South Street Seaport

Listed row of houses by South Street Seaport

South Street Seaport is a largely listed neighborhood or district in the New York borough of Manhattan , where Fulton Street meets the East River .

Location and architecture

Pier 17 from destruction

The South Street Seaport Historic District is roughly between the East River, Brooklyn Bridge , Fletcher Street , Pearl Street, and South Street . It is a very small, but historically significant district.

It is directly adjacent to the Financial District , but it is very different from it: Some of the oldest buildings in Downtown Manhattan can be found here , including the largest collection of historic commercial buildings from the early 19th century. The renovated, originally preserved old trading houses with the local shops and restaurants, the South Street Seaport Museum , renovated sailing ships and the former Fulton Fish Market in view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the district situated on the other side of the East River from Brooklyn , Fulton Ferry attract a lot of people. The Titanic Memorial lighthouse is located at the entrance to the Seaport .

history

South Street and Brooklyn Bridge (before 1924)

The South Street Seaport Museum was founded in 1967 by Peter and Norma Stanford . When the museum was opened, the main concern of the Seaport Museum conservation was to promote learning on a historical site by using the "shops" mainly as an imitation of working environments that were represented here during the heyday of seaports.

Originally, as part of the Seaport redevelopment, a block of buildings called Schermerhorn Row on the southwest side of Fulton Street were to be preserved, which were either threatened with decay or new construction projects, at a time when hardly anyone was interested in the history of the New York shipbuilding industry took care of it - except for a few antiquaries .

In 1982, the renovation work on the surrounding retail space began to transform the museum into a major tourist attraction. In addition, the main building of the Fulton Fish Market, which was previously a plain, garage-like building, has been converted into an upscale shopping mall. The old shops at Pier 17 were demolished. In their place a new, glass shop pavilion was built, which opened in August 1983. The seaport on Pier 17 itself functioned as a shopping center and tourist attraction until its demolition in 2013. Visitors were able to pass the time in many shops or eat something in a food court . The decks outside overlooked the East River, Brooklyn Bridge, and Brooklyn Heights. A new glass and steel building is to be built in the same location by summer 2017.

South Street Seaport Museum

The first conservation measures related to the most important historical buildings and the acquisition of some sailing ships. Almost all of the buildings and the entire Seaport district are intended to transport visitors to New York during the mid-19th century and illustrate what maritime trade was like then. Historic sailing ships and other museum ships are located at the seaport itself. Cobblestone pavement is laid in part of nearby Fulton Street. Shops, bars and restaurants are lined up here.

The South Street Seaport Museum is located in a 12-block historic district, New York City's original port. The museum itself has 2,800 m² of space for exhibitions and educational offers. There is also a working 19th century printing press, archeology museum, library, artisan center, Marine Life Conservation Lab, and the largest fleet of privately owned historic ships in the United States . This fleet includes:

Peking , a four-masted barque from Germany, until July 2017
Wavertree , a full ship that was used as a freighter .³
Pioneer, a schooner from 1885¹ ³
Lettie G. Howard, a schooner from 1893¹²
Ambrose, a lightship of 1908²
Helen McAllister, a tugboat from 1900
WO Decker, a tugboat from 1930¹³
Marion M. a cargo ship from 1932

¹ When the weather is favorable, these ships offer cruises on the waters of New York City.

² These ships have been declared by the National Park Service and National Monuments

³ These ships are listed on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places .

In 1998, the United States Congress decided that the South Street Seaport Museum would join several other museums to form America's National Maritime Museum .

Festivals

Pier 17 (right) and Lower Manhattan at night

The popular Seaport Music Festival takes place every year at Seaport , with predominantly indie rock music. From June to September, the Seaport is also one of the locations where The River To River Festival takes place in Lower Manhattan . Free concerts , dance and art events as well as film screenings take place as part of the festival . In addition, there is an annual Children's Day with an extensive family and cultural program that always attracts many families.