Park Row (Manhattan)

For the former elevated train station, see Park Row (BMT station).

Park Row, after 1905 (the Tribune Building increased by 9 stories between 1903-05)

Newspaper Row, before 1903 (the original Tribune Building from 1875 in the center)

Park Row is a street located in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was previously called Chatham Street^[1] and during the late 19th century it was nicknamed Newspaper Row, as most of New York City's newspapers located on the street to be close to the action at New York City Hall.^[2]

The image is of Park Row around the turn of the 20th century. The buildings from left to right include; Bottom-Left is New York City Hall; the New York World Building, also known as the Pulitzer Building (with the spherical top) which housed the New York World newspaper (now the site of one of the Brooklyn Bridge entrance ramps); The New York Tribune building with the spire top (today the site of the Pace Plaza complex of Pace University); The New York Times Building (the 19th Century home of The New York Times, today one of the buildings of Pace University); and to the far right - cut off from the picture - the Potter Building.

The New York Times was originally located at 113 Nassau Street in 1851. In 1854, it moved to 138 Nassau Street, and in 1858 it moved a little more than one block away to 41 Park Row, making it the first newspaper in New York City housed in a building built specifically for its use.^[3]

This section of the street was known as 'Printing House Square'. Today, a statue of Benjamin Franklin stands there, in front of the One Pace Plaza and 41 Park Row buildings of Pace University, holding a copy of his Pennsylvania Gazette, a reminder of what Park Row once was.

In the late 18th century Eastern Post Road became the more important road connecting New York to Albany and New England. Early in the 19th century most of the Manhattan portion of this road was suppressed, the Commons became City Hall Park, and the stub then known as Chatham Street was renamed Park Row.

One of the first structures to be called a skyscraper, the Park Row Building (also known as '15 Park Row') is located at the southern end of Park Row, opposite City Hall Park. At 391 ft (119.2m) tall it was the tallest office building in the world from 1899 until 1908, when it was surpassed by the Singer Building. The building is 29 stories tall, with 26 full floors and two, three-story cupolas. It has a frontage of 103 ft (31 m) on Park Row, 23 on Ann Street and 48 feet (15 m) on Theater Alley. The base of the building covers a land area of approximately 15,000 square feet (1,400 m²).

The New York City Police Department is headquartered at 1 Police Plaza located on Park Row, across the street from the Manhattan Municipal Building.^[4]

References

1. ^ "Outrages by 'Pullers in'; The Nuisances of Park Row and Baxter Street. One Man Killed Last Year After Refusing to Buy Goods"PDF, The New York Times, June 22, 1893, p. 2. "About forty years ago the original Harris Cohen established a second-hand clothing store at the corner of Baxter Street and Park Row, (then Chatham Street.)"
2. ^ Shepard, Richard F. "SEEING THE EVOLUTION OF NEW YORK CITY THROUGH ARTISTS' EYES", The New York Times, March 20, 1987. Accessed February 24, 2008. "There are murals of City Hall, Newspaper Row, or Park Row and Nassau Street, at the century's turn the home of New York newspaperdom."
3. ^ Dunlap, David W. "150th Anniversary: 1851-2001; Six Buildings That Share One Story", The New York Times, November 14, 2001. Accessed October 10, 2008. "Surely the most remarkable of these survivors is 113 Nassau Street, where the New-York Daily Times was born in 1851.... After three years at 113 Nassau Street and four years at 138 Nassau Street, The Times moved to a five-story Romanesque headquarters at 41 Park Row, designed by Thomas R. Jackson. For the first time, a New York newspaper occupied a structure built for its own use."
4. ^ Buckley, Cara. "Chinatown Residents Frustrated Over Street Closed Since 9/11", The New York Times, September 24, 2007. "The Police Department says that most of Park Row has to be blocked off to protect its headquarters, called One Police Plaza, against terrorist threats, particularly truck bombs."

External links

• Park Row: A New York Songline - virtual walking tour

Coordinates: 40°42′42.9″N 74°0′22.1″W / 40.711917°N 74.006139°W / 40.711917; -74.006139