“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! 

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

Another Big Week For Car Companies

Before it was phased out in 2004, Oldsmobile produced over 35 million cars in its 107-year history. A staple of the Detroit Motor City industrial scene, over 14 million Oldsmobiles were built in their Lansing, Michigan factory. Opened on August 21, 1897, General Motors closed the division on April 29, 2004, presaging a decline into a 2009 bankruptcy for the iconic car company. Not to worry, though! GM bounced back and last year they were the world’s number one car manufacturer.

Another General Motors division, Cadillac Motor Company, was founded 5 years and 1 day after Oldsmobile on August 22, 1902. Named after the founder of the city of Detroit, Cadillac laid the foundation for mass automobile production by creating interchangeable parts for its cars. Just ten years later, they launched the first production automobile with an electric self-starter – a “car with no crank.” Faring much better than its older sister, Oldsmobile, Cadillac is still breaking new ground in the automotive industry and continues to be the “Standard of the World.”

Except of course, in New York, where every savvy urbanite knows that your feet are really your best vehicle for getting around town. The city is packed with so much energy and there is always something new to discover, even if you’ve lived in Manhattan your entire life. There’s so much to encounter, experience and learn from just from wandering these magical streets of ours.

The next time you’re downtown, check out one of our Wall Street Walks tours and let us show you what we’ve discovered then share with us some discoveries of your own! 

Wall Street Walks Tour Stop at the New York Stock Exchange

This video shows Wall Street Walks tour guide Annaline Dinkelmann speaking to her walking tour group outside the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New York City. On a typical summer day, Wall Street is packed with tourists, bankers, NYSE employees and security. At the end of the video you can see Federal Hall, which is the building with the tall steps leading up to it. This building is on the site of what once was the U.S. Capitol building, as well as the site of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States. The Wall Street area is steeped in American history, and tour guide Annaline is an expert in the ins and outs of the Financial District of NYC.

To find out more, please visit the Wall Street Walks website and book a ticket for a guided tour. You can also find Wall Street Walks on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Wall Street Walks Stops at Ground Zero and One World Trade Center

The Freedom Tower on the left rises majestically above the skyline.

One of the west side stops on all Wall Street Walks guided walking tours of downtown Manhattan is Ground Zero. The vantage point shown in these photos is just about the best view of the construction that is happening at Ground Zero: across the avenue, on the patio just above the Cortlandt Street R train stop. The huge building that is being constructed to replace the Twin Towers is commonly referred to as the Freedom Tower, but is currently called One World Trade Center, or "1 WTC."

Wall Street Walks tour stop at Ground Zero.

The Freedom Tower will rise 1776 feet above the ground when finished. Construction is currently about one third complete, with a projected completion date of 2014. Above you can see Annaline, the tour guide in the light blue shirt, talking to her tour group about the history and the future of the World Trade Center site.

Construction of One World Trade Center as of June 2011.

If you'd like to enhance your own visit to New York City with the help and expertise of a local, book tickets for a Wall Street Walks guided walking tour by clicking here. With a focus on the history of downtown NYC and the Financial District, Wall Street Walks tours offer insight into what makes New York City tick.

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!