Hudson Square is a neighborhood inLower Manhattan inNew York City. It is bounded approximately by Clarkson Street to the north,Canal Street to the south,Varick Street to the east, and theHudson River to the west.[1] To the north of the neighborhood isGreenwich Village, to the south isTriBeCa, and to the east are theSouth Village andSoHo.[2] The area, once the site of the colonial property namedRichmond Hill, became known in the 20th century as thePrinting District,[3] and into the 21st century it remains a center of media-related activity, including in advertising, design, communications, and the arts.[4]
Within the neighborhood is the landmarkedCharlton–King–Vandam Historic District, which contains the largest concentration of Federalist and Greek Revival style row houses built during the first half of the 19th century. The most prominent feature within the neighborhood is the Manhattan entrance to theHolland Tunnel. The current tallest structure in the neighborhood is theDominick condo hotel.
WhenGeorge Washington led the defense of New York against the British in 1776, his headquarters were located at Abraham Mortier's estate,Richmond Hill, on a rise southwest of what is now Charlton and Varick Streets. One of the earliest known uses of the term "New Yorker" in a published work is found in a letter that he wrote from Lower Manhattan.[5] Previously, it had been the headquarters of Lord Jeffrey Amherst during the French and Indian War. Later, it was the residence ofSir John Temple, the firstBritish ambassador to the United States, Vice President John Adams, Aaron Burr, who set off from Richmond Hill for the duel with Alexander Hamilton, was foreclosed on by the bank[6] Burr had founded, and sold to John Jacob Astor who broke it up into parcels.
The neighborhood was home to the first African-American newspaper in the United States, calledFreedom's Journal, edited byJohn Russwurm andSamuel Cornish from March 16, 1827 to March 28, 1829. The newspaper provided international, national, and regional information on current events and contained editorials declaiming against slavery, lynching, and other injustices.[7]
An English visitor,Fanny Trollope, in her 1832 bookDomestic Manners of the Americans, wrote of her impressions of Hudson Square at that time (from 1803 to 1866 Hudson Square was a private park to the south of today's Hudson Square, eventually known as Saint John's Park. It was sold to Vanderbilt in 1866 for a freight terminal, and in 1927 became the exit plaza for the Holland tunnel):
Hudson Square and its neighbourhood is, I believe, the most fashionable part of the town; the square is beautiful, excellently well planted with a great variety of trees, and only wanting our frequent and careful mowing to make it equal to any square in London. The iron railing which surrounds this enclosure is as high and as handsome as that of theTuilleries, and it will give some idea of the care bestowed on its decoration, to know that the gravel for the walks was conveyed by barges from Boston, not as ballast, but as freight.[8]
In 2013, the neighborhood was re-zoned to allow taller buildings.[3] In July 2018,The Walt Disney Company announced plans to move its New York headquarters and operations to Four Hudson Square in a 99-year development deal,[10] on land owned by Trinity, with construction scheduled to begin in 2020.[11][12] The complex – consisting of two 320-foot (98 m) towers with – was expected to open in 2024.[3] Subsequently, in December 2018,Google announced that it would construct a $1 billion, 1,700,000-square-foot (160,000 m2) headquarters across three buildings in Hudson Square, supplementing its existing location at111 Eighth Avenue inChelsea, by 2020.[13][14][15] Google also purchased550 Washington Street in 2021, a former freight rail terminal in Hudson Square since converted into an office building.[16] Other companies located in the Hudson Square area includeWarby Parker (eyeglasses),Oscar Health (health insurance), andHarry's (razors).[3]
The Ear Inn[17] is one of the oldest bars in New York City, said to have been established in 1817, built by George Washington's aide. DuringProhibition it was aspeakeasy, but afterwards it had no name. It was known as "The Green Door" to sailors and longshoremen. In 1977, new resident-owners renamed it the Ear Inn, a name chosen to avoid theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission's lengthy review of any new sign. The neon "BAR" sign was painted to read EAR, afterEar Magazine, which was published upstairs.[18]
TheHolland Tunnel was the longest underwater tunnel in the world at the time of its opening. It officially opened at midnight on November 13, 1927.[19] It is still a heavily used Hudson River crossing.
TheSoHo Playhouse[22] at 15Vandam Street stands on land that was onceRichmond Hill, a colonial mansion that served as headquarters for General George Washington and later home toAaron Burr. Purchased from Burr in 1817, the land was then developed into federalist-style row houses by fur magnateJohn Jacob Astor. 15 Van Dam Street was designated at the Huron Club, a popular meeting house and night club for the Democratic Party. The turn of the century brought theTammany Hall machine to the Huron Club. Prominent regulars included"Battery" Dan Finn and the infamous Mayor Jimmy "Beau James" Walker. The main floor was transformed into a theater in the 1920s, and in the 1960s operated as the Village South, home to Playwrights Unit Workshop under the direction ofEdward Albee. The playhouse now serves as a 199-seatoff-Broadway venue.
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