Doherty's Hotel, 342 West Street, at the foot of West Houston Street opposite Pier 39; October 25, 1927. This westernmost portion of Houston Street (at left) was known as Hammersley Street until at least 1858, when the two streets were connected. The vacant lots either side of the hotel were formerly occupied by the Church of the Holy Comforter (West Houston Street, at left) and the Seamen's Church Institute at 341-340 West Street (at right, with diner car). Photographer P.L. Sperr notes "the hotel itself will have to go in 1930" (it's unclear if Sperr's note was contemporaneous). The hotel was purchased by the New York Central Railroad in 1930, and was soon razed. Today, the site is part of 550 Washington Street, better known as the St. John's Freight Terminal. The massive warehouse served as the southern terminus of New York's Central's West Side freight line (the High Line).

Houston Street — that's HOW-stun, for the first-time visitors — has seen many changes since it was mapped as the southern boundary of Manhattan's famous street grid under the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. In fact, the 1811 plan was the first time the street, named for William Houstoun, was spelled "Houston." The misspelling stuck. Houstoun was the Georgia-born son of Sir Patrick Houstoun, a Scottish aristocrat and member of the state's colonial Government. The younger Houstoun represented Georgia at the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention of 1787, where he met Mary Bayard, of the prominent Manhattan family, whom he married in 1788. The original segment of Houstoun's namesake street was part of the Bayard family's property. Over the ensuing decades, Houston was merged with neighboring thoroughfares (North Street on the east side; Hammersley Street on the west) until it spanned the breadth of the entire island. This walk covers the tumultuous early decades of the 20th century, when subway construction and increased automobile traffic molded Houston into its current form. Let's take a look!