Meatpacking District

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Prior to 1934, Tenth Avenue was known as “Death Avenue,” because of the many accidents caused by then at-grade trains that ran on the street. New York Central Railroad built a new elevated train to service the area and improve safety, the West Side elevated, which we now know as The High Line. Trains passed through approximately 30 buildings, including meat packers and the Nabisco factory, which added to the neighborhood's distinctive architecture. Freight traffic began to decline in the 1960s as trucking became the preferred mode of commercial transportation, and the last train ran on the elevated in 1980.

Many landlords and neighbors wanted the abandoned structure demolished. In 1999, a group of activists rallied to save the structure and convert it into a unique public space. The first phase of the new park, designed by the renowned landscape architects Field Operations, the planting designer Piet Oudolf, and architects Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, opened to the public in 2009. Today you can stroll uninterrupted from Gansevoort Street to the Javits Convention Center and experience the city from a whole new vantage point. 

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

The High Line

With its broad metal awnings shading the sidewalks, eclectic mix of architecture, and Belgian block streets and plazas, the Meatpacking District is one of Downtown Manhattan’s most unique and memorable neighborhoods. Bordered by the West Village, Chelsea to the North, and the mighty Hudson River to the West, Meatpacking today is a dynamic hub of fashion, technology, culture, and dining, enriched by history and embracing of change.

First serving as a fishing and trading post for the Lenape people, Meatpacking began to develop as an urban neighborhood in the 1840s with a mix of commercial and residential buildings growing up on the angled streets (the 18th century street grid meets the more regular 1811 street grid in the District). In the 1880s, open-air and enclosed markets made the neighborhood the city’s premier destination for produce, poultry, fish, and meat, as well as a variety of other industries. By the early twentieth century, the neighborhood became a center for industrialized meatpacking and distribution.

As trucking, the highway system, and supermarkets began to change distribution and shopping habits, many of the old market and cold storage buildings began to be converted to new uses. By the 1990s, the neighborhood had become synonymous with fashion, hip downtown nightclubs and restaurants, and emerging creative industries.

Today, much of the neighborhood is a protected landmarked district, ensuring the survival of the area’s distinct urban fabric. These old buildings now house a number of leading technology companies, and the neighborhood’s abandoned elevated railroad line has been reborn as a world renowned urban park, the High Line. With the Whitney Museum of American Art calling the Meatpacking District home, it’s never been a better time to visit this neighborhood where new and old come together to form a dynamic, and distinctly New York, experience.

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

Overview

Located adjacent to New York’s most historic LGBTQ+ neighborhood, The West Village, and bordered by a working waterfront and piers, the Meatpacking District became a haven for the LGBTQ+ community in the 1970s. As the meatpacking industry declined, gay bars, nightclubs, and sex clubs began to fill the former factory spaces, including the Zodiac, Cycle, OK Coral, and the Mineshaft (a famous BDSM club frequented by the artist Robert Mapplethorpe and the French philosopher Michel Foucault). The Mineshaft was depicted in the controversial 1980 film Cruising, directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino, which garnered protests and praise for its representation of the gay community. A year after the film’s release, the first reported cases of AIDS were in New York, which would cast a pall over the area as a destination for unbridled sexual behavior.

The abandoned piers were popular cruising grounds and attracted gay and trans sex workers as police were raiding queer bars nearby (the piers also attracted artists like David Wojnarowicz and Gordon Matta-Clark, who famously carved holes into the walls and floors creating site-specific sculpture).

In 1985, the restaurateur Florent Morellet opened a 24-hour diner, called Florent, in the old R &amp; L Restaurant building at 69 Gansevoort Street. Florent quickly became a destination for the LGBTQ+ community and hip downtown nightlife-goers, who reveled in the vibrant atmosphere and free-flowing cocktails (among other substances). Morellet, who often dressed in drag and was a constant presence at the restaurant, was also an AIDS activist (he famously posted his T-cell count next to the daily specials). He was also instrumental in advocating for the creation of the Gansevoort Market Historic District in 2003. Florent closed in 2008, a victim of the neighborhood’s rising real estate pressures.

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

LGBTQ+ History

Now well-known for its pioneering food hall and market, the Chelsea Market building’s link to culinary history extends to its origins as a Nabisco factory where the Oreo cookie was invented and produced. Nabisco’s presence in the neighborhood extended to several buildings and included a purpose-built factory that extended over the High Line with a striking open porch through which trains could pass carrying flour from Toledo, Ohio and boxes from Beacon, New York (that factory is now home to the Dia: Beacon art museum). An art deco sky-bridge over 15th street connects the original factory to a building on 14th street, making Nabisco a sprawling presence that rivaled that of the meatpackers and canneries. Indeed, the cookie making business relied on the lard from the meatpackers, making the two industries mutually beneficial. Nabisco’s presence in the neighborhood began to decline in the 1950s when it moved operations to a modern facility in New Jersey.

Chelsea Market as we know it today was conceived in the late 1990s, with vibrant food and shopping offerings on the ground floor that drew visitors to the rapidly changing neighborhood and made the building attractive to office workers. The building’s interiors retain artifacts from the factory, including faded signage of the Oreo and a Nabisco plaque. Media and technology companies filled the upper floors, which today includes a large presence by Google.

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

Nabisco Company Building / Chelsea Market

Gansevoort Street traces the route of a Lenape footpath through the settlement of Sapokanikan (“land where the tobacco grows”). The path extended from the Hudson River to a location near present day Washington Square Park where it connected to the Mohican Trail, which later became Broadway. For the Lenape, the Hudson River was an abundant source of fish and shellfish in the pre-colonial era, including large oysters, lobsters, and fish that were so numerous they could be caught by hand. Pushed out of the city by the Dutch as New Amsterdam grew, the old footpath became a street. Originally called Old Kill Road and then Great Kill Road, the street was renamed in 1837 to honor Revolutionary War General Peter Gansevoort. In 1812, a fort was built at the base of Gansevoort Street to defend against a possible British invasion in the War of 1812. The fort was demolished in 1851 when the New York shoreline was extended with landfill.

Gansevoort’s grandson, Herman Melville, who wrote the great American novel Moby Dick, worked for 20 years as a customs inspector on the docks at the foot of Gansevoort Street.

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

The Origins of Gansevoort Street

675 Hudson and 53-61 Gansevoort
The appearance of the Meatpacking District is shaped by its eclectic industrial architecture, unique street grid—including diagonal streets—and trapezoidal and triangular plazas, which form a singular urban experience in Manhattan.

 
Built on a triangular lot, Meatpacking’s 675 Hudson, known as “the Little Flatiron,” forms an easily recognizable entry point and memorable landmark in the neighborhood. The building’s distinctive shape was determined by the property’s lot lines, which were delineated by the juncture where the 18th century street plan meets the 1811 grid plan (think of the West Village’s streets versus those of Midtown). Originally built in1849 as a small factory for the Herring Safe &amp; Lock Factory, the building was expanded to its current form and height in 1884.

The building was purpose-built for the manufacture of secure and fireproof safes, then a newly patented technology. They gained currency because of the Great Fire of 1835 and the Panic of 1837, when nervous wealthy urbanites felt compelled to protect their assets. The building was painted with colorful and graphic advertising signage, in keeping with New York’s brash commercial atmosphere, even in those days. By the 1880s, the building use changed from a safe factory to ground-floor commercial spaces with working lofts above. Over the ensuing decades, tenants included grocers, butchers, saloons, an elevator company, a bowling alley, nightclubs, restaurants, reflecting the neighborhood’s dynamic evolution and changing demographics. 

675 Hudson isn’t the neighborhood’s only triangular shaped building, 53-61 Gansevoort, known as “the Prow Building,” has an elegant curved point, which was documented by the famed photographer Berenice Abbott. Designed by Joseph M Dunn, the building was constructed in 1887 for the ES Burnham &amp; Co, a clam cannery. A more refined example of industrial architecture, though less visible on the streetscape, the Prow Building’s exterior architecture is virtually unchanged since the late 1880s (look closely and you can still see the words “clam chowder” painted on the upper floors. It later housed meatpackers, NABISCO, and then offices, and restaurants. 

These buildings are unique containers and eye-catching landmarks that encapsulate the neighborhood’s changing character. 

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

Little Flatirons

Another of Meatpacking’s most distinctive features is its preponderance of Belgian blocks, which add texture and tactility to the neighborhood (you can literally feel them under-feet). Belgian block is differentiated from cobblestones by their tooled, flattened edges, whereas cobbles stones have natural, rounded sides. Belgian block became more common street pavers in the 1870s, an industrial material for the industrial age. Their standard shape of roughly 4-5 inches was proportioned to the size of a horseshoe, allowing horses to get a good toe-hold on the street, which was helpful in hauling heavy loads. Belgian Blocks are hard, durable and impermeable, making them an ideal for waterfront and industrial neighborhoods, like the Meatpacking. Belgian blocks began to be replaced by asphalt in the 1890s. In 1949 Manhattan had approximately 140 miles of Belgian block streets, today less than 15 miles remain. 

While the stones themselves are durable, Belgian block streets can be difficult to maintain. In keeping with Landmarks Preservation Commission standards, the Gansevoort Market Historic District has worked to maintain and improve its Belgian block streets, including making them compliant with the American with Disabilities Act. As the Belgian block streets are resurfaced, the stones are removed, sorted, graded, and reused wherever then can, so that the streets are smooth enough for use by people of all types of mobility. 

This rehabilitation project was completed in 2019, bringing Belgian block from the industrial age to the age of technology and accessibility. The streets and plazas now form one New York’s most memorable and photogenic pedestrian experiences, providing wonderful places for people to shop, meet, gather, and enjoy the neighborhood. 

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

Look Down! (Belgian Block Streetscapes)

The Meatpacking District’s connection to the food extends back to the 1880s, when New York City upgraded its public markets and relocated them to the neighborhood. The first was the open-air Gansevoort Farmer’s Market, located between Washington and West Streets, which featured fresh produce grown in the region, followed by the West Washington Market, which sold wholesale meat, poultry and dairy across West Street. The ten two-story buildings of the West Washington Market featured broad metal canopies that extended over the sidewalk, protecting goods and shoppers from the sun and rain and allowing vendors to present their goods to passersby. 

The Farmer’s Market and the West Washington Street Market began to decline and were ultimately demolished in the 1950s as refrigeration, trucking, and the emergence of supermarkets changed distribution and shopping patterns. As meatpacking was consolidated in the neighborhood, the Gansevoort Market Meat Center was built on the site of the former Farmer’s Market. The Gansevoort Market Meat Center is still in operation today.

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

Public Markets as a Place in the City’s History

Artificial refrigeration and refrigerated trucking fueled the growth of the meatpacking business to an industrial and national scale. In the Meatpacking District, this was best exemplified by the Manhattan Refrigeration Company, which began operating in the neighborhood in 1898. The company built a massive complex that eventually included 9 buildings bounded by Horatio, Washington, West, and Gansevoort Streets. The complex was fueled by a central power station that delivered cooled air through underground refrigeration conduits to cold storage warehouses within an 18-block radius. The remnant manhole covers (“M.R.Co.N.Y.”) are still visible on the streets today. The largest Manhattan Refrigeration Building was linked to the elevated train line, a portion of which is now the High Line. The company closed in 1979 and many of its buildings were converted into residential lofts with ground floor retail, powering a new mixed-use era for the neighborhood. 

Throughout the neighborhood, many buildings were altered to better perform as cold storage facilities, including being reduced in height for market use. These include former row houses on along Little West 12th Street that were taken from five stories down to two. 

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

Manhattan Refrigerating Company

In addition to the neighborhood’s rich industrial past, the Meatpacking District also has an important artistic and literary history. The Astor family owned many lots in the neighborhood, and when the enterprising editor Peter Collier married into the family, he built his publishing company at 416-424 West 13th Street. Collier’s Magazine featured leading writers of the day, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather and Upton Sinclair and the printer and publisher produced notable books under its imprint, at one point employing 700 people in the neighborhoods. The building can easily be identified by the sculpted globe and quill pen above the entrance.

Later, the legendary novelist, critic, and activist James Baldwin lived 81 Horatio Street from 1958-1961, which inspired his pioneering novel Another Country. A plaque commemorating Baldwin’s contribution to civil rights and LGBTQ visibility was affixed to the building by Village Preservation. 

At 741 Washington Street, Roy Lichtenstein opened his studio in 1988 and worked there until his death in 1997. In 2022, the Lichtenstein Foundation donated the studio to the Whitney Museum of American for its famed Independent Study Program, ensuring that future artists and curators will add to the creative energy of the neighborhood for decades to come. 

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

Writers and Artists

The Meatpacking District today is known as a shopping destination, but it took a few pioneers to lure shoppers to the area which was still known for blood stained sidewalks and risque nightlife. In 1999, Jeffrey Kalinsky opened the boutique department store, Jeffrey, on West 14th Street, which immediately drew upmarket shoppers to the edgy downtown location. Soon other brands and retailers took notice, notably Diane Von Furstenburg, who located her flagship store, company headquarters, and penthouse apartment across the street. Dozens of other high end and mass market brands followed, alongside independent and boutique fashion lines. 

In addition to retailers, Milk Studios moved to the neighborhood in 1998. Formerly located on 15th street, the production company hosted hundreds of fashion shoots and runway shows, and was a longtime anchor of New York Fashion Week. Sex and the City used the neighborhood as a backdrop, the character Samantha Jones, a fashion publicist, called Meatpacking home on the show.

The neighborhood itself, with its iconic architecture and Belgian block plazas, provides a dynamic setting for photo shoots and fashion campaigns. Streets form an everyday runway that enlivens the life in the District.

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

From Flank Steaks to Fashion

The Meatpacking District was an unlikely candidate for landmarks preservation protection, but neighborhood activists and preservationists saw the value in the once gritty industrial blocks. Due to its history as a market area, much of the neighborhood was low rise, making it vulnerable to demolition for higher rise construction. In 2003, the Gansevoort Market Historic District, which roughly fits the boundaries of the Meatpacking neighborhood, was created to protect the area’s unique character, including its metal awnings, Belgian block streets, and eclectic mix of humble and more elaborate industrial architecture dating from the 1840s to today. 

The neighborhood has not been frozen in time however, as many architects have added sensitive new additions to landscape, including a twisting tower for Samsung by Morris Adjmi Architects, a firm that has done many projects in the District. Many historic rowhouses that were reduced in height for use as cold storage facilities are regaining height with additional floors. Preservation and change coexist in the Meatpacking District. 

Sources
Gansevoort Market Historic District: State and National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (2007).
Gansevoort Market Historic District: Designation Report. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (2003).
<a href="https://www.thehighline.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The High Line</a> website
<a href="https://www.villagepreservation.org/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Off the Grid</a>. Village Preservation blog.

Gansevoort Market Historic District

The Meatpacking District is a neighborhood like no other: a fusion of grit and glam, where old New York meets the frenetic pace of the 21st Century. It has a magnetic appeal. Nestled into the western corner of Lower Manhattan, before the chic boutiques and upscale bars, it was home to industrial slaughterhouses, public markets, and a bustling working waterfront. Its evolution has been layered, giving the district a rich, interesting, often contradictory charm. And while we have the best guides for whichever journey you choose in the Meatpacking District, a curious wander might be the best way to experience it. Day and night, the cobblestone streets are alive with culture. You're bound to stumble onto something delicious, stylish, thought-provoking, and very likely, all of the above.

MEET MEATPACKING

Before the Meatpacking District was the Meatpacking District, it was just somewhere people lived. It wasn't until Gansevoort Market opened in 1879 that the area turned commercial. What started as an open-air produce market evolved into the neighborhood's namesake meatpacking plants. In the 1970s, it got a lot more colorful, kinky, and creative as LGBTQ+ nightclubs sprang up among the factories and slaughterhouses. By the early 2000s, high-end boutiques had joined the neighborhood as well, solidifying its reputation as iconic and highly fashionable. Rather than burying its past, the Meatpacking District celebrates its whole history. Even today, a handful of meatpacking plants and gay bars still thrive in the area. These coexisting, sometimes contradictory chapters create the friction that gives the Meatpacking District its one-of-a-kind spark.

THE STREETS' STORY

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