 | |
 Interactive map of Park Row | |
| Coordinates | 40°42′40″N74°0′30″W / 40.71111°N 74.00833°W /40.71111; -74.00833 |
|---|---|
| West end | Broadway/Vesey Street/Ann Street |
| East end | Chatham Square |
Park Row is a street located in theFinancial District,Civic Center, andChinatown neighborhoods of theNew York Cityborough ofManhattan. The street runs east–west, sometimes called north–south because the western end bends to the south. At the north end of Park Row is the confluence ofBowery,East Broadway, St. James Place, Oliver Street,Mott Street, andWorth Street atChatham Square. At the street's south end,Broadway,Vesey Street, Barclay Street, andAnn Street intersect. The intersection includes a bus turnaround loop designated asMillennium Park.
Park Row was once known as Chatham Street; it was renamed Park Row in 1886, a reference to the fact that it facesCity Hall Park, the former New York Common.
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In the late 18th century,Eastern Post Road became the more important road connectingNew York City toAlbany andNew England to its north. This section of the road which became Park Row was called Chatham Street,[1] a name that enters into the city's history on numerous occasions.
Thetobacco industry in New York City got its start in 1760, whenPierre Lorillard opened asnuff factory on Chatham Street,[2] and in 1795, the Long Room of Abraham Martling's Tavern on Chatham Street was one of the first headquarters used by theTammany Society and theDemocratic-Republican Party, founded byThomas Jefferson, on election days. Those who gathered there became known as "Martling Men", "Tammanyites" or "Bucktails", especially during the time that Tammany was attempting to wrest control of the party away from governorDe Witt Clinton.[3] In the 1780s, Chatham Street was the site of the Tea Water Pump, a privately owned company which took water from Fresh Water Pond, the city's only supply of fresh water, and which remained purer longer than some of the other sources which drew from the pond.[4]
Chatham Street was also a center for entertainment. In 1798,Marc Isambard Brunel designed the 2,000-seat Park Theater on Chatham Street, intended to attract the upper classes of the city. The theater cost $130,000 to build, and tickets were 25 cents for seats in the gallery, and 50 cents in the orchestra. In the early 1800s, more taverns, theaters and small hotels on the street started to offer free entertain to attract customers to drink. These were called "free and easies", "varieties" or "vaudeville" and offered numerous different kinds of performances: comedy, dance, dramatic skits, magic, music, ventriloquism, and tellers of tall tales. New theaters such as the Chatham Theater sprang up as well to attract the overflow from the entertainment strip on the Bowery.[5]Boxing was also a popular entertainment. The Arena on Park Row packed in fans with its nightly presentation of "the manly art".[6]
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In the early 19th century, most of the Manhattan portion of the street was suppressed, the Commons becameCity Hall Park, and the stub of a street was renamed Park Row.[7] By the mid-19th century, the street had a bazaar-like atmosphere from the many used clothing shops andpawnbrokerages open by recently immigrated Jews from Germany and central Europe. This gave rise toanti-Semitic caricatures, although many New Yorkers could not distinguishGerman Jews from otherGermans.[8] Chatham Street was also the site of several anti-African American incidents, as in the 1863New York City draft riots, during which rioters were repulsed in their attempt to attack black waiters at Crook's Restaurant on the street.[9] Poverty was also commonplace; in 1890,Jacob Riis revealed inHow the Other Half Lives that over 9,000 homeless men lodged nightly on Chatham Street and the Bowery, between City Hall andCooper Union.[10]
During the late 19th century, Park Row was nicknamedNewspaper Row, as most of New York City's newspapers located on the street to be close toCity Hall.[11] Among the earlier newspapers in the area wereThe New York Times,[12]: 3 which in 1857 became the first New York City newspaper to be housed in a structure built specially for its use.[13] Part of the southern section of the street, centered on the intersection with Spruce Street, was known asPrinting House Square. The newspapers housed on Newspaper Row, combined, printed more than 250,000 copies per day at their peak, leading the area to be considered "America's preeminent press center".[14] Other papers, such as theNew York Herald andThe Sun, were near Newspaper Row but not actually housed on Park Row itself.[14]
The newspapers on Chatham Street were among the first to constructearly skyscrapers for their headquarters, reflecting their newfound wealth.[14][15]: 27 The first of these major newspaper buildings, theNew York Tribune Building, opened in 1875 as a nine-story, 260-foot (79 m) structure; the headquarters of theNew-York Tribune was then the city's second-tallest building afterTrinity Church.[16][17]
After the construction of theBrooklyn Bridge in 1883, Park Row was the site of the largePark Row Terminal for the elevated trains and cable-hauled shuttle cars which crossed the bridge. Service was gradually reduced from 1913 to 1940, and the terminal was demolished in 1944.[18]
The next major structure to open was a new headquarters forThe New York Times at 41 Park Row, which was completed in 1889 and stood 13 stories tall.[19][12]: 4 The third early skyscraper on Newspaper Row was the 20-storyNew York World Building, theNew York World's headquarters, which at a height of 309 feet (94 m) was the first building in the city to be taller than Trinity Church.[20] The Times and Tribune Buildings were both expanded in the first decade of the 20th century.[12]: 6 [21]
Two other buildings on Park Row were also part of Newspaper Row but not built specifically for newspapers' use. ThePotter Building, at 38 Park Row, contained tenants such asThe Press, aRepublican Party–affiliatedpenny paper, as well asThe New York Observer.[22] ThePark Row Building, at 15 Park Row, housed the early headquarters of theAssociated Press, founded byMoses Yale Beach.[23][24]
The Revolution, a newspaper established by women's rights activistsSusan B. Anthony andElizabeth Cady Stanton, was also headquartered on Park Row, at 27 Chatham Street.[25]
The decline of Park Row as a newspaper hub began in 1895, when theHerald moved toHerald Square.[14]
Ten years later, in 1905, theTimes moved to its new headquarters atOne Times Square.[26] TheTribune moved uptown in 1923,[27] while theWorld shuttered in 1931.[20]The Journal of Commerce, the last remaining newspaper to publish from Park Row, moved from its headquarters in the World Building in 1953.[28]
Until 1971, Park Row continued in a relatively straight path, except for a curved portion around the Brooklyn Bridge's ramps.[29] Between 1971 and 1973, a pedestrian plaza was built as part of1 Police Plaza, after which Park Row was rerouted underneath the plaza and its intersection withNew Chambers Street and Duane Street was eliminated.[30]
Today, a statue ofBenjamin Franklin byErnst Plassman stands in Printing House Square, in front of theOne Pace Plaza and41 Park Row buildings ofPace University, holding a copy ofThe Pennsylvania Gazette, a reminder of what Park Row once was.[31][32]
The New York Times was originally located at 113Nassau Street in 1851. It moved to 138 Nassau Street in 1854, and in 1858 it moved a little more than one block away to 41 Park Row, possibly making it the first newspaper in New York City housed in a building built specifically for its use.[13] The New York Times Building, which was designed byGeorge B. Post, was designated a New York City landmark in 1999.[33] The building is now used by Pace University.[34]
TheNew Yorker Staats-Zeitung moved to its own building at17 Chatham Street at almost the same time as theTimes moved into its new building.[35][36]
ThePark Row Building (also known as 15 Park Row) is located at the western end of Park Row, oppositeCity Hall Park. Designed by noted architectR. H. Robertson, and built in 1896-99, It was designated a city landmark in 1999.[33] At 391 feet (119 m) tall it was thetallest building in the world from 1899 until 1908, when it was surpassed by theSinger Building.[37]
ThePotter Building at 38 Park Row (145 Nassau Street) was built in 1882-86 and designated a New York City landmark in 1996. It was built after the owner's previous building on the site burned down. The Potter Building was converted into apartments between 1979 and 1981.[33]
TheNew York City Police Department is headquartered at1 Police Plaza located on Park Row, across the street from theManhattan Municipal Building[38] andMetropolitan Correctional Center.
Two apartment buildings of significance on Park Row are the Chatham Towers at no. 170 and 180,[39] built in 1965 and designed by Kelly & Gruzen, which, according to theAIA Guide to New York City, makes a "strong architectural statement...[which] rouses great admiration and great criticism," and Chatham Green at 185 Park Row, built in 1961 and also designed by Kelly & Gruzen.[40] Kelly & Gruzen was founded in 1936 through the partnership of engineer Hugh A. Kelly (February 8, 1888 – January 31, 1966) and architect Barnett Sumner Gruzen (July 25, 1903- September 27, 1974).[41]
The segment of Park Row between Frankfort Street andChatham Square is open only toMTA buses and government and emergency vehicles and has been closed to civilian traffic since theSeptember 11, 2001, attacks.[38] The NYPD asserts that this is necessary to protect its headquarters from a truck bomb attack. Nearby Chinatown residents were increasingly frustrated at the disruption caused by the closure of the thoroughfare, arguing that the police department has placed a chokehold on an entire neighborhood and suggesting that One Police Plaza be moved from a residential area.[42] Members of the Civic Center Residents Coalition fought the security perimeter around One Police Plaza for years. Park Row reopened for foot traffic andMTA buses in 2005,[43] although only 200 buses per day were allowed on the street, and they had to pass through security checkpoints.[44]
In 2007, the NYPD stated that it would not be moving despite the numerous complaints from residents, explaining that they had tried to alleviate the impact of the security measures by forbidding officers from parking in nearby public spaces and by reopening a stairway that skirts the headquarters' south side and leads down to street level near theBrooklyn Bridge. The department also planned to redesign its guard booths and security barriers to make them more attractive, and was involved in efforts to convert two lanes of Park Row into acycling and pedestrian greenway,[38] which opened in June 2018.[45] In the 2020s, the section of Park Row north of Chatham Square remained closed to most traffic, and residents of Chinatown were advocating for it to be reopened. Because of the security barriers, ambulances tended to avoid traveling along the Police Plaza section of Park Row.[46]
Park Row is served in its entirety by theM9 andM103 bus routes, while the eastboundM22 runs until Frankfort Street.
Notes
About forty years ago the original Harris Cohen established a second-hand clothing store at the corner of Baxter Street and Park Row (then Chatham Street).
...The Police Department says that most of Park Row has to be blocked off to protect its headquarters, called One Police Plaza, against terrorist threats, particularly truck bombs.
Bibliography
