Catherine Street

Catherine Street. . The original shoreline of the 17th century Dutch colony was Pearl Street and Cherry Street. Landfill extended it throughout the maritime period to the present line., As early as 1716, there was a shipyard on the East River at Catherine Street. On Cherry Street there was a sailors’ boarding house. Built in 1841 by the American Seamen’s Friends Society, it could accommodate 500 seamen., James Slip was the site of the James Street ferry in the 19th century. From here, steamboats carried passengers up the East River to Long Island City in Queens. At Pier 32, the Long Island Railroad had its freight depot. Pier 33 was where the old Clyde Line embarked to Philadelphia., Next to that was the Daily Line to Bridgeport, CT. The Catherine Street Ferryhouse was situated on the waterfront at South Street. From there, a ferry went across to Main Street in Brooklyn., The area’s most famous son was Alfred Emmanuel Smith. This four time Governor of New York and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate was born at 25 Oliver Street. The son of immigrants, he attended the local St. James parochial School. Like his peers, he held job in the local maritime industries and markets before entering politics. As Governor, he campaigned for many progressive policies such as rent control, tenant protection and low cost housing. He was honored as the “First Citizen of New York City”., A housing development was built on the site of his birth – the Alfred E. Smith Houses. They opened in 1949, five years after Smith’s death and appropriated replaced some of the foulest tenement slums on the Lower East Side. At the time, it was the largest and tallest public housing project in Manhattan, housing 1,935 families in the 12 sixteen story towers, where the tenements had accommodated only 1,716. In 1966, the Jacob Riis School and Alfred. E. Smith Recreation Center were added to the site at 80 Catherine Street. A memorial park, at South and Catherine Streets, were created in Smith’s honor in 1950.