NYC's Maritime Community - South Street Seaport

Coming a Merchant Marine family, I have always had a personal and spiritual connection to the South Street Seaport. As a youth, to the present day I have felt more at home in this section of New York City than any other. A visit to the South Street Seaport is to step back in time and see what made New York City the business center of the world.

The Titanic memorial tower that once sat on top of the Seaman's Church Institute and marked noon to the ships in New York Harbor marks the entrance to the South Street Seaport Historic District. This 19th century waterfront survives almost intact, looking as it did when the great sailing ships had their massive bow spreads hanging over South Street and commerce took place in the streets and trading houses. These buildings share in the legacy of the sailing traditions of NYC and what made it one of the wealthiest cities in the country. A sense of the district’s gritty and boisterous past as New York City’s wholesale fish market also lingers in some of the area’s oldest commercial buildings. These brick and stone structures also have historic ties to the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the piers.

The Seaport district has long been a laboratory in which historic preservation has taken place alongside development. The South Street Seaport Museum was founded in the 1960's; an exacting restoration of Schermerhorn Row took place in the 1970's. The heart of the seaport community built in 1811-1812 is the only serving block of Georgian-Federal style and Greek Revival commercial structures in New York City; Pier 17 was developed in the 1980's by The Rouse Company; and mixed-use preservation and development has been underway along Front Street in recent years. Each project has explored new designs while drawing on the visual richness of the Seaport’s historic and natural environments.

The historic buildings west of the Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) Drive have stood for more than a century. East of the FDR, stands the historic Tin Building. The 1907 structure was once a thriving marketplace where the city’s fish was imported and processed. It originally stood at water’s edge, prior to the construction of the current Pier 17 building. A fire in 1995 all but destroyed the 55,000-square-foot building, leaving it vacant today, and awaiting for restoration.