Join the Downtown Post NYC Newsletter List

Click here to join the Downtown Post NYC newsletter email list for all the gossip, happenings and events that the Financial District has to offer! Published by our friend Terese, chock full of great stuff that simply is not covered elsewhere. You can also join by emailing Terese directly to request to be put on the list.

---

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! 

The Panic of 1873

A year ago this week, Occupy Wall Street began as a relatively small protest in a park in New York City’s Wall St. Area. It is now an international movement that stands against financial greed and the “corrosive power” of major banks they feel led to our recent economic collapse.

A place not unaccustomed to financial panic and discord, Wall Street was also one of the earliest areas hit in the beginning of the original Great Depression in 1873. That year, the New York Stock Exchange was forced to close its doors for the very first time on September 20 during what was known as the Panic of 1873.

Much like our most recent economic disaster, the Panic of 1873 was sparked by the collapse of a large financial institution: Jay Cooke & Company, a brokerage firm and a major investor in railroad construction. Their failure led to a chain reaction and the country suffered economic despair for years, resulting in history’s worst financial crisis until the second Great Depression came along in the 1930’s.

Remembering September 11, 2001

The night before, Michael Jackson performed his 30^th Anniversary Special at Madison Square Garden and Yankees fans were disappointed when the game with their biggest rivalry, the Boston Red Sox, was rescheduled due to rain. The next morning, of course, was gorgeous.

That day, September 11, 2001, people all over New York City made their way to work humming Billie Jean and crossing their fingers against another rainout in the last moments of “life before.” Then, between 8:46 and 10:03 AM EST, four planes crashed into our beloved Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, over 2,500 lives were lost and countless others were irrevocably changed in the worst terrorist attack in United States history.

Eleven years later, the construction is humming on the site of the new World Trade Center and the Freedom Tower is standing tall over the Wall Street area as it nears completion. Life in NYC is back to normal … but it’s a new normal for those of us who remember the days after, when the streets were quiet and we all took a little extra time to check in with everyone we passed.

Our new normal is one in which we love our city more than ever and take tremendous pride in honoring New York’s rich history, and her future, with people from all over the world. Join us for a Wall Street Walks tour and let us share a little bit of our New York City with you. Click here to learn more: https://www.wallstreetwalks.com/tours_main.html

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

Computers and Finance and Vegetable Shortening … Oh My!

What a week this is for history in all of these industries. Let’s start off with the “yummiest” … Crisco.

Prior to 1911, kitchens across America relied on animal lard for all of their frying and cooking needs. That is until August 15 of that year when Proctor & Gamble unveiled its all-vegetable solution to lard – Crisco – changing the way housewives cooked and baked for years to come.

Also this week, we’ve got more financial milestones to report, but unlike last week, they’re all good news! August 17 marks the first time the Dow Jones Industrial average closed above 2,700, which happened back in 1987. That was just five short years after the New York Stock Exchange set a record of 132,690,000 shares traded on August 18, 1992. By the early 90s, the Dow had set another record … a high of 3612.13 on August 19, 1993 – over 10,000 points shy of its current all-time high of 14,164.53 that was set 14 years later in 2007.

Our other fun history facts this week revolve around the world of computers, starting with the launch of the very first artificial intelligence software. IBM introduced its product on August 16, 1988, and set the world on fire. By August 14, 1984, they were releasing their PC DOS version 3.0 and twelve short years later on August 13, 1996, Microsoft gave us Internet Explorer 3.0. And as you well know, our world, communication and access to information has never been the same.

The Curb Market

Way before the New York Stock Exchange moved into it’s current home at 11 Wall Street, trading was done in an outdoor space at 30 Broad Street known as The Curb Market and the traders were known as the New York Curb Market.

For almost ten years traders bought and sold shares outside until they moved indoors on July 27, 1921, to a building in Lower Manhattan. Led by, Edward McCormick, the Curb Market’s chairman, brokers ceremoniously marched up Wall Street to their newly completed building on Trinity Place behind Trinity Church.

In 1929, the New York Curb Market changed its name to the New York Curb Exchange and soon became the top international stock market. Years later in 1953, they renamed themselves once again and became the American Stock Exchange. 

75th Anniversary of the Death of John D. Rockefeller

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the death of John D. Rockefeller. Once known as the richest man in the world, Rockefeller gave over 500 million dollars to a variety of causes including education, science and religion institutions.

Born in Richford, New York, Rockefeller was an enterprising man who built his first oil refinery near Cleveland and incorporated Standard Oil Company when he was just 31 years old. His son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was his only heir and he carried on his father’s legacy of philanthropy.

In 1901 John D. Rockefeller, Jr. created Rockefeller University in NYC and during World War II, helped establish the USO for the troops. Later, Rockefeller Jr. personally funded the construction of Rockefeller Center, creating over 75,000 jobs during the depression, and establishing what is now a world-famous landmark in the center of midtown Manhattan.

Meet Annaline Dinkelmann, Founder of Wall Street Walks

 Wall Street Walking Tours from Annaline Dinkelmann on Vimeo.

The Best Way to Experience Wall Street is on Foot 

Come on a fascinating journey into the financial heart of New York City with Wall Street Walks. Our guided walking tours, led by real industry insiders, provide an exciting peek at what happens behind the scenes on Wall Street. On our tours you will:

• Discover how an 18th century street bazaar became the greatest financial center in the world.
  
• Learn about the darker side of Wall Street, including its scandals, panics, and crashes.
  
• Walk in the footsteps of financial moguls such as Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Victoria Woodhull.
  
• Explore the district's most celebrated landmarks.
  
• Hear firsthand accounts of Wall Street today as only industry insiders can tell them.

Wall Street Walks offers a number of exciting and specialized walking tours of the financial district, including:

• History of Wall Street (also known as Stock Market History).
  
• Wall Street's Panics and Crashes.
  
• The Women of Wall Street (a Wall Street Walks exclusive).
  
• Federal Reserve Gold Vault Visit.

All of our tours are available for either private parties or group excursions and can be done on your own schedule at a time convenient for you. See Lower Manhattan from an entirely new perspective - schedule your Wall Street walking tour today!