State Street is a short street in theFinancial District ofManhattan,New York City. It runs west fromWhitehall Street as a continuation ofWater Street, then turns north atBattery Park to become its eastern border. PassingPearl andBridge Streets, it terminates at the northeast corner of the park, atBowling Green, where the roadway continues north asBroadway and west as Battery Place.
State Street approximates the original waterline of the island before landfill expanded it.
TheM20 andM55 serve State Street in its entirety, while theM15 SBS runs east of Peter Minuit Plaza, accessing the South Ferry Bus Loop. TheM15 Local does not serve any portion.
According to theCastello Plan of 1660, the original fort built by Dutch settlers forNew Amsterdam,Fort Amsterdam, was located where State Street is now. In 1790, the State House or Government House was built on the site of the fort. The street was originally called "Copsey Street" after the Native American village of Kopsee, which had been located nearby. It was renamed by theCommon Council after the State House in 1793 or 1795, at which time it was one of the city's most desirable residential areas, a status it held until after theCivil War.
Around 1808,Robert Fulton bought a mansion on State Street at the corner of Marketfield Street,[1] which was near the current location of Bowling Green.[2]: 28 Later, in 1819,Herman Melville was born in a house on or near 15 State Street.[3]: 12
One of the row of stately town houses lining the Battery on State Street was theJames Watson House, built in 1793 at 7 State Street, which was 6 State Street at the time. The mansions had unobstructed views ofNew York Harbor.[4][2]: 30 The Watson House is the last remaining house on the street from that era.[5][6]
In 1883, the James Watson House became the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary, which saw after the care of Irish immigrant girls, along with 8 State Street next door. By the early 1960s, both buildings were in disrepair. 8 State Street was torn down, and replaced in 1964 by the Church of Our Lady of Rosary, designed by Shanley & Sturgis; while the former Watson house was gutted to become the rectory for the church. Today both are part of theShrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, the first American-born saint.Seton had lived at 8 State Street from 1801–03, after her family's bankruptcy forced them to move from their home on Stone Street.[7]: 167 [8]
At the northern end of the street, theAlexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House betweenBowling Green andBridge Street was constructed from 1901 to 1907. Designed byCass Gilbert, it originally served as theCustom House for the Port of New York.[9][10][3]: 13 Since 1994, it has housed theGeorge Gustav Heye Center of theNational Museum of the American Indian.[11] The building is aNew York City designated landmark[9] and aNational Historic Landmark.[12]
At around the same time as the Custom House was being built, theSeaman's Church Institute was constructing a 13-story headquarters building, including a chapel, at 7 State Street, designed byWarren & Wetmore. The building, which began construction in 1906, had in addition a lecture hall, a reading room, a bank, a school formerchant marines, and an employment bureau, all for the use of sailors. A hotel in the building could, after the building of an annex in 1929, sleep 1,614 men. The corner turret of the building featured alighthouse with a range of 12 miles, which was a memorial to the dead of theTitanic disaster. The institute moved to 15 State Street in 1968, to a 23-story red-brick building designed byEggers & Higgins which featured a rounded prow with a cross that spanned the building's entire height. The Institute moved out of this building in 1991. The lighthouse from the earlier building was salvaged and stands in theSouth Street Seaport.[7]: 244–45 [3]: 23
On the site of the second Seaman's Church Institute building is17 State Street, built in 1987-89 and designed byEmery Roth and Sons, a 41-floor, 541-foot (165 m) office building with a curvedcurtain wall facade that, according to theAIA Guide to New York City, forms a "sleek columnar mirror".[3]: 11 [13] The building is one of a number of tall office buildings which now populate the street.
TheNew Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion, inPeter Minuit Plaza on State Street at the intersection ofWhitehall Street, was a gift from the Netherlands to New York City, honoring the 400th anniversary ofHenry Hudson's arrival inNew York Harbor in 1609.[14] The 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) pavilion, in the shape of a flower, was designed by the Dutch architectsBen van Berkel andCaroline Bos,[15] and features radiating bars ofLEDs; it is both a café and a visitors center. The stone plaza is a landscaped platform ("plein" in Dutch) with benches of modern design, walkways with engraved passages fromRussell Shorto'sThe Island at the Center of the World, about the founding of Manhattan, and a map of theCastello Plan of New Amsterdam from 1660, carved in stone.[16]
Media related toState Street (Manhattan) at Wikimedia Commons