Meatpacking District, Manhattan

Coordinates: 40°44′25″N 74°00′25″W / 40.74028°N 74.00694°W / 40.74028; -74.00694
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Gansevoort Market Historic District
11th Avenue to the west
Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates40°44′25″N 74°00′25″W / 40.74028°N 74.00694°W / 40.74028; -74.00694
Area44 acres (18 ha)
Architectvarious
Architectural stylevarious
NRHP reference No.07000487[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMay 30, 2007
Designated NYCLSeptember 9, 2003

The Meatpacking District is a

borough of Manhattan that runs from West 14th Street south to Gansevoort Street, and from the Hudson River east to Hudson Street.[2][3][4] The Meatpacking Business Improvement District along with signage in the area, extend these borders farther north to West 17th Street, east to Eighth Avenue, and south to Horatio Street.[5]

History

Pre-colonial

A Lenape trading station called Sapohanikan was on the riverbank, which, accounting for landfill, was located about where Gansevoort Street meets Washington Street today.[6][7][8] The footpath that led from Sapohanikan inland to the east became the foundation for Gansevoort Street,[9] which by accident or design aligns, within one degree, so that the Manhattanhenge phenomenon, where the setting sun crosses the horizon looking down the street, occurs at the spring and autumnal equinoxes.[10] In recognition of this history, petitions were made to call the 14th Street Park "Saphohanikan Park", although it appears no formal recognition was given.[11]

Initial development

The earliest development of the area now known as the Meatpacking District came in the mid-19th century. Before that it was the location of Fort Gansevoort

Manhattan island.[12]

Construction of residences in the neighborhood – primarily

terra cotta manufacturer could be found, while lighter industry such as carpentry and woodworking, lumber yards, paint works, granite works and a plaster mill blended into the residential area.[12] At the time of the Civil War the part of the district west of Ninth Avenue and Greenwich Street and above 10th Street was the location of numerous distilleries making turpentine and camphene, a lamp fuel.[13]

After the Civil War

When development began again after the war in the 1870s, the tenor of the neighborhood changed. Since it was no longer considered a desirable area to live in, construction of single-family residences was replaced with the building of multiple-family dwellings, and the continued internal industrialization increased. In addition an

packing plants,[14] and by the 1920s, what had been a neighborhood based on mixture of marketplaces became more tightly focused on meatpacking and related activities. Other industries continued to be located there, some of which included cigar-making, transportation-related businesses such as automobile repair, express services and garages, import-export firms, marine supplies, cosmetics, and printing.[12] After decades of debate, the High Line elevated freight line was authorized in 1929 as part of the "West Side Improvement Plan", and the New York Central Railroad completed construction, passing through the neighborhood, in 1934.[12]

Decline and resurgence

The area's decline began around the 1960s as part of the general decline of the waterfront area. Containerization of freight; the advent of supermarkets which changed the distribution pattern for meat, dairy and produce from a locally or regionally based system to a more national one; and the development of frozen foods and refrigerated trucks to deliver them were all factors in this, but meatpacking continued to be the major activity in the neighborhood through the 1970s. At the same time, a new "industry" of

nightclubs and other entertainment and leisure operations catering to a gay clientele, began to spring up in the area.[12]

In the 1980s, as the industrial activities in the area continued their downturn, it became known as a center for drug dealing and prostitution. Concurrent with the rise in illicit sexual activity, the sparsely populated industrial area became the focus of the city's burgeoning

AIDS preventionism.[15]

Aerial view

Beginning in the late 1990s, the Meatpacking District went through a transformation. High-end

Puma, Moschino, ADAM by Adam Lippes, and an Apple Store; restaurants such as Pastis—which closed in 2014[17]—and 5 Ninth;[18] and nightclubs such as Tenjune. In 2004, New York magazine called the Meatpacking District "New York’s most fashionable neighborhood".[19]

A catalyst for even greater transformation of the area was the opening in June 2009 of the first segment of the

Whitney Museum of American Art had announced that it would build a second, Renzo Piano-designed home at 99 Gansevoort Street, just west of Washington Street and adjacent to the southernmost entrance to the High Line;[20] and on May 1, 2015, the museum opened at this site. These were turning points in the changes experienced by the neighborhood over the first two decades of the 21st century, transforming it from a gritty manufacturing district into a bustling high-end retail, dining, and residential area, as documented by photographer Brian Rose in his 2014 book Metamorphosis.[21]

Preservation

In September 2003 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) established the Gansevoort Market Historic District,[22] and in 2007 New York State Parks Commissioner Carol Ash approved adding the entire Meatpacking District, an area which included both the Gansevoort Market Historic District and the neighborhood's waterfront, to the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.[23] The state district was listed on the National Register on May 30, 2007 and included 140 buildings, two structures, and one other site.[1]

Gallery

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Named after Peter Gansevoort, a general in the Revolutionary War

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Village Voice. Archived from the original
    on August 8, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  3. ^ New York Times map of Meatpacking District
  4. ^ Mohney, Chris (September 25, 2006). "Close-Up on: The Meatpacking District". Gawker. Archived from the original on January 16, 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  5. ^ "Neighborhood - Meatpacking District Official Website". Meatpacking District Official Website. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  6. ^ Hudson River Park Trust
  7. ^ Letter from J. Lee Compton, Chair, City of New York Manhattan Community Board 4 to Kathy Howe (March 8, 2007)
  8. OCLC 47011419.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  9. ^ Bolton, Reginald Pelham. Indian Paths in the Great Metropolis New York Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1922. pp58-59
  10. ^ Earth System Research Laboratory
  11. ^ "Folkies Sing a Different TuneFor Village’s Chapel Buildin [sic]" New York Observer (February 12, 2001)
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Shockley, Jay "Gansevoort Market Historic District Designation Report part 1", New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (September 9, 2003)
  13. ^ Johnson, Clint. "A Vast and Fiendish Plot" New York Archive (Winter 2012)
  14. ^ New York City Names Gansevoort Market a Historic District Archived 2003-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, from the website of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
  15. ^ Gay, Tim (July 14–20, 2004). "Bring back the beefcake, and add some flowers too". The Villager. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  16. ^ Renzi, Jen. "The raw and the cooked: From red light to limelight, New York's meatpacking district redesigns for fashion", Interior Design (4/1/2003)
  17. ^ Beth Landman (February 26, 2014). "NYC celebs remember iconic Meatpacking eatery Pastis". New York Post. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  18. ^ Platt, Adam (May 21, 2005). "Top 5". New York. Retrieved September 19, 2012.
  19. ^ Steinberg, Jon (August 18, 2004). "Meatpacking District Walking Tour". New York. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  20. ^ second
  21. ^ "Brian Rose Photography". Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  22. ^ Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Save Gansevoort Market Archived May 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Meatpacking District Approved for Listing on State and National Register of Historic Places Archived July 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine (11 April 2007)

External links

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