New York County Court House (later New York State Supreme Court), 1927.

While Fred E. French's development Tudor City flourished, the perils of private-sector redevelopment emerged at French’s next major project, Knickerbocker Village, located on the Lower East Side near the Manhattan Bridge. When his plans, which included the demolition of the infamous “Lung Block,” faltered in the Depression economy, he was left holding 14.5 acres of tenement property, optioned at about $14 psf. In 1933, French went hat-in-hand to the federal government’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation to beg for millions to realize his dream. Federal officials provided only enough for part of the project: two massive perimeter blocks that, at 12 stories, rose high above the surrounding tenements, yet covered just about half the land. The project achieved a density of 800 people per acre. NYCHA’s first Chair, Langdon Post, called Knickerbocker Village “new types of slums,” but the tenants disagreed after repairs were made to the hastily-built buildings.

Wong Family Association, 1960s. One of Poy Gum Lee's final designs in Chinatown, the Wong Family Association Building is also perhaps his most strictly modern. While most of his other designs in New York were somewhat heavily influenced by Chinese architectural styles, this structure had an overt mid-century modern facade. The building was constructed for a Chinese benevolent society which assisted new immigrants and created and organized social, political, and economic structures within the Chinese community.

In 1763 Henry Culyer, scion of a wealthy Dutch family involved in the sugar trade, built a massive six-story, brick sugar house at the corner of what was Prince Street (later Rose and William Street) and Duane Street. The building was impressive for colonial New York, standing six-stories tall. It was used for both refining sugar and the storage of sugar and molasses. The Culyer family remained Loyalists during the Revolution and as a result, lost their property (including this sugar house) when the Act of Forfeiture was passed. Sold at auction, the building was purchased by William Rhinelander, another son of an old New York family made rich by sugar. Improbably surviving the Great Fire of 1845 and the general destruction of much of the city's colonial architecture, the sugar house was still standing in the second half of the 19th century. Once the tallest building in the area, by the 1890s, when it caught the attention of photographer Robert Brackow, it was dwarfed by taller structures and was obviously suffering from neglect. The building was finally razed in 1892 and replaced by a new Rhinelander Building. Fun fact! Not all of the 1763 building was lost! Urban legend/local lore in the 19th century suggested that this sugar house was used as a prison during the Revolutionary War. It was not, but the Livingston Sugar House on Liberty Street was used as a prison. Regardless of the provable facts, stories persisted. When the building was demolished two windows were saved. One was donated to the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York and placed near the Van Cortlandt mansion in the Bronx. The other window was installed at the new Rhinelander Building and when that building was razed in 1968 and the street demapped for the Civic Center redeveopment, it was placed within the Brutalist structure of One Police Plaza (where it can still be seen today.)

48 Henry Street, July 1967.

51 Market Street, ca. 1978. This four-story building, also known as the William and Rosamond Clark House, was constructed in 1824-25 by an unknown architect. Designed for William Clark, a grocer, the building is an early example of the Late Federal style on the Lower East Side. The home was erected at a time when the neighborhood was an affluent residential area. While the structure may not appear particularly architecturally distinguished today, the building was one of the first to be designated after the Landmark Commission was created in 1965.

Henry Street, south side between Oliver and Catherine Street, Manhattan, showing P.S. #1, 1920. One of four public schools in New York City that have used the name“P.S. 1”, the C.B.J. Snyder designed school was completed in 1897. When opened it served the largely Italian immigrant neighborhood. Subsequent immigration waves included Polish and Russian Jews during and after World War I and later Puerto Ricans and Chinese students. It is believed that this school had the very first rooftop playground. Famous alum include singers Luther Vandross and Eddie Cantor, as well as actors Jimmy Durante and Robert Loggia. Fun fact: This school's origins date to the New York Free School 1, founded in 1809, which predates even the city's Board of Education, set up in 1842.

Sai Wing Mock, or "Mock Duck," was the leader of the Hip Sing Tong, one of the "tongs," or controlling agencies in New York's Chinatown. Tongs were essential in preserving the culture, political agency, and independence of Chinese Americans in the early 20th century. Mock, who would rise to become one of the most notorious figures in the Chinatown crime scene, was born in San Francisco in 1878 to Cantonese immigrants. At 18 years old, he relocated to New York, going by the name "Mock Duck" until the late 1910s, when a Newark newspaper mistakenly reported his death. Taking advantage of the error, Mock reverted to his given name, Sai Wing, which afforded him some privacy after years in the spotlight. This story tells of the life of Sai Wing Mock "Duck."

Oak and New Chambers Streets, decorated for St. Vincent’s festival, October 27, 1935. Buildings along both streets were razed between 1950 and 1953, ahead of the construction of the Alfred E. Smith Houses. The Municipal Building is visible in the background, as are the elevated tracks of the combined Second and Third Avenue Lines.

100 Gold Street, ca. 1921. When completed in 1920, the Hide and Leather building had the distinction of being the tallest concrete building in the world. Constructed by the Hide and Leather Realty Company, an association of merchants in that trade, the 17-story building was designed by the firm of Starrett & Van Vleck. The firm was best known for designing a series of department stores, including the flagship stores of Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, Abraham & Straus, and Alexander's. A mix of offices, showrooms, and lofts the building was demolished in the mid 1960s as part of the Civic Center urban renewal project. It was replaced in 1969 with the nine-story Tishman Downtown Center Building. Though the new building could hardly be called a skyscraper, as its predecessor was when completed in 1920, it is none the less considerable in size, with each floor covering more than an acre and a half.

Railroad sheds at Pier 21 on the East River, March 30, 1937. Berenice Abbott's photo captures the pier shed of the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads at Pier 21 with the Brooklyn Bridge immediately above and Manhattan Bridge in the background. The pier was removed in the late 1960s.

Bo-Bo Restaurant, ca, 1975. The Chinese restaurant called Bo-Bo's (at 20 1/2 Pell Street, right) was a well-loved local institution between the 1950s and 1980s. The menu was up on a board on the wall and with less than a dozen tables, the wait could be an hour. Those who remember the spot even today say the wait was always worth it. The signage notes the restaurant's name and states "the home of Chinese actors." Ester Eng, who was a partner in Bo-Bo's and owned another nearby eatery was an early director in Chinese cinema, and many Chinese actors frequented the spot.

A 5-story structure, No. 68 (second from the corner), was supposed to have been the first place where stereopticon and shadow views were first shown. It also is reputed to have had the first public meeting rooms on this thoroughfare.

Pagoda Theater, 1964. The Pagoda Theater, which was designed in 1963, was the last new building in New York's Chinatown created by the Chinatown-born architect Poy Gum Lee. Opened in 1964, the theater was the first Chinese language movie theater in the neighborhood built expressly for that purpose (the other three had been converted into theaters). The theater was rendered in a Chinese-influenced, modern style with a three-tiered pagoda at the corner. The auditorium sat just under 500 patrons. The opening of the theater was celebrated with a dragon dance through the nearby streets of Chinatown. The theater closed in the late 1980s and was razed and replaced in the early 1990s with a 15-story commercial structure.

One of the finest of the Greek Revival churches in Manhattan, it has been attributed to Minard Lafever because of the beauty of its detail. The porch is recessed between wide flanking sidewalls, as is the case with St. John's in the Village, only this church is simple distyle in antis of the Doric order.

Shearith Israel Graveyard ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1683 STYLE: Graveyard This small graveyard is what remains today of the early burial ground of the Sephardic Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel. It was established on this site in the Seventeenth Century and thus represents one of the oldest cemeteries within the City. Handsome headstones are here interspersed by marble sarcophagus with simple flat-slab tops. One little monument is surmounted by a small pyramidal stone cap. The unique quality of this small plot lies not only in the simplicity of its early tombs but in its forgotten aspect, surrounded by houses, a reminder of our earliest history.

Construction on the South Street Pumping Station, across South Street from the Long Island Railroad Freight Depot at East River Pier 32; undated photo. A May 1885 report in the Babylon Budget detailed construction of the new depot at piers 32 and 33, "which promises to be the handsomest and most substantial on the whole riverfront." The report further quoted from the Fishing Dispatch trade publication, claiming the depot's construction had been driven by a fourfold increase in freight traffic. Pier 32 was also used for Ferry Service to Long Island City. At the turn of the century, the facing block on South Street was transformed as four buildings, Nos. 191-194, were razed for the construction of the fire department's South Street Pumping Station, completed in 1909. Around the same time, the East River piers were renumbered. By 1922, freight storage for the Pennsylvania and Long Island railroads had expanded to occupy the area between the Pier 22 (formerly 30-31), at foot of Roosevelt Street, and Pier 25 (formerly 33), at the foot of Oliver Street. Most of the piers in this area were removed by 1977.

Saint James Roman Catholic Church ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1835-37 STYLE: Greek Revival, Church St. James Church is a fine example of Greek Revival architecture. It has recessed porch with two columns on either side of the porch are enclosed stairs with their own doors opening on to the street. The entire front is crowned by a low gable pediment. One of the principal contributions of the Greek Revival in this country was its modification of the classic temple form.

My Archive Spring 2019 "Mott Street in front of Transfiguration school. A photo taken for 8th-grade graduation in 1982." —May Lew

Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks is an ongoing audio exploration of memory and place, produced by Think!Chinatown. Through a story stroll around the neighborhood, we visit and remember our community members’ own personal landmarks and memories in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks is a part of Chinatown Arts Festival 2023, produced by Think!Chinatown.

Chatham Branch, NYPL, ca. 1903. Chatham Square Branch was the first of twelve Carnegie libraries designed by McKim, Mead & White. Completed in 1903, the structure remains one of the most intact Carnegie libraries (interior and exterior) in the city. The Chinatown-located library has served that community nearly since its opening. The library began a circulating Chinese language collection in 1911. Today the Chinese Heritage Collection, a unique collection of materials in English and Chinese, is housed on the lower floor.

Foley Square Courthouse (today the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse), 1936. The Classical Revival courthouse at 40 Foley Square was designed by Cass Gilbert, and finished by his son, upon Gilbert's death in 1934. Completed in 1936, the colonnade entrance on Foley Square fits in well with its neighbors, including the Municipal Building and the New York County Courthouse. The imposing main tower is set back from the base and rises 20 stories to a pyramidal roof. One of the first federal skyscrapers constructed, it was originally called the Foley Square Courthouse. In 2001, the United States Congress passed a bill renaming the building in honor of Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court Justice, who had sat on the resident Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the early 1960s.

Bridge Cafe 279 Water Street Architect unknown 1794 Adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Bridge Café is the district’s only extant wood-frame building. The building originally housed a grocery and a wine and porter bottler, and was initially only two-and-a-half stories high with a peaked roof. In 1888, the exterior was altered: its peaked roof was removed and the façade was covered with novelty Victorian-era siding. At present, the façade is painted brick red with black trim. The building has retained its commercial use for over 200 years. In fact, the Bridge Café was the oldest continuously running tavern in New York City until it closed in 2012 after Superstorm Sandy. Former Mayor Edward Koch was a regular customer in the 1970s. The owners are currently repairing the building and are hoping to re-open the Café in 2016. The Bridge Café is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

"Market Street, east side, north from Madison, to and including Henry Streets. The Manhattan Bridge is seen in the background." - P.L. Sperr, September 9, 1927.

Tracks of the Second Avenue El above Division Street, viewed from the south walkway of the Manhattan Bridge. September 24, 1927.

The Wah Yan Mue Temple was located above the Temple Garden Restaurant at 16 Pell Street in the Hip Sing Building. Hip Sing Tong is one of a dozen tongs or business and neighborhood associations that assisted new immigrants with services, jobs, and a community. Hip Sing, established in the 1850s, is also well known in the 20th century as a criminal organization. The original temple on the upper floors of 16 Pell was the Fut Cho Mue Buddhist Temple. Its successor was the Wah Yan Mue Temple, which seems to have utilized some of the same items, including the ceremonial gong (seen at right).

ca. 1890 The Newsboys Lodging Home depicted here by Jacob Riis was, in fact, the third incarnation of the Newsboys Lodging home. Also called the Duane Street Lodging House or the Brace Memorial Lodging House, it was set up for young boys (not necessarily newsboys) who would be otherwise homeless. The boys would pay a fee and in return, they would receive schooling, food, and a clean place to spend the night. A replacement for a smaller lodging house, the Duane Street Newsboys Lodging Home opened in 1873. Costing more than 200,000$, the Duane Street location was aimed at expanding it mission to serve the ever-increasing homeless child population of New York. It was managed, like most of the Children's lodging houses of the city, by the Children's Aid Society. With a gymnasium, school rooms, dining hall, and washrooms, the home attempted to provide an education to those that lodged with them. If a boy wanted to stay the night, the ensuing classes were mandatory. Those that could not afford to pay could defer the payments until they had the means. The rules at the home were strict, the boys had to be out by 7 am and were allowed in no later than 9:30 pm. Moreover, all were expected to pitch in with the upkeep of the house, with duties from cleaning to laundry to cooking. During the day, the boys were out, selling newspapers, shining shoes, and earning money. The mission operated until 1919.

Park Row Restaurant, ca. 1940. The Depression era deals advertised on this restaurant front include 'Pigs head and cabbage' and '2 broiled lamp chops' both for 15 cents. For 25 cents you could get '3 broiled pork chops' with soup and coffee.

Olliffe Pharmacy, ca. 1950. In 1805 Dr. William F. Olliffe opened his druggist business. The location of the original shop is unknown, though it could have possibly been here at 6 Bowery. The wealthy Olliffe family lived on Broome Street (described as a "then a fashionable quarter of New York"). Olliffe's son, also William (M.) took over the pharmacy business likely in the 1860s. A late biography of the man noted that he "continued as proprietor in such a way as to leave him large leisure for social and other engagements." William M. died in 1885, but the Bowery shop survived with his name on the sign until 1957, when it closed after more than 150 years in business!

St. James Roman Catholic Church, 1938. This fieldstone Greek Revival church (right) was built between 1835-37 and is the second-oldest Catholic church building in Manhattan. Despite its status as a New York City Landmark, the church was closed in 1983 due to deterioration and concerns that its roof could collapse. The structure was damaged in a 2011 fire, but remains intact. In the middle ground, the two-level elevated tracks of the Second and Third Avenue elevated lines run above New Bowery (St. James Place), between Franklin Square and the split at Chatham Square. In the far background, the elevated tracks of the IRT City Hall Spur are visible over Park Row.

Christmas trees for sale outside Gogel's Delicatessen. December 23, 1941.

The image shows the business card of Chinatown-born architect Poy Gum Lee. He used the location to serve as his base of operations.

Opposite Mulberry Bend ca. 1898 This stretch of East Broadway was enjoying a revival of sorts after the 1892 demolition of the adjacent notorious slum, the Mulberry Bend. Here the well-dressed families and closed shops- one with a sign in Hebrew- suggests that it is Saturday and families are milling about after attending synagogue. Lazarus Levy- the proprietor of the shop at 30 East Broadway- was among twelve and a half pages of Levys listed in the 1898 city directory. He moved his business to East Houston Street within the year.

New York County Courthouse Interior ARCHITECT: Guy Lowell DATE: 1913-27 STYLE: Neo-Classical The Interior of the New York County Court House is one of the last neo-Classical public buildings erected in New York City and ranks as one of the best. The interior design reveals maximum attention to detail, a rich variety of materials, and elegant classical symmetry and design. It is distinguished by excellent murals designed by Attilio Pusterla under the Public Works of Art Project and the Federal Art Project. The murals are some of the earliest executed in New York City under the Projects. It houses the Archives of the County Clerk, an invaluable collection of court records open to the public, and it reflects the Classical spirit that strongly influenced American architecture during the early 20th century.

Oliver Street Baptist Church ARCHITECT: Isaac Lucas DATE: 1844-45 STYLE: Greek Revival The Oliver Street Baptist Church is a fine local expression of Greek Revival architecture stated in its simplest terms and it uses inexpensive materials which nevertheless produce an overall effect of great dignity. The recessed portico with its two handsome Ionic columns is flanked on either side by plain wall surfaces relieved only by the introduction of simple panels. This composition is crowned by a well proportioned low-angled gable (pediment). The sidewalls have full length windows which light the aisles and the galleries above them.

174 South Street, 1934. No. 174, a four-story brick building which sat directly under the Brooklyn Bridge, was the home where Al Smith, four-time New York State Governor, was born in 1873.

Presbyterian Church of the Sea and Land, May, 1924.

Paris Cafe certainly fits the bill of New York's oldest watering holes. The pub has proudly served beer since 1873, as is noted on the building's facade. The bar was founded by Henry Meyers, an alcohol merchant, who opened the pub to accompany his hotel upstairs. In its heyday, the Meyer Hotel hosted numerous celebrities, including a young Theodore Roosevelt, the cowboy Buffalo Bill, and outlaw Butch Cassidy, to name a few. However, once passenger ships diverted traffic by docking at the Chelsea Piers rather than the Seaport, the hotel briefly fell into obscurity. Shortly after, the mob took over the business and the Meyer Hotel saw a rotating cast of mafiosos use its quarters. In 1951, the building was purchased from the Meyer family estate by Silvio (Steve) Schiaffino. It was Schiaffino who christened the establishment with its new name. At first, he renamed the eatery "Paris Bar and Restaurant," after his prior business which he lost to the city. The name has since been simplified to Paris Cafe. Schiaffino made extensive updates to the kitchen and dining area of the Cafe. Despite renovations, the longshoreman's pub kept its original ornate polished wood bar that was shipped from Germany. Both the bar and the sparkling mirrors behind it have maintained their illustrious sheen for almost 150 years, even surviving a devastating flood brought on by Hurricane Sandy. Sadly in 2020, the fabled bar was forced to close its doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Did you ever wonder about how historic City records make their way to the Municipal Archives? Did you assume that all the documents, photographs, maps, ledgers, plans, etc. in the Archives had been dutifully maintained in their “creating” City offices, and then carefully transferred to their permanent home at 31 Chambers Street?

Row of buildings on South Street between James Slip and Roosevelt Street, April 1, 1937. In the background: the Wall Street skyline, with 60 Wall Tower (left), 40 Wall Street (middle) and the top of the Singer Tower on Broadway (right). The South Street buildings were razed in 1950 for the construction of NYCHA's Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses, which opened on April 1, 1953 — sixteen years to the day after this photo was taken.

William and Rosamond Clark House ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1824-25 STYLE: Federal The William and Rosamond Clark House is one of New York City’s few remaining late Federal houses still retaining a significant range of rich architectural details of the period. Above the windows are their original paneled lintels on the first three floors. The lintels are more elaborate than is usual, being enriched with both panels and rosettes. The basement windows are framed with a rusticated architrave composed of alternating smooth and textured blocks of stone. Most of the exterior ironwork is original.

Timbering below street level for construction of the BRT Centre Street Loop, July 31, 1911. Above street level, the steeple and church facade belong to the Church of St. Andrew at the intersection of Duane Street and City Hall Place. Today, these streets have been de-mapped with the plaza where they once ran part of the judicial complex at the eastern side of the Manhattan’s Civic Center. The church building pictured dates to as early as 1812, and was known as Carroll Hall, a meeting place for the Congregational Society of United Christian Friends denomination, until 1842, when it became the Church of St. Andrew. The church, just a short distance from the offices of the city’s major newspaper became known as the “printers’ church,” after Father Luke J. Evers established a 2:30am mass in 1900, accommodating the late hours of printers at work on morning editions. By the late 1930s — by which point St. Andrews was dwarfed by the adjacent U.S. Courthouse by Cass Gilbert — the structure’s condition had deteriorated, and construction started on a new church on an overlapping site. The original church was razed in 1938. The Centre Street Loop, was an early 20th century project connecting lines running over the Williamsburg and Brooklyn Bridge, thereby providing Manhattan transfer for the various Brooklyn lines terminating at Park Row and reducing the need for trains reversals at bridge terminals. The Center Street Loop connection to Brooklyn Bridge lines was not completed as planned. Instead, the Centre Loop connected to the companion Nassau Street Loop (designed to provide a similar service for Manhattan Bridge trains). Together, the remaining tracks form the BMT Nassau Line (J/Z trains) with extraneous loop tracks presently out of service.

St. James School, ca. 1980.

47 St. James Place, ca. 1975.

24 Henry Street, July 1967. The small Federal style two-story house at 24 Henry Street was likely constructed, along with its four-story rowhouse neighbor at no. 22, in the 1820s. The well-known star of Ziegfeld Follies, Franny Brice, once lived with her mother in an apartment in this building. The musical based on her life, Funny Girl, has a scene set at and titled "24 Henry Street." The two buildings were demolished quickly and somewhat surreptitiously in 2010 and replaced with a double lot, contemporary masonry building.

251 Water Street, door detail, ca. 1960. Constructed in 1888 for John N. Eitel, a clothing merchant, the Romanesque Revival and Italianate building is a striking structure. The main entrance facade (at 22 Peck Slip) opens up into three sweeping archways and the residential entrance on Water Street features a detailed terra cotta plaque above the door, as seen here. Suffering through the middle of the 20th century, along with the rest of the Seaport area, the building lost some ornamentation, including its cornice. A more recent renovation has restored the facade of the building, and the once seafood wholesale market now has a bar and restaurant on the ground floor.

Mac Lac Shellac, November 29, 1935. Mac Lac Shellac was an early 20th-century shellac manufacturer that during the 1920s and 1930s (as shellac was utilized on more products) grew through a number of mergers. They had their headquarters at 80 Cliff Street before moving to 127 Maiden Lane. The streets depicted here, Cliff Street from Ferry Street, no longer exist. They were demapped in the 1950s and 1960s for the Brooklyn Bridge-Southwest Urban Renewal. Today the former location of this section of Cliff Street is on the land occupied by the Southbridge Towers.

Workers lay pipe for the high pressure water system beneath on New Bowery (now St. James Place); undated photo. The elevated trestle carried trains on the combined Second and Third Avenue lines, which split at Chatham Square (in the distance at far left, obscured by the horse-drawn carriage). The buildings at center-right are No.63, the Atlantic Hotel (left), and No. 59 (right), which housed the shops of furniture maker Timothy A. Garvey and John Dahlgren, a producer of decorative moldings. At far right is the entrance to First Shearith Israel Graveyard, the city's first Jewish cemetery.

Soy Kee Co. Soy Kee and Company was an importer and exporter of Chinese goods, selling curios, chinaware, lamps, silks, ivory carvings, imported Chinese teas, candies, coffees, and other accessories. It was first located here at 36 Pell, under a Chinese eatery before moving to 7-9 Mott Street where it occupied the ground floor space of a building known for its busy upstairs restaurant, called Port Authur. It is unknown when Soy Kee and Company opened, but its move to Mott Street occurred sometime after 1903. In 1921 Soy Kee and Co. became the owners of the building they had long rented at 7-9 Mott Street.

Three-alarm fire at No. 20 Oak Street, February 3, 1917. On a frigid Saturday morning, a fire broke out at a five-story loft building "occupied by printing concerns," near the intersection of Oak, Roosevelt, and New Chambers Streets. The New York Times described the firefighting efforts: "Three times the benumbed fire fighters thought they had the blaze under control, but each time the fire got a fresh start and burst through the roof."

The Church of the Sea and Land, viewed from the Manhattan Bridge. Photographed by Berenice Abbott as part of the Federal Art Project, March 30, 1937. At the turn of the 19th century, the Rutgers family — for whom nearby Rutgers, Henry, and Catherine Streets are named — owned a farm on the Lower East Side. After the Commissioner’s plan of 1811, Henry Rutgers donated land along Rutgers Street for the construction of churches, including the Market Street Reformed Church (also known as the Northeast Dutch Reformed Church, and variations on the same). The Georgian Gothic Revival church was constructed from field stone and Manhattan schist and completed in 1819. In 1864, following the dissolution of the Dutch Reformed Church, it became the Presbyterian Church of the Sea and Land, its new name a reference to waterfront laborers who made up the congregation. In 1972, the Sea and Land Church transferred ownership of the building to the First Chinese Presbyterian Church, who had shared the space since 1951.

Chatham Square Cemetery, ca. 1900. The Chatham Square Cemetery is the oldest extant cemetery of the Shearith Israel Congregation and the second oldest cemetery in Manhattan. The Sephardic congregation dates to the middle of the 17th century when Spanish and Portuguese Jews arrived in New York and established a synagogue. Their first cemetery, established in 1656, is long lost. The cemetery was purchased in 1682 with the first interment the next year. Situated on a hill overlooking the East River (or it was a hill in the colonial era) the cemetery was actually used as a strategic position by both General Washington and the British during the Revolutionary War. A ban on burials below Canal Street in 1823 signaled the end to (most) interments here; a second ground for the congregation was opened on 11th Street near Sixth Avenue. Later a third cemetery was established near Sixth Avenue and 21st Street (1829) and a fourth in Ridgewood, Queens (1850s). The size of the cemetery was somewhat drastically reduced in 1855 when the expansion of the Bowery took a sizable portion of the cemetery by eminent domain. In all 256 graves required re-interment. Today the tiny cemetery sits a few feet above the adjacent street level and about one hundred headstones and above ground tombs are visible.

Gruzen & Partners designed this pair of 25-story cement towers in 1965. Part of the Civic Centre Urban Renewal Project, they were built by the Committee of Middle Income Housing and only used 15% of their lot, allowing for an elevated public plaza (designed by often Gruzen collaborator, landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg) and a 125 car garage that sits below the plaza.

Northern Reformed Church ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1817-19 STYLE: Georgian Gothic The Northern Reformed Church has what were probably among the earliest pointed Gothic windows and doors in Manhattan. it is an especially fine, simple example of a well-constructed church of the Federal period, and its construction was made possible through the generosity of one of New York’s leading citizens, Colonel Henry Rutgers. It was built in Georgian Gothic style.

13 Mott Street, October 28, 1927.

Tracks of the Second Avenue El above Division Street, viewed from the south walkway of the Manhattan Bridge. March 9, 1934. The car at left is traveling on the northbound track, from Chatham Square toward Canal Street. This segment of the elevated line closed in 1942. The building under construction in the background is the United States Courthouse at 40 Centre Street (today the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse).

25-29 Oliver Street, March 30, 1937. No. 25 (at right) was the childhood home of Al Smith, four-time New York State Governor. Constructed circa the 1830s, the row house was built as a single family house in a Federal style. The two-and-a-half-story home had a full third floor added in the early 1870s by its then owner, Thomas Coleman, a politician. The home was purchased by the nearby St. James Church and used as a rectory and rented out, at one point to a funeral director. Al Smith, an up and coming politician rented the building beginning in 1909 to house his family of seven. During his run for Sheriff in 1916 (Tammany-supported, he won, of course), a large painting of the man bordered in red, white, and blue hung in front of the building. By that time Oliver Street had become something of a Politicians Row, home to magistrates, state senators, and even the coroner. Smith remained on Oliver Street until the mid 1920s. 25 Oliver Street returned to its occupation as a funeral home once again after the Smith family moved upstate while their patriarch was Governor. In 1939 Berenice Abbott photographed the building and two years later a section of bluestone sidewalk from the front of the house was dislodged and placed in the SS Alfred E. Smith, a transport ship. Though named a National Historic Landmark in 1965, today the building is considerably run down.

331 Pearl Street, ca. 1870. In 1854, Harper & Brothers, the preëminent publishing house of 19th century New York, retained architects James Bogardus, the pioneer of "fire proof" architectural cast iron, and John B. Corlies to design a new building for its offices and printing operation. Facing what was then Franklin Square, the Harper & Brothers building was located where the Manhattan approach to the Brooklyn Bridge lies today. "The Harper Establishment; or, How the Story Books Dre Made," an illustrated guide to the state-of-the-art building and the company's printing processes, was published in 1855 by — who else? — Harper's. Although the historic building was razed in 1925, its legacy lives on: the New York Public Library's DeWitt Wallace periodical reading room includes a 1982 mural by Richard Haas documenting landmarks in the city's publishing history, in which Bogardus's facade is featured.

"Rudy’s Lunch, Hungarian American Home Cooking,” the Prohibition-friendly guise of the tavern at the corner of Water and Dover Streets, 1932. Built in 1794 (though the historic district designation report lists 1801), 279 Water Street is the only surviving wood-frame house in Manhattan’s Seaport district. Originally home to a “grocery and wine and porter bottler,” the building’s 19th-century tenants included a variety of alcohol-serving establishments and a brothel, matching the area’s reputation for vice and depravity. The building’s Victorian details date to an 1888 renovation — 5 years after the adjacent Brooklyn Bridge opened — and many of its interior features date to the original construction. The Bridge Cafe opened in 1979 but has been shuttered since Hurricane Sandy, when it was inundated with nine feet of floodwater.

32 Mott Street (tall building, second from right), ca. 1890. 32 Mott Street is a dumbbell-shaped "old-law" tenement that was built in 1897 by the architect Louis Heimeeke. This section of Mott between Pell Street and Chatham Square was the center of late 19th century Chinatown. The ground floor of this building was occupied for more than 100 years by a Chinese store run by generations of the Lee family. The Quong Yuen Shing and Company shop opened here in 1899, changed its name to 32 Mott Street General Store in the mid 20th century and only closed in 2003 due to rising rents. Chinese-American architect Poy Gum Lee lived here at no. 32.

Doyers seen from Bowery, ca. 1900. The Chinese Tuxedo opened in 1897 as a high-class restaurant catering to both Chinese and white patrons. Established around the same time as a number of other eateries of similar ilk (including Port Arthur on Mott and the Chinese Delmonico on Pell), this restaurant had a district advantage over the others. Location, location, location! The restaurant at the corner of Doyer Street and the Bowery was so close to the Third Avenue elevated that passengers could practically climb out the train car window onto the ornate second-floor balcony. The pretty balcony and large eagle that topped it were eye-catching from both the street and the el, and when those same passengers exited the nearby Chatham Square Station, this was the first Chinese restaurant they encountered. The owners spared no expense with decoration. The entrance included a large and colorful stained glass awning with a dragon perched atop. The balcony was not metalwork but delicately carved teak panels. The interior was a showy display of mosaic tile floors, tin ceilings, lush plants, fountains, and hard carved screens, statues, and moldings. The Chinese Tuxedo was out of business by the 1920s (closing its doors decades before some of it local contemporaries). The ornate facade features were lost and today the building houses a Chase Bank. In 2016 a family-run Chinatown investment company opened a new Chinese Tuxedo Restaurant just down the block from its historical predecessor. The new eatery is located at 5-7 Doyers, a building with its own history. In 1983 a local merchant established the Chinese Opera House at no. 5-7, the first Chinese language theater in New York City and the only Chinese theater east of California at the time.

251 Water Street Designed by Carl F. Eisenbach 1893 In 1788-89, Water Street was widened to its current size and paved with cobblestones, but Belgian blocks have since replaced them. John Eitel commissioned this tenement for eight families with stores on the ground floor. This building is an impressive example of the Romanesque Revival style, and features gracious terra-cotta ornament, especially above the entrance on Water Street. The building is separated into three tiers, demarcated between the second and third stories by a stylized foliate band course, and between the fourth and fifth by a geometric-patterned band course. The ground floor features a wooden entrance door in the style of a double-X brace barn door, as well as a set of double doors and wide fanlight enclosed within a large horseshoe arch. The fourth story round-arched windows feature terra-cotta keystones with faces peering down to the street below. The great variety of window treatments and decorative motifs enliven the façade and allow this former tenement building to shine. 251 Water Street is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

7-9 Mott Street, undated postcard. The restaurant here on Mott Street was once the most famous Chinese restaurant in the world (according to some). Port Arthur Chinese Restaurant, seen here on the second and third floors of no. 7-9, opened in 1897. One of the ethnic enclave's first eateries, it became a neighborhood landmark and an important cultural hub (Sun Yat-Sun may have eaten here while in New York). The ornate pagoda-styled facade hid an equally showy interior, replete with carved teakwood furniture, massive electric fans, and Chinese lanterns The second floor operated as a space for American tourists looking for an "authentic" experience, while the third floor banquet halls were largely used for private parties, political entertaining, and wedding for the business's Chinese patrons. The well-known and loved restaurant survived until 1974. Thousands of postcards of the restaurant still exist in archives, private collections, and on eBay. The postcards were produced and printed by the business itself as promotional material.

View of the Manhattan Civic Center, including the Municipal Building, U.S. Courthouse, and Woolworth Building, ca. 1935. The building at extreme right, in the foreground is the Church of Land and Sea, at the northwest corner of Henry and Market Streets.

Cass Gilbert's final work, the United States Courthouse was completed by his son two years after his death in 1934. It is arguably the last classically themed skyscraper built in New York, which Gilbert used to reflect the building’s function as a public federal building. While the thirty-eight story, 590 foot tall tower lacks the rich ornamentation of earlier work, such as the Woolworth Building, or 90 West Street, its pared-down decoration seems more appropriate for a court of law. The building’s shaft emerges from a six-story classical colonnade, decorated with sculpted American eagles. The tower culminates in a dramatic gilded terra-cotta pyramid roof topped by a lantern. For security reasons, the building's interior is not accessible to the public unless on court business.

This trompe l'oeil conceals what author Glenn Palmer-Smith called a "twentieth-century utilitarian intrusion," a Con Edison substation. Artist Richard Haas was commissioned by both energy company and City Walls Inc. to paint this Landmarks Commission-approved mural depicting a revivalist Greek facade with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge. The real bridge is, of course, blocked by the building.

Mariners’ Temple Baptist Church, Oliver Street, ca. 1977. The Mariners’ Temple Baptist Church was completed in 1845 as the Oliver Street Baptist Church for a congregation likely dating to the 1790s. The first Oliver Street church, a wooden structure, was lost in an 1843 fire. The Landmarks Preservation commission credits the present Greek revival structure to architect Minard Lafever, while other sources suggest Isaac Lucas, a member of the congregation. In 1863, the church was renamed to Mariner's Temple to reflect its ministry to seamen and immigrants. After decades of declining attendance during the 20th century, church membership has lately rebounded.

20 Mott Street (three-story building with double balconies), ca. 1900. The Baohuanghui (Protect the Emperor Society or the Chinese Empire Reform Association) was founded by exiled Chinese reformer Kang Youwei in 1899 to promote constitutional reform in China (and the return of Guangxu Emperor to power). It became the first and the largest Chinese transnational organization. Various locations on Mott Street housed the New York headquarters of this organization in the first half of the 20th century. In 1902 and 1903 the Baohuanghui used an address at 20 Mott Street to communicate with their members, before moving on to nos 5, 6, 7-9, and 12 Mott in later years.

The Walter Franklin House (also known as the Samuel Osgood House), where President George Washington lived between April, 1789 and February 1790, making it the First Presidential residence. The building was demolished in 1856. Today, the Brooklyn Bridge approach rises over its site.

"Riots in New York July-Aug '63; northeast corner of Catherine and Cherry Street during the Draft Riots in 1863." The New York City Draft Riots were a week-long violent action that occurred in Manhattan in the summer of 1863. The impetus for the riots was discontent among working-class populations (largely Irish immigrants) with new laws regarding a draft for the Civil War. The working classes were upset at the wealthy who could buy their way out of conscription for $300. What began as a discontent regarding the draft, in the days as the first draft numbers were being drawn, quickly devolved into race riots. White mobs attacked black people and their homes, public buildings, the homes of abolitionists, churches, and in a violent conflagration, the Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue was burned to the ground. The police department attempted to quell the violence but had little luck. (The police superintendent John Alexander Kennedy was brutally beaten.) The military eventually arrived and by July 16 (four days after the riot had begun) there were several thousand Federal troops in the city, and news had begun to spread that the draft was being postponed. The results of the riots were drastic, 120 people killed, more than 2000 injured, hundreds of homes and business damaged and 11 black men lynched. As a result of this violence, many blacks who lived in Manhattan left the city and moved to Brooklyn. The population shift was so dramatic that by 1865, the number of blacks living in Manhattan was lower than it had been in 1820.

Soy Kee Co. Store, undated postcard. Soy Kee Co. was a department store of Chinese goods, offering silks, antiques, ceramics, embroidery and tea leaves. Originally established prior to 1897 at a space at 36 Pell Street, the shop moved to nos. 7-9 in the early 20th century. The date of the store's closing is unknown, but it was out of business by 1970.

South Street between Peck Slip and Dover Street, April 1, 1937. No. 45 Peck Slip is the last building on the left of the row. Towers in the background are (left to right): Farmer's Trust, 60 Wall Tower, Bank of Manhattan, and 116 John Street. The large chimney is the New York Steam Corporation at 130 John Street.

Henry Street view towards City Hall and the Woolworth Building, 1938. Surprisingly little has changed on this block in nearly eighty years: many of the tenement buildings are still standing, and a parking lot continues to operate on the south side of the street.