City Pier A

City Pier A
Location: Battery Place at the Hudson River, New York, New York
Built: 1885
Architect: George Sears Greene Jr.
NRHP Reference#: 75001203[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP: June 27, 1975
Designated NYCL: July 12, 1977

City Pier A is a municipal pier in the Hudson River at Battery Park near the southern end of Manhattan in New York City. It has also been named Liberty Gateway.[2]

History

It was built from 1884 to 1886 to serve the Department of Docks and Harbor Police.[3] The engineer in charge of construction and design was George Sears Greene Jr. (1837-1922), the son of the civil engineer and Union general George S. Greene (1801-1899).[2][4]

The pier was expanded in 1900 and again in 1919 with the clock tower at the end of the pier. This tower is 70 feet high and the clock installed there in 1919 is a memorial to 116,000 US servicemen who died during World War I.[2] The clock is a ship's clock and was donated by Daniel G. Reid, founder of United States Steel Corporation.[5] The clock was unveiled at noon on 25 January 1919 by Rear Admiral Josiah S. McKean, with speeches made by the Mayor John Francis Hylan and the Docks Commissioner George Murray Hulbert.[5] It is said to be the first World War I memorial erected in the USA.[6]

In 1991, the American Merchant Mariners' Memorial was installed near this location. Designed by the sculptor Marisol Escobar, this memorial is located just south of Pier A on a rebuilt stone breakwater. It is a representation in bronze of four merchant seamen with their sinking vessel after it had been attacked by a U-boat in World War II. The design includes one of the seamen in the water, submerged with each high tide. The memorial was commissioned by the American Merchant Mariners' Memorial, Inc., chaired by Lane Kirkland, and was dedicated on 8 October 1991.[7]

The New York City Fire Department used the pier for many years as the main station for its Marine Division. The pier has repeatedly had proposals for redevelopment which eventually were not realized. In 2007, Daniel L. Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development, proposed to use the pier building for the ferry terminal to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and other harbor destinations.[8]

The pier featured briefly in the 1965 thriller Mirage with Gregory Peck and Diane Baker.

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
  2. ^ a b c New York, 15 walking tours: an architectural guide to the metropolis, Gerard R. Wolfe, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003
  3. ^ Matthew A. Postal, ed (2009). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. pp. 7. ISBN 978-0470289631. http://a856-citystore.nyc.gov/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductName=Guide%20to%20NYC%20Landmarks%20–%20Fourth%20Edition&ProductID=6316&CategoryID=89. 
  4. ^ A biographical dictionary of people in engineering: from the earliest records until 2000, Carl W. Hall, Purdue University Press, 2008
  5. ^ a b Wind ship's clock today, The New York Times, 25 January 1919
  6. ^ A Survey of New York City World War I Monuments, Laura Canon, www.worldwar1.com
  7. ^ American Merchant Mariners’ Memorial, New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
  8. ^ McGeehan, Patrick (August 7, 2007). "121-Year-Old Pier Seen as Portal to 'Harbor District'". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E3DD1530F934A3575BC0A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2009-01-31. 

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:City_Pier_A City Pier A] at Wikimedia Commons
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