY     ===> N

South:

Block (396 Broadway): A 10-story brick-and-limestone building from 1899, designed by William Birkmire, architect of the Mexican National Opera House. walker street by madabandon, on Flickr









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S <===     CORTLANDT ALLEY     ===> N

South:

NYC - Art in General - Common People and Other Stories by wallyg, on Flickr

79 (corner): Art in General, non-profit art space founded in 1982


NYC - TriBeCa: Danger Hollow Sidewalk by wallyg, on Flickr







100 (corner): Loftworks, designer clothing retailer

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North:



82: New York Chinese Baptist Church














110 (corner): Hardware Building


S <===     LAFAYETTE STREET     ===> N

South:

Corner (101-105 Lafayette): Lafayette Towers houses Sau Voi Corp and Chinese Home Style.


Corner (139 Centre): A nine-story building from 1910, now an office development catering to Chinatown professionals--complete with a seal of approval from a feng shui master.

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North:

109 (corner): Vien Dong Music Center










S <===     CENTRE STREET     ===> N

South:

125 (block): In 1982, this building was given to a collection of Chinatown agencies to mitigate the impact of a new jail built in the neighborhood. From 1994-2002, this was the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, offering health and social services and education to the Chinatown community. The Center subsequently moved to Canal Street.


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North:


S <===     BAXTER STREET     ===> N

South:

Corner (220 Canal): Sun Say Kai Restaurant. Even though it seems like this is a continuation of Walker Street, technically this is Canal Street--see that street for the rest of the addresses on this block.




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North:

Block: There's an information pagoda of some sort on this triangular slice of a block.








W <===     CANAL STREET     ===> E









What am I missing on Walker Street? Write to Jim Naureckas and tell him about it.

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