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.

273 Water Street;
c. 1773-81; reconstruction: Oliver Lundquist;
1998|

This Georgian style house is the oldest building in the South Street Seaport Historic District and the third oldest in Manhattan (after the Morris-Jumel Mansion and St. Paul’s Chapel). Captain Rose was in the business of transporting mahogany from the Bay of Honduras to the New York market. Because Rose spent a lot of time away at sea, he rented the building out to merchants and their families. In the 1860s, Christopher “Kit” Burns kept a tavern here and made this building infamous by hosting rat and dog fights as entertainment for patrons. According to the district’s designation report, the original entranceway was likely located at the northernmost bay, where a single brownstone lintel remains, and the original cartway was at the southernmost bay of the building. The remaining original portions of the façade include the Flemish bond brickwork and two of the wood sills on the second story. A brownstone belt course divides the first from the second story. Splayed brownstone lintels distinguish the second story from the later ones above. A fire in 1904 destroyed the original third story and peaked roof, thus the wall above the second band course dates to some time after 1904. Another fire in 1974 gutted the interior. Two years later, the building was seized by the City for unpaid taxes and sat abandoned for two decades. In 1997, Frank Sciame, Jr. of the Sciame Development Company bought the building for $1.00 and converted it into four luxury apartments.

The Captain Joseph Rose House is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

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.

241 Water Street;
James Stewart Polshek;
1991|

Founded in 1834, the Seamen’s Church Institute established floating churches and then expanded activities to include provisions for sailors, i.e. lodging and entertainment. Although these floating Gothic-style chapels (known as “the doghouse on a raft”) no longer exist, the Institute continues to serve thousands of sailors today. There are meeting rooms, offices, classrooms for maritime education and training, as well as Internet access and phones for those who wish to contact loved ones. While the building is a great example of modernist architecture, it also complements the 19^th century context of the district. Inspired by 1920s Cubism, the designers integrated nautical history in an abstract way by surmounting the brick-clad site with a structure reminiscent of a ship made of white porcelain, fiberglass and aluminum panels.

Seamen’s Church Institute is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Architect unknown;
1802|
214 Front Street was built for merchant William Shotwell, and has been altered many times over the years.The cast-iron façade is ornamented with decorative, paneled square columns and a modillioned metal cornice. On the four upper stories, the smooth-pressed bricks were assembled in a stretcher bond pattern and several gudgeons from the 19^th century shutters still remain at the windows.

214 Front Street is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

George B. Post;
1885|

This fine Romanesque Revival style building was designed by George B. Post for Schermerhorn descendant Ellen S. Auchmuty. Post, who trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition, also designed such notable works as the New York Stock Exchange, Bronx Borough Hall and the Fifth Avenue mansion of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. The Beekman Street façade is ornamented with sea motifs, a fitting theme given that its first occupants were businesses associated with the Fulton Fish Market. The four stories above the cast-iron ground floor are decorated with starfish tie rod washers, fish keystones and a cockle-shell roof cornice made of terra cotta.

142-144 Beekman Street is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Stephen Decatur Hatch;
1868|

This building was originally a metal and tin warehouse built for A. A. Thompson & Co. The ground floor of this five-story Italianate structure is cast iron, while its upper floors are Tuckahoe marble. The cast iron was meant to imitate Tuckahoe marble, as marble was the more expensive material. Aside from being cost effective, cast iron was also advantageous for its durability, making ornamental details more feasible and inexpensive. The large, arched openings are supported by cast-iron columns. The windows of the upper stories were designed very similarly to windows of cast-iron buildings of the mid-19^th century, providing more light for the interior and improving working conditions. Featured on the upper stories are quoins that embellish the sides of the building and columns that support the recessed window enframements. The cornice is notable for its triangular pediment displaying the building’s date of construction and supported on brackets. In 1983, the building was restored by Beyer Blinder Belle. It is currently an event space called the Melville Gallery, which is part of the South Street Seaport Museum.

213-215 Water Street is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Architect- uncertain but probably David Louderback;
1835-36|

The three warehouses at 207-211 Water Street were likely built by David Louderback, a mason who owned one of them. Excellent examples of the Greek Revival style, they feature monolithic granite piers with Tuscan capitals, brick bearing walls and Flemish bond brickwork in a distinguished, warm orange color. The façades are unified by granite lintels above the six-over-six windows and the granite cornice that spans all three rooftops. The South Street Seaport Museum owns the buildings, which they adaptively reused: No. 207 is the Museum Visitor’s Center; No. 209 is the Museum Books and Charts Store; and No. 211 is Bowne & Co. Stationers, a 19^th-century print shop where old printing techniques and equipment are still in use.

207-211 Water Street is is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Titanic Memorial Park, Plaza bounded by Pearl, Beekman, and Water Streets;
Charles Evans Hughes III;
1913|

This 60-foot lighthouse located within Titanic Memorial Park was originally installed in 1913 atop the Seamen’s Church Institute, then located at the corner of South Street and Coenties Slip. The lighthouse overlooked the East River and signaled noon to ships in the harbor with the falling of a black ball. In 1968, upon the Institute’s demolition, it was taken down and stored on a pier by the South Street Seaport Museum, and was then reinstalled in its current location in 1976. The lighthouse serves as a tribute to the passengers, officers, and crew who perished when the Titanic sank in 1912. Today, it sits at the main entrance to the Seaport.

The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

170-176 John Street;
Architect unknown;
1840|

Named for Hickson W. Field, a prominent merchant, this building was originally located on Burling Slip. Evidence of the Slip, which was filled in in 1835, is represented by the extra width of John Street. The face of the building is made entirely of granite, which is very rare for the Greek Revival style. Granite-faced buildings were common in Boston and northern New England at the time, but not in New York. The uniform range of windows without shutters or decorative lintels and the unornamented façade contribute to the utilitarian character of the building. Perhaps the most austere feature is the use of massive granite piers between the eight-over-eight windows on the ground floor. The building’s subsequent owners, Baker, Carver & Morrell, a company of ship chandlers founded in 1894, treated and restored it beautifully. Presently, the ground floor is home to a restaurant and bar, and the upper floors are apartments.

The Hickson W. Field Stores is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts, and is New York City Individual Landmark.

167-71 John Street;
Architect unknown;
1850|

Owned by the South Street Seaport Museum, this structure was built by traders who parked their China clipper ships across South Street. It was commissioned by the famous export firm of Abiel Abbot Low and Brother, illustrious merchants who amassed a fortune in trade between New York and China (A. A. Low was the father of Seth Low, whose career included serving as Mayor of Brooklyn, Mayor of New York City and President of Columbia University, among other things). This building, which was the firm’s home until well after the 19^th century, is five stories high and eight bays wide. Many layers of stucco and paint were removed to uncover and restore the brownstone underneath. The cast-iron double storefront is notable because it was produced by Daniel D. Badger of the renowned Architectural Iron Works firm. As a whole, the building represents the success and importance of the company.

The A. A. Low Building is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Pier 16;
Ambrose;
Lettie G. Howard;
Wavertree;
W. O. Decker|

The South Street Seaport Museum is responsible for bringing in many different historic ships, and some have a longer residency than others. On display (as of 2016) are a fleet of six ships, including the 1885 schooner Pioneer; the 1907 lightship Ambrose, equipped with a radio beacon to assist ships in navigating from the Atlantic Ocean into New York Bay; the 1885 Wavertree, one of the last surviving wrought-iron sailing ships in the world (currently being restored in Staten Island); the 1893 schooner and oyster boat Lettie G. Howard; the 1911 barque Peking (which in 2016 will be returned to the city of its birth, Hamburg, Germany, to be part of the new German Port Museum); and the 1930 wooden tugboat W. O. Decker. Visitors are allowed to board the Pioneer and the Ambrose.

Pier 16 is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts. The Ambrose and the Lettie G. Howard are both a Nation Historic Landmarks and listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. The Wavertree  and the W. O. Decker are both listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

South Street between Fulton and Beekman Streets;
SHoP Architects, 2015-|

In the early 1980s, Piers 17 and 18 were combined to accommodate a large shopping pavilion, designed by Benjamin Thompson & Associates and completed in 1985 as part of the Rouse Company’s redevelopment of the Seaport. Despite widespread controversy and opposition by community members and preservation groups, the demolition of the Thompson building and its replacement with a glassy mall, was approved by the LPC in 2012.

The Pier 17 Pavilion was located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Pier 17 at South Street between Beekman Street and Peck Slip
Albert W. Lewis and John D. Churchill
1939

The last building constructed for the Fulton Fish Market, the New Market Building sprang from an era of reform on the part of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who, citing sanitation and safety hazards, abolished pushcarts and open-air markets, and replaced both with a series of indoor markets across the five boroughs. These new markets were funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an agency established in 1935 by the Federal government as part of the New Deal. The New Market was planned as a new and improved facility for the Fulton Fish Market, which, though thriving as the largest fish distribution center in the world in the late 1930s, had been plagued by unclean facilities whose smells blighted the area. The new facility would include more advanced storage and refrigeration, as well as modern methods for preventing odors. The initial 1937 plan by the Commissioner of Borough Works, Walter D. Binger, was for three new buildings on the east side of South Street, with conveyor belt bridges crossing to the west side of the street, thus decreasing manual handling of fresh food. Selected for the project were architects Albert W. Lewis and John D. Churchill, who designed the first of the three buildings – and the only one to be completed due to the onset of World War II – in the Moderne style favored for WPA projects. The structure was a source of pride for the city upon its completion.

In 1954, the South Street viaduct was completed for a portion of the East River Drive (later known as the FDR Drive), a new highway promised to alleviate congestion and, in the Seaport area, separate waterfront commerce from increasing automobile traffic. Unfortunately, the elevated highway at South Street separated the market from the surrounding neighborhood and the city it served. Rumblings about moving the Fulton Fish Market to The Bronx began as early as the late 1950s, not only because of the highway, but because the trucking industry was becoming the principal means of transporting fish. Despite these factors, the market continued to function on South Street until it finally moved to Hunts Point in 2005. Today, the New Market Building stands as a sleek and contextual reminder of an important event in the history of the Fulton Fish Market: that of its eventual sanctioning by the City of New York after more than one hundred years in operation. It also stands as a crucial link to the final phase in the development of the Seaport as a living, breathing, commercial center.

The New Market Building is located in the State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Pier 17 at South Street between Fulton and Beekman Streets;
Berlin Construction Co., 1907; reconstruction: Wank Adams Slavin Associates;
1995; reconstruction: SHoP Architects, 2016-|

The Tin Building site hosted the Fulton Fish Market from its inception in 1835, originally housed in a small wooden shed, which was rebuilt in 1848. In 1869, the Fulton Fishmongers Association constructed a more permanent building, though still made of wood. That structure was moved to Pier 18 in 1894 (since demolished), and the Tin Building was constructed on the site in 1907. Modeled after the 1869 building, the neo-Classical design of the structure consists of a corrugated metal façade with decorative two-story sheet metal pilasters. The building was largely destroyed by fire in 1995, but was reconstructed by Wank Adams Slavin Associates. In 2005, the Fulton Fish Market, which occupied both the Tin Building and the New Market Building, moved to Hunts Point in The Bronx, where it continues to operate today. In 2016, the Tin Building will be rehabilitated into a seafood-themed market. HHC plans to relocate and reconstruct the building about 18 feet southeast of its current location as part of its Pier 17 revitalization. SHoP Architects plans to restore historic features that disappeared in the 1995 fire and repair damage sustained during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The Tin Building is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

11 Fulton Street;
Benjamin Thompson & Associates and Eggers Partnership;
1983; renovation: SHoP Architects, 2015|

The area between Fulton and Beekman Streets has been the site of the Fulton Market since 1822, its location chosen to take advantage of the local ferry service, which was named “Fulton Ferry” when Robert Fulton franchised the service and converted it to steam in 1814. The Fulton Ferry transported Long Island farm goods to Manhattan and commuters from the emerging suburb of Brooklyn Heights to their business in the city. The market, also named after Fulton, emerged as a place to buy and sell goods coming in and out of the Seaport. Originally established at Peck Slip in 1817, it moved to Fulton Street in 1822. The Fulton Fish Market sprouted from the all-purpose Fulton Market in 1835, when vendors petitioned for its fishmongers to be moved across the street to the river’s edge (where the Tin Building now stands – Pier 17 at South Street between Fulton and Beekman Streets ). As lower Manhattan became less residential, small retail food establishments dwindled and the Fulton Market expanded. The present structure was part of the Rouse Company’s “festival marketplace” transformation of the Seaport (the building originally housed food operations, including fish), and is once again the subject of renewal efforts as part of the HHC’s development plan. The 1983 building, a three-story, brick-clad structure with a corrugated metal canopy and metal gabled roof, is undergoing a makeover to include a movie and dinner theater.

Fulton Market Building is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

15-19 Fulton Street;
Beyer Blinder Belle;
1983|

This reinvented, four-story, white-gray building honors James Bogardus, who was instrumental in the introduction of cast-iron construction in the United States. The Laing Stores (1848-49), also known as the Bogardus Building, was initially located at the northwest corner of Washington and Murray Streets, an intersection that no longer exists due to urban renewal projects in the 1960s. In 1967, the area was surveyed by the LPC to determine potential landmarks before the demolition of blocks in what is now Tribeca. The LPC recommended that the façade of the Bogardus Building, the city’s oldest cast-iron structure, be dismantled and salvaged for use on a new building at Manhattan Borough Community College (which would occupy part of the urban renewal site). In 1971, the parts were catalogued and stored, but in 1974, some of them were famously stolen and sold to a Bronx junkyard. The LPC then moved the remaining parts to a secret location in a city-owned building, but when architects went to retrieve them in 1977, they had again been stolen. This shocking sequence of events is an often-told story in New York City architecture and preservation lore. Despite the lack of a connection to the South Street Seaport, an homage to the Bogardus Building was designed by Beyer Blinder Belle as part of the historic reinterpretation and revitalization of the Seaport in the 1980s. The new Bogardus Building reinterprets the original façade with its curved corner, ground-level canopy, columns and cornice, but the ensemble was executed with a modern twist: its outer walls are made of aluminum rather than cast iron.

The Bogardus Building is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

Bounded by Fulton, Front, John and South Streets;
William W. Berwick;
1811|

This row is named for Peter Schermerhorn, a prominent New York merchant and ship owner who commissioned the Georgian-Federal style buildings to serve as ware- and counting-houses. Originally, the façades were made of soft, hand-molded brick in Flemish bond, though parts of the row have been altered and expanded. While the show windows at ground level were added later, originally there were arched brownstone entries with side quoins. The upper stories feature Federal style double-hung windows with splayed stone lintels. Dormer windows on the Fulton Street side were later additions to the steeply pitched roofs, and chimneys and party walls were built tall in order to inhibit fire from spreading across rooftops. Schermerhorn Row was restored by Jan Hird Pokorny Associates in 1983 and again in 2001 by Beyer Blinder Belle, when its interior along Fulton Street was renovated extensively to internally link the buildings for the South Street Seaport Museum.

Schermerhorn Row is has the great distinction of being a New York City Individual Landmark, listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places as well as being located in the South Street Seaport Historic District, and the State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport Historic District.

Fulton Street between Water Street and South Street|

In the mid-1960s, Lower Manhattan became the focus of large-scale urban renewal efforts. The Seaport was one of several areas to be considered for the location of the World Trade Center, but this initiative was blocked by preservationists, strengthened by the 1965 enactment of the Landmarks Law,  as well as by officials in New Jersey who fought for a west side location for the new financial hub. In the late 1960s, the City Planning Commission initiated a renewal plan to transform the neighborhood into a tourist-friendly area, designating the South Street Seaport Museum as the sponsor and developer of the 12-block renewal zone. The transformation of the district into a thriving community of offices, retail spaces and restaurants was centered around key attractions: the South Street Seaport Museum, Fulton Market and Pier 17. The backbone of this vital place would be Fulton Street, one of the earliest closed pedestrian streets in the city.

Plagued by inadequate funding and a citywide recession in the 1970s, the Museum leased Pier 17 and the Fulton Market to the Rouse Company, a large-scale commercial developer, in 1981. The transaction was funneled through the South Street Seaport Corporation, formed that same year as a Museum subsidiary to manage its leases. Rouse constructed the new Fulton Market Building in 1983 (site # 4) and Pier 17 in 1985 (site # 7) in the spirit of the “festival marketplace” concept, a radical idea that European-style shopping markets could reinvigorate dilapidated downtowns. Their plans also included the restoration of Schermerhorn Row (site # 2) and the construction of the Bogardus Building (site #3), both in 1983. Aside from a brief surge when the projects were completed, the long-term result did not attract the expected tourism, and the Museum has suffered from persistent financial and managerial woes over the years. Further bad luck came in the form of damage sustained during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Today, the owner of the Seaport lease is Dallas-based developer, the Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC). (The Rouse Company purchased HHC in 1996. In 2004, General Growth purchased the Rouse Company. In 2010, General Growth filed for bankruptcy. As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, HHC took over the Seaport lease.) In 2013, HHC was granted a lease from the New York City Economic Development Corporation to develop or renovate portions of the Seaport, though the area remains city-owned. The showpiece of the plan is the redevelopment of Pier 17 and the reconstruction of the Tin Building (site # 5), but also includes options on parcels in the Museum Block along Water Street and Schermerhorn Row. HHC’s plans for the New Market Building site (site # 6) are uncertain, but could include the construction of a mixed use, large-scale development.