SOUTH
STREET, NOS. 151-166
Between Peck Slip and Dover Street
APRIL 1, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 229
On the same day Abbott photographed South Street at James Slip, she found another subject on South Street two blocks south. Just north of the Fulton Fish Market, these mid-nineteenth-century commercial buildings were mostly occupied by seafood restaurants. In the background are the financial district's towers--(from left to right): Farmer's Trust, 60 Wall Tower, Bank of Manhattan, and 116 John Street--and the New York Steam Corporation's huge chimney at 130 John Street.
In the 1950s, the elevated F.D.R. Drive canopied South Street, blocking the view of the skyscrapers to the southwest. In 1975, most of the block was razed for a Con Edison substation, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes to fit unobtrusively into the neighborhood. Two years later, the block was included in the Seaport Historic District.