FISH
MARKET, SOUTH STREET
Between Beekman Street and Peck Slip
NOVEMBER 26, 1935. ABBOTT FILE 50
Fulton Fish Market,
1931 (CGLI)
Because of its proximity to the Long Island ferry, a general market was established in 1821 at South Street and Peck Slip. By Abbott's day, the market specialized in fish, and, filling a six-block area, it was the largest wholesale fish market on the Atlantic coast. From 2 A.M. to 9 A.M., the streets were filled with noisy trucks, fishmongers, and dockworkers. On the same day Abbott photographed from the Fulton Street dock and at South and DePeyster Streets, she captured this block of pre-Civil War commercial buildings occupied by fish wholesalers. At the southern end of the block was Meyer's Hotel (1873), which was famous for serving liquor in its saloon throughout Prohibition.
Fulton Fish Market, discarded
image
The center of the fish market was a large shed (1883) on South Street between Fulton and Beekman Streets. In 1931, Abbott photographed the Beekman Street side of this cast-iron building, and in 1936, she returned to photograph the same site for the project. On this visit, Abbott worked during business hours, successfully capturing the market's commotion, even with her slow view camera. Standing under the awning of a market building on Pier 18, she faced the southwest corner of the main market building at South and Beekman Streets. With the foreground cast in shadow, the sunlit middle ground bustling with activity, and the background enlivened with Wall Street towers, she achieved a dynamic, balanced composition. For reasons unknown, however, she discarded this 1936 image from the project.
A partial collapse of the main market building in 1936 led to a modernization plan enacted in 1938. A large refrigerated shed was constructed across South Street from the old market building, which was subsequently demolished in 1948. In the 1950s, the South Street segment of the elevated F.D.R. Drive opened, casting the street in shadow. In 1977, the South Street Historic District encompassed several blocks of the fish market, which still provides the city's fish and seafood. On the site of the old market building, the Rouse Company commissioned a new building, which evoked the appearance of its predecessor while offering food and entertainment to tourists and office workers.