Residential Fulton Street

Residential Fulton Street. . , Until the late 19th century, the central business district of Brooklyn was found along the part of Fulton Street (today's Cadman Plaza West) on the other side of Borough Hall, leading to the Fulton Ferry pier. This "inland" part of Fulton Street was in a residential neighborhood. It was at first bucolic in character, with freestanding villas and ample grounds and orchards, as we see in the delightful image by Currier and Ives' Francis "Fanny" Palmer of the late 18th century Samuel Fleet mansion which stood at the corner of Fulton and Gold Streets (adjacent to the present Fleet Street)., Later, it became a place of town houses, such as the rare remaining example at 372 Fulton Street, between Red Hook Lane and Smith Street, built in 1875. In 1892, the nearby restaurateurs Charles Gage and Eugene Tollner moved their restaurant into the town house. The restaurant was opened by Gage in 1879 at 302 Fulton Street; he was joined by Tollner a year later. 372 Fulton Street is a designated New York City landmark both outside and inside. Outside, the wooden storefront was added after the town house became a restaurant. Inside is the most perfectly intact 19th-century restaurant interior in New York City, with full-height mirrors in cherry-wood frames, gaslights suspended from the ceiling in elaborate wrought-iron fixtures, a beautiful wooden bar transported from the original restaurant, and Lincrusta-covered walls, among other notable features. Gate and Tollner, long one of Brooklyn's best-known restaurants, closed in 2004., The residential days of this part of Fulton Street gradually came to an end after the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, the approaches to which bypassed the old downtown, which centered on the ferry landing at Fulton Street and the East River, suggesting that Fulton Street east of Adams Street (the approach lane to the Brooklyn Bridge) was better located to serve as Brooklyn's central business district., The opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, and of the Fulton Street "el" by the Kings County Elevated Railway Company in 1888, confirmed the shift of the central business district from the waterfront area, and the end of residential days on this part of Fulton Street.