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129-647: The Whitehall Building is a three-section residential and office building next to Battery Park in Lower Manhattan , New York City, near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The original 20-story structure on Battery Place, between West Street and Washington Street , was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh , while the 31-story Whitehall Building Annex on West Street was designed by Clinton and Russell . The original building and annex are both at 17 Battery Place. Another 22-story addition at 2 Washington Street, an International Style building located north of

258-454: A Siamese fighting fish . The operating machinery is under the floor, so there is no post in the center of the ride. Battery Park contains over 20 monuments, many of which are clustered in an area called "Monument Walk". Within the park is Hope Garden, a memorial dedicated to AIDS victims, where The Sphere had been exhibited at times. The garden has also been used as a site for environmental demonstrations due to its fragility and

387-538: A 1910 plan to expand the Aquarium within Battery Park and a proposal for an athletic jogging field the following year. Furthermore, during World War I, there was a plan to construct a federal government building on the site, but this was withdrawn after the U.S. government found new premises following opposition to the project. Proposals to redesign Battery Park continued through the next decade. An expansion of

516-585: A 1940 bombing perpetrated by opponents of Nazi Germany . The German consulate moved out the year after the bombing. The United States Realty and Improvement Company owned the building until 1932. Afterward, the Whitehall Improvement Corporation owned the building until 1950 when it was sold to the New York Life Insurance Company . By then, the building was known as the "Whitehall-Sheraton Building". On

645-430: A balustrade. At the top of the tower that rises above the annex, there is a south-facing rounded pediment and a water tower. The northern elevation of the annex contains a three-bay-wide largely plain yellow-brick facade. The piers at each corner are rusticated. The outer bays contain a single window on each floor. The 24th through 29th floor windows are arranged as in an arcade, the 30th-story windows are round headed, and

774-446: A brick facade; there are cornices at the top and bottom of the 23rd floor. On West Street, the 24th through 29th floor windows are slightly recessed behind an arched arcade that wraps around the rest of the annex, and contain decorated terracotta detailing; the 29th floor windows are rounded and semicircular. The 30th floor contains elaborate terracotta detailing, with two windows per bay, and a 31st floor contains penthouses recessed behind

903-682: A cluster of early downtown skyscrapers along Broadway and Wall Street for banks and insurance companies. Many of the firm's important commissions related to real estate investments of the Astor family . The landmark Astor Hotel that served as an anchor for the development of Times Square, the Astor Apartments, the Graham Court Apartments, and The Apthorp were among their projects for William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor . Stylistically, much of their work conformed to

1032-473: A community garden, the renovation of a promenade, and the construction of the SeaGlass Carousel . By June 2012, a third of the park was being cordoned off for these construction projects, though the park itself remained open, serving 10,000 to 15,000 daily visitors. In October of that year, Hurricane Sandy caused severe damage to the area, submerging the park under salt water for several hours.

1161-480: A condition of being allowed to construct the station, but the elevated station's construction soon prompted opposition among people who wanted the elevated tracks removed. A larger four-track station was built nearby in 1879, serving the Second , Third , Sixth , and Ninth Avenue Lines. In 1883, the state legislature established a committee to examine the process through which permission had been granted to construct

1290-607: A conservative Italian Neo-Renaissance style . After the deaths of the principals, the firm continued in business, and in 1926 it was renamed Clinton Russell Wells Holton & George (and variations of that name). For a time the English-born Colonel James Hollis Wells (1864-1926) headed the organization; the Lillian Sefton Dodge Estate on Long Island is his design. The firm remained in existence until 1940. One of

1419-462: A cornice above the fifth floor. The fourth-floor windows on Battery Place are elaborately ornamented, with cast-iron railings in the six center windows on Battery Place, and pediments above the remaining windows. On the sixth through sixteenth floors, the center six bays on Battery Place are faced with red brick and mortar, while the outer bays and the side facades have a facade of yellow brick with pink strips. The terracotta-faced eighteenth floor acts as

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1548-654: A cost of $ 5.5 million. Although Battery Park was used as an emergency staging site following the September 11 attacks in 2001, construction on the upper promenade continued largely uninterrupted, and it opened in December 2001. Five months after being damaged in the September 11 attacks, Fritz Koenig 's The Sphere , which once stood at the center of the plaza of the World Trade Center a few blocks away,

1677-608: A decided quality of beauty", but that this form was not emulated by other buildings' designs. One New York Times article later described the Whitehall Building as being "an elegant orange-colored building with ornate gargoyles" next to the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel's ventilation building, an "overgrown tombstone". Architectural historians Sarah Landau and Carl W. Condit wrote that the original Whitehall Building and its annex complemented each other, even though

1806-545: A fire at 2 Washington Street forced the evacuation of 5,000 office workers across the entire Whitehall complex; The New York Times reported that the computers of one tenant, securities firm Hayden, Stone & Co. , continued to handle transactions automatically during the evacuation. By the 1970s, the Moran Towing Company had moved to the World Trade Center , while the McAllister Brothers,

1935-407: A formal vista. In 1937, Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes proposed making Battery Park into a landscaped "front door" for New York City, with a semicircular seawall and a curving plaza. Officials announced a proposal the following year to expand the park by 9 acres (3.6 ha) in conjunction with improvements to roads around the park. In 1940, Battery Park was partially closed for the construction of

2064-472: A lunch club for Lower Manhattan merchants and businesspersons, was housed on the top four floors of the Whitehall Building's annex. This lunch club became the premier maritime club in New York City during that era and hosted famous shipping figures. One office tenant in the mid-20th century was the Moran Towing Company, operator of a fleet of tugboats. In the days before radio dispatching, a man high in

2193-542: A non-standard design. The Whitehall Building is named after the nearby estate of New Amsterdam colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant . The original building was built as a speculative development in 1902–1904 for Robert A. and William H. Chesebrough, a real estate company. The annex was built in 1908–1910, and 2 Washington Street was built in 1972. In 2000, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated

2322-524: A playground. Various statues, formerly scattered across the park, were rearranged in patterns. The reconstruction of Battery Park had cost roughly $ 2.38 million. Several memorials opened through the mid-20th century. Peter Minuit Plaza and a Coast Guard memorial were both dedicated in 1955, and the East Coast Memorial was dedicated in 1963. Additionally, a 2,500-foot-tall (760 m) "space needle" with office and commercial space, twice

2451-533: A plaza to be built outside Castle Clinton. City Pier A , located immediately north of Castle Clinton, was commissioned in 1886 and completed two years after. The building originally housed the New York City Board of Dock Commissioners and subsequently was used as a fireboat station until 1992. Several elevated railroad lines or "els" were being built to Battery Park by the late 19th century, but they were controversial for several reasons. Because

2580-489: A private practice, and from then through 1894 he conducted his own significant career, the highpoint of which was probably the 1880 Seventh Regiment Armory . William Hamilton Russell (1856–1907) was born in New York City as well. He attended the Columbia School of Mines before he joined his great uncle, James Renwick , in his architecture firm in 1878. At Columbia, Russell had been a member of St. Anthony Hall ,

2709-502: A residential structure with 345 units. The facade was renovated in 2024. When originally built, the Whitehall Building was described as having "resembled a big chimney" and that it was the single most prominent structure for vessels docking on the East or North (Hudson) rivers. Art critic Russell Sturgis said "Mr. Hardenbergh has shown, in his Whitehall Building, that simplicity is not incompatible with dignity, and that this dignity may have

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2838-641: A restaurant called Harbor House in 2014 and operated until 2020. Another eatery, the Battery Gardens restaurant, is located next to the United States Coast Guard Battery Building. Located nearby is a 4-acre (1.6 ha) garden called the Battery Bosque, which was designed by Dutch landscape architect Piet Oudolf and is centered around a grove of 140 plane trees . An additional grove of 15 trees

2967-535: A rival firm, had occupied the Whitehall Building's 15th floor. Another tenant at the Whitehall Building complex was Tidewater Oil . The membership of the Whitehall Club atop the annex declined significantly from 1,000 in the 1960s to 600 in 1990, and the club had closed by the end of the 1990s. The building was sold in September 1995 for $ 23 million. The buyers, a group led by the banker Jeffrey A. Citron , Downtown Acquisitions Partners, hired Jones Lang Wootton

3096-504: A transitional story. Above the 20th story is a large cornice with brick piers that emulate the base's articulation, and above the Battery Place facade, a triangular brick pediment with an ornate depiction of an oculus. The West Street facade of the original building is five bays wide and contains similar materials and symbolic elements as on the Battery Place facade. The first floor and mezzanine are faced with rusticated limestone,

3225-409: Is 69.1 feet (21.1 m) long and the eastern boundary on Washington Street is 63.4 feet (19.3 m) long. The annex occupies a lot measuring 181 feet (55 m) along West Street, with a depth ranging from 63 to 69 feet (19 to 21 m). A two-bay-wide, two-story section facing West Street, as well as an elevator structure toward the center of the block between West and Washington Streets, connect

3354-402: Is composed of 12 vertical bays facing Battery Place; the center six bays are slightly recessed, and at ground level, contain three double-width, double-height entrance arches with ornate lintels . The base, which is composed of the basement, first floor, and mezzanine, have a facade of rusticated blocks of limestone. The second through fifth floors contain a facade of tan brick and stone, and

3483-499: Is four bays wide, but otherwise is the same as the West Street facade in design. The annex has its principal facade on West Street, which is eleven bays wide. The annex has a base of limestone that rises to the sixth story, and as with the original building, the basement, first floor and mezzanine consist of rusticated blocks of limestone. The seventh through 23rd floors each contain two rectangular window openings per bay, and have

3612-637: The Battery Park Underpass directly to the west. As part of the reconstruction project, a 9,600-square-foot (890 m) public plaza was erected outside the Whitehall Building, east of West Street. Nyack College moved into 2 Washington Street in 2013, and the following year, the New York Film Academy moved to the first floor of 17 Battery Place. By 2019, the Moinian Group intended to convert 2 Washington Street into

3741-540: The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel portal to the east. It is adjacent to the Downtown Athletic Club building at 20 West Street to the north, which occupies the entire width of the block between West and Washington Streets. The annex on West Street and the 2 Washington Street addition each occupy half the width of the block between Washington and West Streets. The building stands on filled land along

3870-453: The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel , and the aquarium was shuttered. Subsequently, several plans to modify Battery Park were proposed. A design competition to rebuild Battery Park was hosted in 1941, and a plan to replace Castle Clinton with a Fort Clinton memorial was also discussed. During the park's closure, its northern end was used to store debris. A second tunnel, the Battery Park Underpass , started construction in 1949. The following year,

3999-529: The City Investing Building , the next-largest office building in New York City. Seventeen structures were demolished to make way for the annex. Work on the foundations of the annex commenced in December 1909. Twelve derricks were placed on the site to install the beams and caissons. Work for the annex was driven by two 12-hour shifts of 450 men each, while the foundations were dug by three 8-hour shifts of 100 sandhogs each. The foundations of

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4128-753: The Hudson River . Following the British landing at Kip's Bay on September 15, 1776, the Americans had abandoned the fort, and the British took Lower Manhattan. At the end of the war in 1783, the Battery was the center of Evacuation Day celebrations commemorating the departure of the last British troops in the United States; the event was later commemorated with the erection of a flagstaff. By 1788, Fort George had been demolished, and debris from

4257-825: The M5 , M15 SBS and M20 buses, an entrance to the Staten Island Ferry 's Whitehall Terminal , entrances to the New York City Subway 's South Ferry/Whitehall Street station, and taxi stands. The plaza also includes the New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion , a pavilion gifted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands , which displays art, design, and horticulture. The park is also the site of numerous memorials and monuments placed there over

4386-460: The M7 , M20 , M55 and M103 bus routes. The streetcars were eliminated by 1936, though only some were replaced by buses. By the 20th century, the quality of Battery Park had started to decline, and several new structures were being proposed within the park itself, though most plans faced opposition and were not built. For instance, in 1901, a large memorial arch to honor United States Navy sailors

4515-534: The Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company . The migration of the city's elite uptown increased during the mid-19th century, and in 1855, Castle Garden was closed and made into the world's first immigration depot. The immigration center operated until 1890, just before the offshore immigration facility at Ellis Island opened. An estimated 7.7 million immigrants passed through the center during its operation. The structure then housed

4644-580: The New York Aquarium from 1896 to 1941, when it was closed as part of Triborough Bridge Authority commissioner Robert Moses 's plans to build the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Moses wanted to create a Fort Clinton memorial on the site, but would only keep Castle Clinton if the federal government agreed to pay for its restoration. Ultimately, Castle Clinton was preserved as part of a National Monument in 1946. The structure

4773-529: The New York Aquarium from 1896 to 1941. By the 20th century, the quality of Battery Park had started to decline, and several new structures were proposed within the park, many of which were not built. In 1940, the entirety of Battery Park was closed for twelve years due to the construction of the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel and the Battery Park Underpass . The park reopened in 1952 after a renovation, but then subsequently went into decline. The Battery Conservancy, founded in 1994 by Warrie Price, underwrote and funded

4902-498: The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission , said that the wall was probably built to protect the park's original artillery batteries. The remains were described as "an important remnant of the history of New York City". Clinton and Russell Charles W. Clinton (1838–1910) was born and raised in New York and received his formal architectural training in the office of Richard Upjohn . He left Upjohn in 1858 to begin

5031-503: The Staten Island Ferry 's Whitehall Terminal ; a boat launch to the Statue of Liberty National Monument (which includes Ellis Island and Liberty Island ); and a boat launch to Governors Island . The park and surrounding area is named for the artillery batteries that were built in the late 17th century to protect the fort and settlement behind them. By the 1820s, the Battery had become an entertainment destination and promenade , with

5160-416: The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island . The southwestern corner of the Battery contains the SeaGlass Carousel , an attraction with bioluminescent design that pays homage not only to the carousel's waterfront site, but also to Castle Clinton's former status as an aquarium. The southeastern corner contains Peter Minuit Plaza , an intermodal passenger transport hub. The plaza hosts a bus terminal for

5289-607: The Statue of Liberty National Monument , which includes Castle Clinton, was the most popular national monument in the United States that year. The SeaGlass Carousel was proposed in 2007 and opened in 2015; plans for the ride had been devised by Warrie Price, the founding president of the Battery Park Conservancy. The city and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation each paid half of the $ 16 million cost. The carousel

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5418-582: The Whitehall Building ) is a 20-story building on Battery Place. It was designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh , and according to Moses King , had 400 offices. The Whitehall Building's annex, also known as the Whitehall Extension or Greater Whitehall , is a 31-story skyscraper on West Street, north of the original Whitehall Building's western section. Designed by Clinton and Russell , it was the largest office building in New York City at

5547-637: The "mainland" of Manhattan. The original shoreline is roughly the modern-day park's eastern boundary at State Street. On State Street, the former harbor front and the northern boundary of the park, a single Federal mansion, the James Watson House , survives as part of the Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton . By 1870, there were plans to improve Battery Park and Bowling Green, which were seen as having degraded substantially due to overuse. Paths were to be laid through both parks, intersecting with

5676-467: The 14th through 23rd floors would be a Ritz-Carlton hotel, and the annex above the 24th floor would contain residences. At the time, 30% of the 1,200,000 square feet (110,000 m) of usable space was unoccupied. The conversion would have been completed in 1999 and cost $ 100 million. Had the hotel been completed, it would have had 325 rooms targeted at tourists and business clients, but the hotel proposal failed in 1998. SL Green ultimately bought part of

5805-474: The 1840s, members of the city's elite were publicly calling for the construction of a new large park in Manhattan. Proponents said that the park would serve three purposes: abetting good health, improving the behavior of the "disorderly classes", and showcasing the refinement of the city's elite. At the time, Manhattan's seventeen squares comprised a combined 165 acres (67 ha) of land, the largest of which

5934-420: The 31st-story windows are square-headed. The eastern facade of the annex has similar ornamentation as on West Street. The original building measures 259 feet (79 m) to its rooftop while the annex measures 416 feet (127 m) to its rooftop. Underlying the site, a layer of hardpan was present between 27 and 36 feet (8.2 and 11.0 m) below the ground, while rock was 33 to 65 feet (10 to 20 m) below

6063-582: The Battery Conservancy restored the wooded areas within Battery Park, as well as added gardens and green patches to mitigate the effects of future storms. Though the SeaGlass Carousel was left largely intact during Hurricane Sandy, its opening was delayed. Following the storm, the attraction was supposed to open in late 2013, but did not actually open until August 2015. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation restored

6192-453: The Battery's status as a tourist attraction . The Sphere was moved to Liberty Park in 2017. The Netherland Monument with its flagpole was dedicated on December 6, 1926, as a gift from the Dutch in commemoration of the purchase of Manhattan Island three centuries prior. It was originally located south of Castle Clinton, but during the 1940–1952 renovation, the flagpole was relocated to

6321-600: The British sometimes used the same name to refer to all of these batteries. Fort Amsterdam would be renamed several times before the British settled on the name of " Fort George " by 1714. The Battery did not fire any additional shots until 1776, during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War , when American troops commandeered the fort and fired on British ships in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent them from sailing up

6450-483: The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel opened, and the South Ferry elevated station was removed after the closure of the last elevated line leading to the station. After the underpass was completed in 1951, the park was re-landscaped and expanded by 2 acres (0.81 ha), and it reopened on July 15, 1952. In Battery Park's new layout, it contained a landscaped esplanade , a raised waterfront terrace, and an oval lawn with

6579-468: The Italian-American organization UNICO expressed concern about the statues' condition, although experts said there should be no long-term physical harm. The monuments have since been installed in or around the perimeter of the park, although not necessarily in their previous locations. Prior to the restoration, which cost $ 875,000, some of the monuments had not been restored for 60 years. To

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6708-484: The Moinian Group. SL Green received $ 53 million from the sale, most of which it intended to use to pay for another building, 1370 Broadway. The residential conversion was nearly completed in 2001, when developer Richard Bassuk arranged for Deutsche Bank to give Moinian a $ 208.5 million loan to finish the project. However, because of the September 11 attacks at the nearby World Trade Center , Bassuk estimated that occupancy at 17 Battery Place went from nearly 100% before

6837-571: The New York Aquarium within the park was announced in 1921, and a new memorial plaque was unveiled the same year. By 1926, a group called the Battery Park Association had formed a committee to study ways to improve the park. In 1928, it was proposed to remove the els from Battery Park. The following year, an immigrants' memorial was proposed within Battery Park, and the park itself was proposed for reconstruction into

6966-582: The North River shoreline was deeper and had a denser concentration of buildings than the East River shoreline on the east side of Manhattan Island, the land under the Whitehall Building was not filled until 1835, when debris from the Great Fire of New York was dumped there. These filling operations also led to the expansion of Battery Park , directly to the south. The site of the Whitehall Building

7095-712: The Playscape was proposed in 2016. Work began in March 2020, and the Playscape was completed in December 2021. In addition, as part of the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency program, consulting firm Stantec published designs in 2021 for the Battery Coastal Resilience Project, which would build a seawall around Battery Park. The project. which was expected to cost $ 169 million by the end of 2023, would raise

7224-656: The SS Muskogee , all of whom died at sea. The memorial was commissioned by the American Merchant Mariners' Memorial, Inc., chaired by AFL–CIO president Lane Kirkland . The park also contains several other memorials, including: Temporary monuments have also been installed in the Battery, such as the Staten Island Ferry Disaster Memorial Museum , a 2016 piece memorializing a fake octopus attack on

7353-562: The Staten Island Ferry, as well as a " UFO Tugboat Abduction Memorial" from the same sculptor as the ferry "memorial". At least ten monuments, including the Verrazzano, Coast Guard and Wireless memorials, were stored in the park behind a temporary fence from the mid-2000s until 2016. Controversy over the statues' integrity arose in 2015 after renovations took longer than expected. Representatives of NYC Park Advocates and

7482-468: The Statue of Liberty." The nonprofit Battery Conservancy was created in 1994, and one of its first actions was to create an architectural plan for the park, and renovating it for $ 30 million. In 1998, the administration of mayor Rudy Giuliani announced a $ 40 million initiative to renovate Battery Park. The restoration project, based on similar successful projects at Bryant and Central Parks, called for

7611-509: The Washington Street side of the block, east of the annex and north of the original building, the twenty-two-story 2 Washington Street was erected in 1971. The newest addition was originally called One Western Union International Plaza (or "One WUI Plaza") because Western Union 's spin-off international record carrier division, Western Union International , was headquartered there. It was also called 17 Battery Place North. In 1974,

7740-544: The West Side Highway to the FDR Drive . Several New York City Subway tunnels also run under the Battery. The old South Ferry station , opened 1905 as part of the city's first subway line , the former Interborough Rapid Transit Company 's Broadway–Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue Lines have a balloon loop to enable trains to turn around and switch between the two lines. It closed in 2009 following

7869-419: The Whitehall Building as an official city landmark. The upper floors of the original building and annex were converted to apartments, while the lower floors remain in use as an office building. The Whitehall Building is located near the southernmost point on Manhattan Island, closer to its western shore. The original building faces West Street to the west, Battery Place to the south, and Washington Street and

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7998-402: The Whitehall Building's annex "is irregularly shaped and somewhat overwhelming in impact" compared to the older building. The annex was so much larger than the original Whitehall Building that the original structure was described as "suited as offices for little people only". Battery Park The Battery , formerly known as Battery Park , is a 25-acre (10 ha) public park located at

8127-501: The Whitehall Building, were considered to be optimal for development, especially after the 1907 completion of the U.S. Custom House at Broadway and Battery Place. The Whitehall Building's location across from Battery Park ensured a direct view of the New York Harbor , since the park faced the harbor on its other end. The Chesebroughs were responsible for developing other Lower Manhattan structures as well. The original building

8256-435: The addresses 4–7 West Street and 6–7 Washington Street, thus controlling a lot of over 14,000 square feet (1,300 m) though the firm publicly stated that it had "no intention of erecting any addition to the building". By 1906, all land acquisition had been completed. One trade journal described the building's development as part of "the most remarkable movement in the construction of office buildings which has ever occurred in

8385-429: The annex and original building. The elevator structure is the same height as the annex and consists of a convex section with cast-iron cladding, as well as a straight section with brick facade. The original structure and annex form an "L" shape and appear as two slabs, as viewed from Battery Park. The facade of the original structure is designed into three horizontal layers: a base, tower, and crown. The original structure

8514-402: The annex as a 31-story structure on West Street, a smaller 16-story section on Washington Street, and the 36-story tower in the center, rising 447 feet (136 m). At the time, the annex was to be the largest single office building in the city. The combined lot area for the two buildings was 51,515 square feet (4,786 m), which was 20,000 square feet (1,900 m) larger than the lot area of

8643-481: The annex contains a steel frame with floors made of inverted concrete arches; tile partitions; copper windows; and steel stairs with marble treads. 2 Washington Street (also known as 17 Battery Place North or One Western Union International Plaza ), was built in 1972 and measures 271 feet (83 m) with 22 floors. The structure was designed by Morris Lapidus in the International Style , and unlike

8772-409: The annex were dug by the O'Rourke Engineering Construction Company, which extracted 13,000 cubic feet (370 m) of earth through open excavation and 6,000 cubic feet (170 m) through caissons. The superstructure was erected under the supervision of general contractor George A. Fuller Company . The steel frame was then erected from May 1910 at a rate of four stories per week, with trucks delivering

8901-413: The attacks to 10% afterward. SL Green sold 2 Washington Place to Moinian in 2003 for $ 70 million. By that year, 17 Battery Place was almost completely rented. To attract tenants after the September 11 attacks, Moinian used "clever tactics" such as furnished model apartments as well as large retailers at ground level. In 2005, the southernmost portion of West Street was reconstructed, including the portal over

9030-748: The building would watch with a telescope for incoming ships, and then use a six-foot megaphone to shout instructions to the Moran tugboats docked at the Battery. Other long term tenants included the Gulf Refining Company , Tide Water Oil Company , United States Weather Bureau , Internal Revenue Service , and the Penn Coal and Coke Company. The consulate of Germany in New York City and the Communist Daily Worker newspaper also had offices at 17 Battery Place, which were damaged in

9159-425: The building's boiler room and electrical equipment, was dug by timber and steel caissons. The annex basement is enclosed in a concrete cofferdam with 7-foot-thick (2.1 m) walls, made of caissons joined from end to end. While the basement floor is 10 feet (3.0 m) below sea level and consists of a 2-foot-thick (0.61 m) concrete layer, the walls of the cofferdam descend 33 to 40 feet (10 to 12 m) below

9288-477: The city in 1823. When leased by the city, it became a popular promenade and beer garden called Castle Garden. Later roofed over, it became one of the premier theatrical venues in the United States and contributed greatly to the development of New York City as the theater capital of the nation. In the early 1850s alone, the venue hosted such acts as Swedish soprano Jenny Lind , European dancing star Lola Montez , French conductor Louis-Antoine Jullien , and

9417-441: The conversion of Castle Clinton into a theater venue. During the mid-19th century, the modern-day Battery Park was laid out and Castle Clinton was converted into an immigration and customs center. The Battery was commonly known as the landing point for immigrants to New York City until 1892, when the immigration center was relocated to Ellis Island in the middle of the harbor. Castle Clinton (sometimes called, Castle Garden) then hosted

9546-412: The district U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Peter Minuit Plaza abuts the southeast end of the park, directly in front of the Staten Island Ferry 's Whitehall Terminal at South Ferry . Two road tunnels and several rail tunnels run under Battery Park. The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel , opened 1950, carries vehicular traffic to Brooklyn . The Battery Park Underpass , opened 1951, carries vehicular traffic from

9675-524: The eagle statue was created by Albino Manca , an Italian-born sculptor. The granite slabs were set up in October 1959; the sculpture was installed in February 1963, and the memorial was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy that May. The American Merchant Mariners' Memorial sculpture, located in the Hudson River west of the park, is sited on a stone breakwater just south of Pier A and connected to

9804-444: The elevated station. The following year, New York Elevated proposed to extend the platforms of the Battery Place station over Battery Park because the platforms were too short to accommodate four-car trains. Another plan, which would have created elevated track loops over Battery Park, was rejected in 1887 as being unlawful. Other unsuccessful plans to build elevated tracks over Battery Park were proposed in 1889 and 1891. By 1900,

9933-548: The els were considered a nuisance, and there were calls to destroy the segments of elevated tracks that ran directly over the park, though this did not come to pass for another fifty years. In 1903, a state assemblyman proposed a bill that would give the elevated railroad companies the exclusive rights to build a rail terminal at Battery Park, precluding the construction of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT)'s underground subway. The bill

10062-492: The els were originally pulled by steam trains until 1902, this caused substantial pollution at Battery Park. The New York Elevated Railroad Company opened the Battery Place elevated station at Battery Place, on the park's northern end, in 1872. This was followed by the opening of the two-track South Ferry elevated station at the park's southern end in 1877. New York Elevated Railroad agreed to beautify Battery Park as

10191-651: The floor of the basement. Other portions of the foundation included I-beam grillages and distributing girders. The annex superstructure contains 71 main columns, 53 of which sit atop forty-five granite foundation piers. The other 18 main columns are inside the boiler room walls and are carried down directly to the hardpan. As with the original building, the annex's caissons contained air shafts and air locks. The annex incorporates 30 elevators, 14,000 short tons (13,000 t) of structural steel, 8,400,000 short tons (7,600,000 t) of brick, and 45,000 imperial barrels (1,900,000 U.S. gal) of cement. The superstructure of

10320-420: The fort was largely ineffective, despite several attempts at reconstruction. The British took over the settlement in 1664 and renamed the defenses Fort James. An artillery battery was installed at the fort in 1683 by Governor Thomas Dongan , the first of a series of batteries put in around King William's War , which gave the area its name. Other batteries were installed at Whitehall and at Oyster Pasty;

10449-512: The fort was used to expand the Battery. The fort itself became the site of Government House , an executive mansion intended for U.S. president George Washington , though never actually used for that purpose. In 1808–1811, just prior to the War of 1812 , the West Battery was erected on a small artificial offshore island nearby, to replace the earlier batteries in the area. At the time,

10578-662: The government of New York State as part of a zone called "Harbor Park". The other sites included South Street Seaport in Manhattan, Liberty and Ellis Islands in New York Harbor, Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn, and Sailors' Snug Harbor in Staten Island , which were to be linked by new ferry routes. The Harbor Park legislation was part of a city proposal to create a larger tourist destination out of these sites, focused chiefly around New York Harbor's history. The "park"

10707-411: The ground. The foundation of the original building was dug by 48 pneumatic caissons sunk to 45 feet (14 m) below the curb. Of these, 32 were cylindrical while the other 16 were rectangular. The original building's caissons support 53 steel columns in the original building's superstructure. Air shafts and air locks for the workers were inside the caissons. The basement of the annex, which contains

10836-552: The height of the Empire State Building , was proposed for the Battery in the 1960s, while discussions were ongoing on where to put the additional earth created from the construction of the World Trade Center . The building would have been placed partially on landfill adjacent to the Battery. The "needle" was never built, and the earth was used as landfill for the creation of Battery Park City , just to

10965-666: The history of the world". The Battery Place Realty Company started soliciting construction bids for an annex to the Whitehall Building in 1908. Clinton and Russell had been hired to plan the structure, which was initially set to be 36 stories. The following year, the United States Realty and Improvement Company bought the Battery Place Realty Company's stock and took over the construction process. By then, United States Realty had 307 feet (94 m) on West and Washington Street, but intended to build

11094-403: The nearby residents and tourists shunned it altogether, except when taking boats to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The New York Times said of the park, "Some benches are broken, all need repainting. Where grass should be, there is dirt and litter. A sign with a map and guide is so smeared with graffiti it is unreadable. There are potholes on the asphalt where people line up for boats to

11223-437: The next year to resell the building at an asking price of $ 60 million. In 1997, the developer Allen I. Gross bought the original building, annex, and 2 Washington Street for $ 70 million and proposed converting the original structure and annex's upper stories into a hotel and condominiums, retaining commercial uses on lower floors. The first through 13th floors were to be purchased by SL Green Realty and operated as office space;

11352-441: The north of Battery Park. By 1971, Battery Park was so dilapidated that a U.S. representative from Missouri, Richard Howard Ichord Jr. , called the litter-ridden park "a national disgrace" and proposed that two National Park Service employees be hired to clean up the park. Castle Clinton was restored several years later, and reopened in 1975. In 1982, Battery Park and multiple other "historic waterfront sites" were designated by

11481-881: The northeast entrance of the Battery, where it still stands. It was renovated and rededicated in 2000. A World War II war memorial , the East Coast Memorial is one of three war memorials in the United States administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission ; the others are the West Coast Memorial to the Missing of World War II in San Francisco and the Honolulu Memorial . The memorial commemorates U.S. servicemen who died in coastal waters of

11610-676: The northwest of the park lies Battery Park City , a planned community built on landfill in the 1970s and 1980s, which includes Robert F. Wagner Park and the Battery Park City Promenade. Battery Park City, proposed in 1966, was named after the park. Battery Park contains the Battery Bikeway, a component piece of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway , a system of parks, bikeways , and promenades around Manhattan Island. The bicycle path

11739-403: The old loop station was temporarily reactivated between April 2013 and June 2017, when the new station reopened. The Bowling Green station , which opened in 1905 as part of the original subway, serves the 4 and ​ 5 trains at the northeast corner of the park. Its original entrance, or " Control House ", is a New York City designated landmark . Tracks leading south of

11868-405: The oldest man-made structure still in place in Manhattan. Four walls and over 250,000 individual artifacts were found, and a portion of one wall was placed on temporary display inside Castle Clinton. Another, long portion of the wall was embedded permanently into the entrance to the newly constructed station, at the same depth below street level as originally discovered. Robert Tierney, chairman of

11997-680: The opening of a replacement subway station. The replacement station, South Ferry on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line ( 1 train), opened in 2009, created a new free connection with the BMT Broadway Line 's Whitehall Street station ( N , ​ R , and ​ W trains), comprising the South Ferry/Whitehall Street station complex. The new station sustained severe damage following Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 and

12126-566: The opinion of a United States Navy lieutenant who agreed with them. As a compromise, New York City's aldermen also voted to expand Battery Park to 24 acres (9.7 ha). Ultimately, the plans for the large park would result in the construction of Central Park. The relatively modern Battery Park was mostly created by landfill as part of Lower Manhattan expansion starting from 1855, using earth from street-widening projects in Lower Manhattan which united Castle Garden's island with

12255-427: The original building and east of the annex, was designed by Morris Lapidus . The original Whitehall Building and its annex has a Renaissance Revival style facade, and the two original structures' articulations consist of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column —namely a base, shaft, and capital . Since the building is located on landfill along the Hudson River , its foundation incorporates

12384-444: The other two sections, does not have official landmark protection. The facade is a simple glass curtain wall . On the eastern side of 2 Washington Street is a privately owned public space . The Real Estate Record and Guide reported in 1901 that a land plot measuring 150 feet (46 m) on the north side of Battery Place, 22 feet (6.7 m) on West Street, and 33.10 feet (10.09 m) on Washington Street, had been sold. The buyer

12513-550: The park at the Battery as part of a new Hudson River waterfront park system. Part of the waterfront park system had been completed previously, but the new proposal would complete the system of parks. Within Battery Park, the Battery Park City Authority would add new entrances and redesign the park to give clearer views of the Hudson River. However, by the 1990s, Battery Park was worn down, and many of

12642-509: The park's original, historical title of "The Battery" in 2015. By the following year, the Battery Conservancy had raised $ 46 million in private funding over its 22-year existence, as well as $ 92 million in city funding. The conservancy planned to use these funds to make additional improvements to the park. For instance, the Battery Oval was opened in 2016. A 1.4-acre (0.57 ha) environmentally-friendly, flood-resistant playground called

12771-480: The pier by a dock. It was designed by the sculptor Marisol Escobar and dedicated in 1991. The bronze sculpture depicts four merchant seamen with their sinking vessel after it had been attacked by German submarine U-123 during World War II . One of the seamen is in the water, and is covered by the sea with each high tide. The sculpture is loosely based on a real photograph by the U-boat's commander, of crewmen of

12900-402: The relocation of the Battery's 23 statues, as well as an expansion of Castle Clinton. Much of the funding was to be raised privately, and at the time, this was thought to be a minor obstacle since Battery Park was neither as high-profile as Central Park, nor as worn-down as Bryant Park. One of the first renovation projects to commence was the reconstruction of the park's seawall and promenade at

13029-538: The restoration and improvement of the once-dilapidated park. In 2015, the Conservancy restored the park's historical name, "the Battery". The area was originally occupied by the Lenape Native Americans. Dutch settlers populated the area as part of the settlement of New Amsterdam in the early 17th century. The Dutch referred to the southern tip of Manhattan as "Capske Hook" or "Capsie Hoek",

13158-399: The second through fifth floors contain a facade of tan brick, and the upper floors are faced with yellow brick. The center bay on West Street contains four steps, leading to a window that replaced a former entrance. The metal cornices atop the building on West and Washington Streets have been removed. The northern facade is faced with plain brick. The original building's Washington Street facade

13287-426: The secret fraternal college society, and within a year of his joining his great uncle's firm, in 1879, Renwick completed the first St. A's Chapter House, at 25 East 28th Street, likely with Russell involved in the design work. In New York City's ambitious building boom c.  1900 , Clinton and Russell were responsible for designing the world's largest apartment building, the world's largest office building, and

13416-564: The shore at the Battery was a relatively flat edge. The West Battery was never used, and following the war, the artillery battery was renamed Castle Clinton . When Battery Park's landmass was created, it encircled and incorporated the island. About 3 acres (1.2 ha) were added to the park area in 1824. Meanwhile, Castle Clinton was turned over to the city government, which turned the structure into an entertainment venue. It subsequently served various purposes, including as an immigration and customs center as well as an aquarium . By

13545-527: The shore of the North River (an archaic name for the southernmost portion of the Hudson River ). The surrounding neighborhood, the Financial District , was the first part of Manhattan to be developed as part of New Netherland and later New York City; its population growth led city officials to add land on Manhattan's shore by filling and land reclamation in the 18th and 19th centuries. As

13674-407: The shoreline by up to 5 feet (1.5 m) to protect the park from sea level rise . Work on the seawall began in early 2024. The Battery contains multiple attractions and points of interest. Castle Clinton , a former fort, lies near the northwestern corner of the Battery and serves as the park's main attraction. To its north is the former fireboat station, Pier A , which was converted into

13803-552: The southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor . It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, with Bowling Green to the northeast, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. The park contains attractions such as an early 19th-century fort named Castle Clinton ; multiple monuments; and the SeaGlass Carousel . The surrounding area, known as South Ferry , contains multiple ferry terminals, including

13932-551: The station go to both the old South Ferry station and to the Joralemon Street Tunnel , which skirts the park before traveling under the East River . In late 2005, New York City authorities announced that builders working on the new station had found the remains of a stone wall from the British colonial era, during the late 17th or 18th century. After archeological analysis, the wall was widely reported to be

14061-401: The steel beams from offsite, and gangs of workers completing the concrete floors as the steel structure was being completed. The annex was completed by late 1910, excluding the section facing Washington Street, which was not constructed during that time. The annex was cited as being "one of the largest commercial structures in the world" and the largest individual office structure in Manhattan. At

14190-465: The structures in 1997, paying $ 58 million for 800,000 square feet (74,000 m) of space. The acquisition included the second through 13th floors in the original building and annex, as well as the entirety of 2 Washington Street. In 1999 the Moinian Group paid $ 42 million for the basement, ground floor, and the 14th through topmost floors of the older two buildings. The group intended to convert

14319-463: The term coming from the Lenape word "Kapsee", meaning "rocky ledge". Capske Hook was originally a narrow, hilly ledge that extended northward to Broadway , which at the time was a Lenape trail. Schreyers Hook (cf. Amsterdam's Schreierstoren ) was just adjacent. In 1625–1626, the Dutch built Fort Amsterdam atop of a hill at the site of the present Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House . However,

14448-485: The time it was cited as having 11,000,000 cubic feet (310,000 m) or 12,000,000 cubic feet (340,000 m) of space. By 1911, rents at the original Whitehall Building and its annex averaged $ 1.70 per square foot ($ 18.3/m), cheaper than comparable structures. The building complex was described in the Real Estate Record and Guide as "one of the best investments of its kind in the city". The Whitehall Club,

14577-513: The time of its completion. Both structures contain Renaissance Revival facades with colorful granite, brick, limestone , and architectural terracotta cladding, which in turn was inspired from the sites' highly visible location at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The original building measures 150.6 feet (45.9 m) along Battery Place to the south. Due to the irregular shape of the lot, its western boundary along West Street

14706-516: The upper floors to 500 rental apartments with their main address at One West Street. The ground floor was to be used as a business center, while the residential structure would contain a parking lot, health club, and rooftop deck. The Whitehall Building and Annex were designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on February 8, 2000. SL Green sold the original building and its annex later that year to an affiliate of

14835-555: The western Atlantic Ocean during the Battle of the Atlantic . A total of 4,609 names are inscribed on both sides of eight 19-foot-tall granite pylons. The pylons are arranged in two rows of four each. Between the two rows stands a bronze statue of an eagle, erected on a black granite pedestal. The eagle faces the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor . The memorial was designed by the architectural firm of Gehron & Seltzer, while

14964-489: The years. As of 2010 , the park saw over five million annual visitors. In 2016, the Battery Conservancy said that the park saw 600,000 visitors a month, which amounted to about 7.2 million visitors per year. Castle Clinton was originally called the West Battery, it was built as a fort just prior to the War of 1812. It was renamed Castle Clinton in 1815 after the war, in honor of mayor DeWitt Clinton , and became property of

15093-414: Was Century Realty Company, another company owned by Chesebrough, which intended to resell the land to Battery Place Realty Company. The Battery Place Realty Company, which would develop what would become the Whitehall Building, was led by Robert Chesebrough , a chemist known for discovering Vaseline , along with his son William A. Chesebrough . At the time, building sites near Broadway , two blocks east of

15222-462: Was completed in 1904. The structure was named for Peter Stuyvesant 's 17th-century home, "White Hall", which had been located nearby. Rents per square foot at the Whitehall Building were generally lower than those on Broadway, and so many tenants started to move into the building. The Battery Place Realty Company had expanded its land holdings by 1904, so that they owned 150 feet of the block frontage on West and Washington Streets. The company purchased

15351-646: Was completed in late 2015 and consists of terracotta pavings near the waterfront, adjacent to a 20-foot (6.1 m) pedestrian walkway. The bikeway contains three connections to other parts of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway: Across State Street to the northeast is Bowling Green , as well as the old U.S. Customs House , now used as a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian and

15480-487: Was constructed from 1902 as a speculative office building designed by Henry Hardenbergh. Because the streets surrounding the site of the building were not heavily trafficked at the time, construction offices were placed directly on the street. The old cellars of the previous structures on the site were excavated, and three 8-hour shifts of 100 men each were employed to drive the caissons. The initial structure opened in May 1903, and

15609-426: Was dedicated at the park in 1976 as a gift from the city of Jerusalem . This area, located northwest of Castle Clinton, is called Jerusalem Grove. The northeastern corner hosts a lawn called the Battery Oval. The 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m ) lawn opened in 2016 as part of a major restoration of the park, and contains turf made of Kentucky bluegrass . Along the waterfront, Statue Cruises offers ferries to

15738-446: Was designed by architectural firm WXY and artist George Tsypin . Music for the ride was created by Teddy Zambetti, a composer and music executive for SiriusXM . A ride lasts for three-and-a-half minutes. The carousel is designed to resemble an under-the-sea garden through which visitors ride on fish that appear to be made of sea glass and shimmer as though they were bioluminescent . The carousel features seating on species such as

15867-539: Was first occupied by small landowners who built houses in the area. The surrounding neighborhood became a financial and shipping hub during the late 19th century, and as the Financial District became more densely developed, the residential landowners moved uptown and their former lands were replaced with larger commercial buildings. The original structure (also called the Lesser Whitehall or just

15996-710: Was not passed. By that time, the IRT Lexington Avenue Line , the Joralemon Street Tunnel to Brooklyn , and the South Ferry subway terminal were being built directly under the park. The South Ferry station opened in 1905, while the Joralemon Street Tunnel opened in 1908. Another early method of transportation was by streetcars , which stopped at Battery Place and traveled up both sides of Manhattan Island. These streetcar lines terminated at South Ferry and included what are now

16125-540: Was opened in July 1984. Battery Park City was constructed as a luxury waterfront neighborhood through the 1970s and 1980s. The success of the development resulted in attention and new funding for Battery Park projects, such as $ 5 million for a garden near Castle Clinton. In 1988, governor Mario Cuomo and mayor Ed Koch announced a $ 100 million plan to construct two new parks in Battery Park City and rearrange

16254-467: Was proposed within the park. Another monument, to steamboat operator Robert Fulton , was proposed in September 1905 by Gustav H. Schwab. There was also a bill to construct a playground in the park, which was vetoed in 1903. Opposition to structures in Battery Park was such that even the construction of the IRT subway under Battery Park was opposed by the Manhattan parks commissioner. Other proposals included

16383-475: Was reinstalled in a temporary location in the northern section of the park. It was located near the Netherland Monument in the northeast corner of the park before being moved to Liberty Park in the new World Trade Center in late 2017. The Battery Bosque, a new landscaped garden, opened in 2005. Some restoration projects were undertaken in Battery Park in the 2010s, including the addition of

16512-562: Was restored in 1975. Today, Castle Clinton retains its original name and is managed by the National Park Service . It contains a small history exhibit and ticket booths for the ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island; in addition, it occasionally hosts concerts. As the site of the ferry ticket office, it recorded nearly 4.08 million visitors in 2009. According to data from the National Park Service,

16641-424: Was the 10-acre (4.0 ha) park at the Battery. Two sites were considered for a large park: Jones's Wood , and the present site of Central Park . An alternate suggestion was to enlarge the existing Battery Park, a move endorsed by most of the public. However, the expansion of Battery Park was opposed by wealthy merchants who deemed the proposed enlargement to be dangerous to maritime traffic, and they obtained

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