More Demolition on Pearl Street
From Alan Solomon, [email protected]
http://www.historicpearlstreet.org
NEW YORK’S HISTORIC TRADE CENTER TARGETED FOR DEMOLITION
213 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan, an 1831 Greek revival warehouse, is targeted for demolition. According to historians, it is the last structure from New York’s first world trade district.
The five-story brick and granite building had survived alongside two additional warehouses of the era at 211 and 215 Pearl Street on a block (bordered by Pearl St., Maiden Ln. Gold St. and Platt St.) that was entirely owned by Rockrose Development – except for one small lot at no. 213 Pearl. 211 Pearl Street is now a façade. 215 Pearl Street has since been demolished. 213 Pearl Street is a last well -preserved structure. The Karch family of Bayville, NY recently sold the building to the Lam Group, who had purchased the NE corner of the block from Rockrose. The Lam Group is expected to replace 213 Pearl Street with a ‘sexy’ new hotel project.
Council Member Alan J. Gerson and Community Board 1, along with the Committee for the Preservation of Historic Pearl Street, are now reaching out to The Lam Group directly, hoping to preserve what they consider to be a piece of the city and country’s business heritage. The historian Paul E. Johnson called the Pearl Street building “…a rare surviving relic of the process that made New York into America’s great city…the notion that it should be demolished is silly. New York City has more respect for itself than that. ”