Historical Echoes: Maiden Lane, Where Now Such Waves of Commerce Flow
In the 1600s, a stream flowed near the land now occupied by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, running all the way to the East River. At that time, maidens followed a footpath to the stream’s banks to wash laundry in its fresh water, earning the path the name Maidens’ Path (or in Dutch—Maagde Paatje). When the English arrived in 1664, the name of the street changed to Maiden Lane. As New York City expanded beyond its downtown origins over the years, city planners covered over the stream—but the street’s name stuck.
Maiden Lane has been featured in poems, films, and books. Even presidents have strolled down this street. Thomas Jefferson roomed at a boardinghouse on 19 Maiden Lane during his trips to New York City (in 1784 and 1791), and in 1790, while Secretary of State, he rented a “mean house” at 57 Maiden Lane “for 106 pounds per year.” What Jefferson accomplished during his brief stay that year is a tale for another day.
Over the centuries, Maiden Lane has been witness to major changes in its surroundings, from the cultural (the emergence of professional theater in 1732) to the physical (the Great Fire of 1835, during which much of Wall Street burned down). This street was one of the first in the city “to be gas-lit by the New York Gas-Light Company in the late 1820s.” Maiden Lane became a commercial area and even briefly had a shopping mall—the New York Arcade, built in 1827. Maiden Lane developed into the Diamond District in the late 1800s, but with real estate prices rising and an influx of finance and insurance firms, jewelry merchants moved north starting in the 1920s. A 1925 real estate guide reported that the 47th Street area “has almost overnight become New York’s new Maiden Lane.”...MORE
