Most people know the World Trade Center as two 110 story towers built in the 1970s and demolished by the terrorist attacks in 2001. However, hardly anyone is aware that the first World Trade Center was built in 1831 down on Pearl Street. The 19th century center of commerce is only a quick walk from what is known as Ground Zero. One building still remains at 213 Pearl after the two around it were demolished for new buildings. Now a developer wants to smash it down as well and a fight begins to save this historic landmark.
From AM New York:
The Greek Revival warehouse is in a lower Manhattan neighborhood that was part of "the process that made New York into America's great city," says historian Paul E. Johnson.
Alan Solomon, an amateur historian helping spearhead the effort to preserve the old red-brick warehouse on Pearl Street, said on Saturday that he believes its demolition to make way for a new Sheraton hotel could start as early as this week.
(snip)
The warehouse was erected in 1831 -- one of the earliest examples of the Greek Revival style of a cluster of buildings that made up the original world trade center in lower Manhattan, long before the 110-story twin towers that opened in 1970. The Pearl Street wholesalers specialized in dry goods they shipped to storekeepers all over the country.
New York "became like a funnel through which the wealth of the Western world would now have to pass," according to a television documentary by Ric Burns called "The Town and The City." Narrow lanes like Pearl Street "were transformed into the first district in the world devoted exclusively to commerce."
And now it is on the brink of destruction, to make way for another downtown hotel. I am all for rebuilding and revitalizing the Financial District, but we can still preserve the history of our city in the process. This old Greek revival building definitely deserves it's due, a Sheraton can be built anywhere.
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