CLIFF
AND FERRY STREETS
NOVEMBER 29, 1935. ABBOTT FILE 49
Cliff
and Ferry Streets, Full Negative
Both Cliff Street and Ferry Street, named for the ferry established in 1642 that linked Manhattan to Brooklyn, date to Dutch days. Rising above the nineteenth-century buildings were three skyscrapers--111 John Street, 116 John Street, and 60 Wall Tower--all built in 1931. Seeking another contrast of old and new, Abbott was undeterred by the extreme darkness of Cliff Street and was undoubtedly amused by the "Mac Lac Shellac" shop sign visible in the foreground. She cropped out the underexposed sides of the composition to give the final print the elongated proportions of a skyscraper.
This section of Cliff Street was subsumed into Southbridge Towers, a 1969 public housing project consisting of six residential buildings within a parklike landscape.