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For more information about Wall Street and New York's Financial District, join a Wall Street Walks guided walking tour!

“LITTLE SYRIA” - NYC's Forgotten Neighborhood

Friday, May 3, 2013 - Monday, May 27, 2013
3LD Art & Technology Center
80 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10006

“LITTLE SYRIA" NEW YORK CITY

by Wall Street Walks Tour Guide Marie Beirne

In the 1980’s, when I worked at NASDAQ on the 98^th Floor of Two World Trade Center, every evening I waited for the x90 express bus to Yorkville, in front of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church which once stood across Liberty Street from the South Tower.

I have very fond memories of that divine and beloved little church, surrounded on three sides by the parking lot…looking a little lonely and frail, all by itself, especially at nightfall.

Tonight, at a lecture,  I found out that after 9/11, when workers got to the foundation of the destroyed St. Nicholas’,  buried in the rubble, they found artifacts of an old church, the cornerstone of St. Joseph's from “Little Syria”, New York City. The cornerstone now resides in Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights.

It is rare for New Yorkers to be surprised with news of an old neighborhood you never heard of before…what a delight the discovery of “Little Syria” was for the audience.

On April 30 at the 9/11 Tribute Center, Linda Jacobs, author, archaeologist, and an expert on the Syrian immigrant community in New York City, and Todd Fine, co-founder of the “Save Washington Street,” preservation campaign presented “Little Syria’: Lower Manhattan Before the World Trade Center,” a discussion on the history of the neighborhood in the southwestern corner of Lower Manhattan.

Beginning in the late 1800’s, the neighborhood developed a flavor of the Arab world from which many of the immigrants originated.  Their entrepreneurial spirit transformed the neighborhood, which came to be known as “Little Syria”, into a thriving community lined with shops and coffeehouses. Many of these immigrants owned small restaurants and grocery stores and had easy access to the docks where produce was brought in on boats from New Jersey.  Each furnished with signs written in their native Arabic.  Here bilingual Arab-Americans raised their families, educated their children, formed religious and community organizations and gradually became part of the life of the city of New York.

Eventually the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and the World Trade Center displaced the folks in this neighborhood who moved to Atlantic Avenue and other neighborhoods of Brooklyn. 

Most New Yorkers, and even many Lebanese-Americans and Arab-Americans, are unaware that Lower Manhattan — along Washington Street from Battery Park through the 9/11 Memorial to Chambers Street — was once the center of Arab-American life in the United States, from the 1870s to the 1940s called “Little Syria” or the “Mother Colony.”

Today, only three buildings from that era remain and are physically connected: 103 Washington Street, an Arab church that served as a Irish bar for many years.   The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a New York City landmark on July 14, 2009. 

Two other remaining buildings: 105-107 Washington Street, a community house inaugurated by the governor of New York Al Smith to serve the “Little Syria” neighborhood; and 109 Washington Street, a tenement building still containing apartments are now part of an active campaign by Save Washington Street [http://savewashingtonstreet.org/history/] a national coalition of organizations and individuals advocating for the preservation of the last two sites.

While the coalition’s first objective is to achieve the landmark designation of the community center at 105-107 Washington Street, already advocated by Community Board 1 of New York City, the long-term goal of the coalition is to improve education about this diverse neighborhood, and about Arab-American history .

Be sure to discover “Little Syria” for yourself, starting on May 3, and continuing through May 27, the Arab American National Museum (based in Dearborn, Michigan) will present at the 3LD Art & Technology Center (80 Greenwich Street) an exhibition documenting the neighborhood's history.

Join Wall Street Walks on one of our guided walking tours to uncover more of the many, many secrets of NYC. We offer an exciting peek at the New York no one else knows! 

NYC Decks Out in Its Trashiest Haute Couture for the 2013 Met Gala

Every heavily kohl-lined eye in the world will be turned to NYC tonight as fashion’s best and brightest don their haute couture shredded leather for this year’s Met Gala. This year’s theme “Punk: Chaos to Couture” is sure to channel the raucous, devil-may-care heyday of the likes of the New York Dolls, Suicide, The Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, Sex Pistols, and Talking Heads. The Costume Institute Gala (commonly referred to as the “Met Ball” by all those in the know) is a celebration of the annual opening of the Metropolitan Museum's fashion exhibit at the Costume Institute. The preceding red carpet is THE place to see celebrities dressed to the nines in the year’s edgiest avant garde looks. In Gala’s past, photos from the event were posted online, but this unprecedented carpet will feature a live streaming feed, beginning at 7 p.m. EST via the fashion site www.modaoperandi.com in coordination with Conde Nast, Samsung, and Vogue magazine. Though the Met Museum may be a far cry from the seedy interior of CBGB, this year’s gala promises to capture the spirit of the trends of yesteryear – be it from a precariously perched Devo cone hat to a strategically placed tattoo a la Richard Hell. This modern interpretation of the counter culture in the mid-seventies heralds back to the music scene of New York circa ‘74–’76 and will most certainly pay homage to classic punk details like studs, spikes, safety pins, distressed denims, and, of course, lots and lots of leather. Sure to be decked out in their best trash bag chic are co-chairs Rooney Mara (popular for her portrayal of punk princess Lisbeth Salander in Hollywood’s “Girl Who…”series), co-founder of Moda Operandi / Vogue editor Lauren Santo Domingo, and famed Italian fashion designer Riccardo Tisci. The fashion world is sure to hold its breath for a singular shot of Anna Wintour in plaid bondage pants.

Get all of the hottest updates in NYC – from Downtown and beyond – with Wall Street Walks.

Copyright: W Magazine

      

New York City History

Settled in 1625, as New Amsterdam, New York City’s history is some of the richest and most vibrant in the entire United States. The actual birthplace of the American government, New York has seen an incredible amount of US, and worldwide firsts, two of which were recorded exactly 130 years ago this week.

On Monday, September 4, 1882, Thomas Edison switched on his large generator plant in downtown Manhattan and at 3 PM that afternoon, Pearl Street was lit with electricity for the first time ever.

The next morning, September 5, 10,000 workers joined together to march through New York City in the very first Labor Day Parade. The procession featured banners including: “To the Workers Should Belong the Wealth” and “Children in School, Not in Factories.”

Come join us for a Wall Street Walks tour and learn even more about the vibrant history of New York City. Our new fall schedule features tours at 11:00 AM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM on Fridays. Click here to get your tickets now: https://www.wallstreetwalks.com/tours_main.html

Tour de... Wall Street? Commuting by Bike to the Financial District

Bike parking for employees in the Deutsche Bank building.

 As the Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden stage of the Tour de France wraps up and all eyes are on the yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler for tomorrow's Pau to Lourdes stage, it is easy to forget that there are any other cyclists anywhere else. There is, however, a thriving bike culture right here in downtown Manhattan. Above is the employee bike parking in the Deutsche Bank building, chock full of commuter bikes. 

There are, it seems, a multitude of cyclists working in the Financial District, with all manner of bicycles locked to poles, racks and buildings all around Wall Street.

New York City, and downtown in particular, is far more bike-friendly than it is car-friendly. Bikes offer far more route choices than cars, and with several bridges, highways and bike paths radiating away from downtown, one can get home quickly on a bike with no worries about subway or bridge traffic.