National Register of Historic Places

Municipal Ferry Pier

New York, New York County, New York
Listed
December 12, 1976
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
76001246

About this property

The Battery Maritime Building is a building at South Ferry on the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City. Located at 10 South Street, near the intersection with Whitehall Street, it contains an operational ferry terminal at ground level, as well as a hotel and event space on the upper stories. The ground story contains three ferry slips that are used for excursion trips and ferries to Governors Island, as well as commuter trips to Port Liberté, Jersey City. The upper stories contain the Cipriani South Street event space, operated by Cipriani S.A., and a 47-room hotel called Casa Cipriani. The Beaux-Arts building was built from 1906 to 1909 and designed by the firm Walker and Morris as the easternmost section of the partially completed Whitehall Street Ferry Terminal. What is now the Battery Maritime Building was designed to serve ferries traveling to Brooklyn. The structure uses a variety of architectural metals and originally contained a large waiting area on the second floor. The Battery Maritime Building is the only Exposition Universelle-style ferry building still operating in Manhattan. The similarly-designed westernmost section of the Whitehall Street Ferry Terminal, serving ferries to Staten Island, was rebuilt as the Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal; the center section was never built. The terminal was used by Brooklyn ferry routes until the mid-20th century and subsequently fell into disrepair. The building was used as a Governors Island ferry terminal starting in 1956, while the upper floors were used by various city agencies, including the Department of Marine and Aviation beginning in 1959. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as a city landmark in 1967 and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The underused structure was proposed to be converted into a cultural center during the 1980s as part of the failed South Ferry Plaza development. The exterior was restored by Jan Hird Pokorny Architects between 2001 and 2005. Plans to convert the interior into a hotel and event space were approved in 2009, but the conversion encountered numerous delays, with the event space opening in 2019.

Location

11 South St.
New York, New York County, New York
40.70098, -74.01146

Categories

TRANSPORTATIONARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

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First Police Precinct Station House
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U.S. Customhouse
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Nearby Battles

Raid on the New York Battery
1775Revolutionary War
0.3 mi

Questions about this property

When was Municipal Ferry Pier listed on the National Register?

Municipal Ferry Pier was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 1976.

What type of historic resource is Municipal Ferry Pier?

Municipal Ferry Pier is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Municipal Ferry Pier?

The period of significance for Municipal Ferry Pier is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Municipal Ferry Pier?

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