Albany Street (Manhattan)

Albany Street is a short street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs west-to-east from the Battery Park City Esplanade along the Hudson River to Greenwich Street, passing through South End Avenue and West Street on the way. The street has a walkway connection to the Rector Street Bridge which crosses West Street.

Albany Street looking east from its western terminus in Battery Park City

History

According to maps drawn by David Valentine, the street did not exist before 1782.[1] By 1789, it was a small extension of Thames Street. In 1797, the first pier on the west side of the island was built. The pier was used as the dock for the ferry between New York and Albany, hence the street leading to the pier was named "Albany Street".[2][3]

In the early 1850s, it was proposed that the street be extended through the yard next to Trinity Church in order to connect the street to Broadway.[4][5][2] The proposition became the center of a heated debate between the Municipal Corporation of New York and the Religious Corporation of Trinity Church.[6][7]

When Battery Park City was built on landfill in the Hudson River in the 1980s, the street was extended west of West Street into the new development.

130 Cedar Street (left) and 90 West Street

Buildings

The Deutsche Bank Building was located on the north side of the street, but was heavily damaged in the September 11 attacks in 2001. The Alliance for Downtown New York and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in 2014[8] redeveloped part of that site into a new public open space, the Albany Street Plaza.[9]

Buildings on Albany Street include the 1907 90 West Street, also known as the West Street Building, a New York City landmark (1998) designed by Cass Gilbert, and 130 Cedar Street, formerly the 12-story Green Exchange Building, designed by Renwick, Aspinwall & Guard and completed in 1931. The building was devastated in the September 11 attacks, and redeveloped into the 19-story Club Quarters hotel, which opened in 2000.[10][11] Other hotels on Albany Street are the W New York Downtown at 8 Albany Street,[12] the New York Marriott Downtown, located at 85 West Street at the corner of Albany Street,[13] and the World Center Hotel at 144 Washington Street at Albany Street.[14]

Also of note are the town house apartments at 320-340 Albany Street and the Hudson Tower Apartments at No. 350, both built in 1986 and both designed by Davis, Brody & Associates. Both buildings are listed in the AIA Guide to New York City.[15]

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References
  1. Valentine, David Thomas (1785). Plan of the City of New York and its Environs Surveyed in 1782 and Drawn 1785 (Map). Scale not given. New York: New York Common Council. Retrieved March 15, 2017 – via New York Public Library.
  2. Moscow, Henry (1978). The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan's Street Names and Their Origins. New York: Hagstrom Company. ISBN 978-0-8232-1275-0., p.21
  3. Feirstein, Sanna (2001), Naming New York: Manhattan Places & How They Got Their Names, New York: New York University Press, p. 74, ISBN 978-0-8147-2712-6
  4. Staff (December 21, 1853). "City Improvements; Proposed Extension of Albany-street - Report of the street Committee of the Board of Aldermen". The New York Times.
  5. Staff (June 1, 1858). "News of the Day" (PDF). The New York Times.
  6. Staff (February 11, 1854). "Desecration of Trinity Church-Yard.; Copy of a letter from his Honor the Recorder to Alderman Francis" (PDF). The New York Times.
  7. Staff (March 29, 1858). "Law Intelligence: The Continuation of Albany Street" (PDF). The New York Times.
  8. Staff (September 2, 2014). "Downtown Alliance and LMDC Open New Public Plaza". Alliance for Downtown New York.
  9. Dunlap, David W. (September 26, 2016). "The Resurrection of Greenwich Street". The New York Times.
  10. "Club Quarters World Trade Center". emporis.com.
  11. "Hotel Inventory Q4 2014" Alliance for Downtown New York
  12. W New York Downtown website
  13. New York Marriott Downtown website
  14. World Center Hotel website
  15. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot & Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 23, 48–49. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.
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