Stone Street Historic District

Built on the original Dutch colony street plan and located today amidst the skyscrapers of the Financial District, the two-block Stone Street Historic District contains a rare surviving cluster of fifteen buildings, dating primarily from the 1830s. When England seized the colony in 1664, this area became the “English Quarter” in what remained, in essence, a Dutch city. The colony's Jewish population also lived here, and North America's oldest Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel, held its first services (clandestinely) in the quarter in 1654.

The neighborhood was ravaged by the Fire of 1835, and the reconstruction, prototypical of nineteenth-century mercantile architecture, reflected the increasing commercialization of lower Manhattan. Adhering to the then ubiquitous Greek Revival style, the buildings are austere four- and five-story brick structures with granite pier and lintel storefronts. A later structure, the 1851 India House, is a rare example of the Anglo-Italianate style that once typified the Financial District.
The area was largely ignored during the late nineteenth century as commerce moved uptown. At the turn of the century, an eclectic neo-Dutch Renaissance and neo-Tudor block emerged along the back of many Stone Street buildings, reorienting their addresses to South William Street. By the 1970s, the area was again commercially depressed and on the verge of dramatic change, threatening the historic integrity of the structures. Fortunately, in 1995, Beyer Blinder Belle proposed a master plan for the rehabilitation of the neighborhood. Many restaurants and shops now inhabit the historic buildings, and a cobblestone street restoration project enhanced the historic charm of the area. ©2014