James Michael Lindgren - Preserving South Street Seaport : the dream and reality of a New York urban renewal district

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by NYU Press.

Sign up for our e-newsletters to receive information about forthcoming books, special discounts, and more!

A publisher of original scholarship since its founding in 1916, New York University Press Produces more than 100 new books each year, with a backlist of 3,000 titles in print. Working across the humanities and social sciences, NYU Press has award-winning lists in sociology, law, cultural and American studies, religion, American history, anthropology, politics, criminology, media and communication, literary studies, and psychology.

James M. Lindgren

New York and London
www.nyupress.org

2014 by New York University
All rights reserved

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lindgren, James Michael, 1950
Preserving South Street Seaport : the dream and reality of a New York urban
renewal district / James M. Lindgren.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4798-2257-7 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. South Street Seaport Museum (New York, N.Y.) 2. Maritime museumsManagementCase studies. 3. Historic preservationNew York (State)New York. 4. Historic buildingsNew York (State)New York. 5. Historic shipsNew York (State)New York. 6. City planningNew York (State)New YorkHistory21st century. 7. Land use, UrbanNew York (State)New York. 8. HarborsNew York (State)New YorkHistory21st century. 9. South Street (New York, N.Y.) I. Title.
V13.U52N4824 2014
387.10747471dc23 2014001723

ISBN 978-1-4798-2257-7 (cl.)

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also available as an ebook

Preserving South Street Seaport: The Dream and Reality of a New York Urban Renewal District was made possible in part through the generosity of Furthermore, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and the J. Aron Charitable Foundation. Their thoughtful support helps to ensure that this work is widely disseminated, and affordable to individuals, students, scholars, libraries, and other institutions.

Introduction: Salvation on the East River:
How a Clever Editor Saw Jehovahs Light

1 Eloquent Reminders of Sailing and Shipbuilding:
How the Seaport and World Trade Center (Re)made Fulton Street

2 The Kind of Civilized Vision That New Yorkers Are Not
Supposed to Have: How Historic Preservation Shaped
Lower Manhattans Development

4 Look at Our Waterfront! Just Look:
How Earth Day Boomed the Seaport

5 A Million People Came Away Better Human Beings:
How the Past Mended the Present

6 Shopping Is the Chief Cultural Activity in the United States:
How the Seaport Sold Its Soul

7 They Tore Down Paradise, and Put Up a Shopping Mall:
How Speculators and Rouseketeers Created a Bubble

8 The Museum Was Intellectually and Financially Bankrupt:
How the Seaport Fared after the Bubble Burst

9 Its Tough When You Have a Museum in a Mall:
How the Seaport (Almost) Succeeded

10 A Ship Is a Hole in the Water into Which You Pour Money:
How Maritime Preservation (Almost) Won

11 Sometimes You Just Cant Get a Break:
How 9/11 Torpedoed the Seaport

Preserving South Street Seaport is part of a larger history that began in a 1981 doctoral seminar at the College of William and Mary under William Appleman Williams. Setting a framework for South Street Seaport,

With South Street, I have encountered some typical research problems. As a private institution, the Seaport was under no obligation to open its files to me. When I started my research, president Peter Neill opened the files that preceded his hiring in 1985. I am grateful to the J. Aron Charitable Foundation for allowing me to use materials collected by long-serving trustees Jack and Peter Aron, which precede and follow Neills hiring. I supplemented them with public records and interviews. Many Seaport administrators and employees were reluctant to help; few said much that could detract from its image, fundraising, or prospects. Former staff, trustees, and friends, however, were most helpful.

Even within the nations maritime-museum community, there has been a reluctance to talk about South Street. As one curator told me, Its not a pretty story. Within the Council of American Maritime Museums, there was, said one director, an unwillingness to publicly criticize a friend; an interest in showing a unified, non-controversial public face; and concern about a stinging public response. What is interesting is that a vast majority of Americans regard museums as a more trustworthy source of objective formulation than books or television, but museum managers are hesitant to allow an independent researcher to know what goes on in the boardroom, in the craft shop, or on the poop deck.

A few words are also in order about this books construction. Those who have written about ships have customarily been past or present sailors whose attitudes were shaped by personal experience and tradition. Hence, those men (and it has been a masculine pursuit) have used the feminine pronoun for ships. I have, however, followed the course of Lloyds List in using neutral pronouns, except in quoted matter, for those vessels. Also, the article the has been deleted from ship names, as in Wavertree, except again in quoted matter. And lastly, as is the case in writing about organizations, abbreviations have been often substituted for long titles. A short list follows this section.

Besides the many comments made at various presentations of this research, I have been helped (often considerably) by many Seaporters, museum friends, interested parties, consultants, and historians and preservationists (public and academic). Their kind assistance made this book possible. Besides those who requested anonymity, they are Peter A. Aron, Joseph Baiamonte, Kent Barwick, Debbie Swift Batty, Bronson Binger, Jonathan Boulware, Richard Brandt, David Brink, Peter H. Brink, Norman Brouwer, Briton C. Busch, Kathleen Condon, Michael Creamer, Wayne De La Roche, Paul DeOrsay, Charles Deroko, Nicole Dooskin, Richard Dorfman, John Doswell, Joe Doyle, Gary Fagin, Jarrett L. Feldman, Robert Ferraro, Richard Fewtrell, Susan Fowler, William M. Fowler Jr., Alan D. Frazer, Ileen Gallagher, Thomas Gochberg, Lee Gruzen, Ingo Heidbrink, Paul Heller, John B. Hightower, Sharon A. Holt, Ada Louise Huxtable, Steve Hyman, Jakob Isbrandtsen, Kenneth T. Jackson, Steven H. Jaffe, Shari Galligan Johnson, Paul F. Johnston, Susan Henshaw Jones, Stephen Kloepfer, Amy Krakow, Michael Kramer, Robert LaValva, Michael E. Levine, Philip Levy, Christine Lilyquist, Phillip Lopate, Marie Lore, Christopher J. Lowery, Philip Marshall, George Matteson, Nora McAuley-Gitin, Barbara Mensch, William J. Murtagh, Michael Naab, Peter Neill, Dennis A. OToole, Naima Rauam, Paul Ridgway, Warren Riess, Walter P. Rybka, Charles L. Sachs, Allon Schoener, Pete Seeger, Whitney North Seymour Jr., Yvonne Simons, Howard Slotnick, J. Kellum Smith, Rebecca Smith, Michael Sorkin, Peter and Norma Stanford, Jennifer Stanley, Erin Urban, Thomas Walker, Terry Walton, Thomas E. Wilcox, Jeanne Willoz-Egnor, Philip Yenawine, Sally Yerkovich, and John Young.