Neighborhood at risk: Fulton-Nassau

The Fulton-Nassau district, 10 blocks in lower Manhattan, is an area of early skyscraper office building development constructed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These buildings were built on speculation to house the many collateral businesses attracted by the concentration of wealth and business in the nearby Financial District.

The area is of particular interest architecturally, as the buildings show the early evolution of the office skyscraper, in what might be termed its ancestral home. As evidenced by the wealth of extant building decoration, the architects were experimenting with materials and motifs in the new skyscraper form. Although all of them have elevators, several have traditional masonry load-bearing walls, and possess façade treatments that are not typical in later steel-frame construction. Additionally interesting in a skyscraper district in New York City, most of these buildings were built before the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which required setbacks and minimal sky-plane exposure. The combination of the winding street grid, itself a remnant of colonial New York, with the towering building masses lends a unique and distinctive “turn of the century” sense of place.

Maiden Lane at the heart of the district was originally a pebbly brook where local residents would wash their clothing and household linens. The brook was filled in during British rule and it soon became an elite residential area, during the period when New York was the country’s capital city. The area converted quickly into fine specialty stores due to its proximity to the docks on the East River. The New York Arcade, built in 1827, stretched between John Street and Maiden Lane along Broadway and contained over forty stores with a skylight-covered corridor. This profitable commercial area was one of the first to be gas-lit by the New York Gas-Light Company in the late 1820s. As the separation between work and home became more distinct in New York, the area became solely commercial, serving the needs of businessmen who spent the workweek downtown. By the late nineteenth century many office buildings began to replace the smaller commercial residences that had existed in the area.

In the 1880s when office buildings in Lower Manhattan were beginning to grow taller, Francis H. Kimball and a handful of other architects began to design buildings that did not conform to the sober utilitarian-style office buildings that marked many parts of New York. Kimball designed the nine-story masonry bearing Corbin Building (1888-1889) at No. 11 John Street. The building, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, is marked by a series of arcades of varying heights designed with a brownstone base below the tawny brick and dark terra cotta detailing of the upper stories. It is one of the few early skyscrapers that still rises above its neighbors, preserving the original effect that it must have had when it was built.

There are many other significant buildings in this area. One such structure is the Cushman Building (1897-1898) at No. 1 Maiden Lane. C.P.H. Gilbert, one of the most prolific architects of his time, designed this beautiful twelve-story tower. It is composed mainly of rick with stone and terra cotta trim and is topped by a mansard roof. Gilbert A. Schellinger’s Diamond Exchange Building at No. 14 Maiden Lane (1893-1894) is a sliver, 11-story brick and metal building. Across the street at No. 21 Maiden Lane is the Romanesque Revival style Hays Building by John Rochester Thomas, architect of the Surrogate's Court House. In addition, the structure at No. 63 Nassau Street dates to around 1860 and is believed to be one of James Bogardus’ few extant works in New York City. This building still retains some beautiful detail work including rope moldings, fluted cast-iron columns, heavy foliate spandrels, and relief portraits of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

In 2005 the Fulton-Nassau Historic District was added to the New York State and National Register of Historic Places. Seven individual landmarks in this neighborhood (Temple Court at 3-9 Beekman Street, Bennett Building at 139 Fulton Street, the American Tract Building at 150 Nassau Street, the Potter Building at 38 Park Row, the New York Times Building at 41 Park Row, the Keuffel & Esser Store at 127 Fulton Street, and the Morse Building at 140 Nassau Street) have been designated Individual New York City Landmarks, a testament to the neighborhood’s importance. As plans to redevelop and revitalize Lower Manhattan are created and put into effect, this area, long-neglected, is at particular risk. Designating the Fulton-Nassau historic district would not only preserve this important piece of the city’s history, but also add to the revitalization efforts of Lower Manhattan.

For more information contact HDC.

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