Hanover Square, NYC (WTM by official-ly cool 008)

Hanover Square is a square with a public park in the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It is triangular in shape, formed by the intersections of Pearl Street and Hanover Street; Pearl Street and a street named "Hanover Square" itself (whose opposite side of Pearl continues as Hanover St.; and William Street (northern continuation of "Hanover Square" street) and Stone Street. The side between Hanover/Pearl intersection and William/Stone intersection is a pedestrian pathway along the building front facing the square and Pearl Street. Most surrounding buildings are primarily commercial. The square's pocket park is the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden, maintained by the

New York City Department of Parks The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...

, and has an area of or .

History

The square was named for the

House of Hanover The House of Hanover (german: Haus Hannover), whose members are known as Hanoverians, is a European royal house of German origin that ruled Hanover, Great Britain, and Ireland at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. The house orig ...

in 1714 when King George I ascended to the throne. For many years, Hanover Square was the center of New York's

commodity market A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investin ...

, with the

New York Cotton Exchange The New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE) is a commodities exchange founded in 1870 by a group of one hundred cotton brokers and merchants in New York City. In 1998, the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) became the parent company of the New York Cotton ...

at 1 Hanover Square, on the square's southwest corner; the

New York Cocoa Exchange The New York Cocoa Exchange was a commodities exchange in New York City where futures contracts on cocoa were bought and sold. The exchange was located at 82 Beaver Street in Manhattan for most of its existence. On September 28, 1979, the New Y ...

, now the

New York Board of Trade The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT, renamed ICE Futures US in September, 2007), is a physical commodity futures exchange located in New York City. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). History It originated in 1 ...

; and others nearby. The square was also known as "Printing House Square". The

Great Fire of New York The 1835 Great Fire of New York was one of three fires that rendered extensive damage to New York City in the 18th and 19th centuries. The fire occurred in the middle of an economic boom, covering 17 city blocks, killing two people, and destroyin ...

broke out here on December 16, 1835, decimating much of Lower Manhattan. 3 Hanover Square, a former home to the New York Cotton Exchange, and 10 Hanover Square, a former office building, were converted to residential use. The elevated

IRT Third Avenue Line The IRT Third Avenue Line, commonly known as the Third Avenue Elevated, Third Avenue El, or Bronx El, was an elevated railway in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City. Originally operated by the New York Elevated Railway, an independent railwa ...

had a station above the square from 1878 until 1950. Upon the removal of the elevated, a park at Hanover Square was dedicated in November 1951. The Queen Elizabeth II Garden (originally the British Garden at Hanover Square) opened in June 2008. Following

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

's visit of Hanover Square in July 2010, the garden was rededicated as a memorial park for

Commonwealth realm A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state in the Commonwealth of Nations whose monarch and head of state is shared among the other realms. Each realm functions as an independent state, equal with the other realms and nations of the Commonwealt ...

citizens who died at the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

in May 2012.

Transportation

The nearest

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

stations are: *

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

() * Broad Street () * South Ferry/Whitehall Street () *

() *

Pier 11/Wall Street Pier 11/Wall Street is a pier providing slips to ferries and excursion boats on the East River in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located east of South Street and FDR Drive just south of Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City ...

The fourth phase of the

Second Avenue Subway The Second Avenue Subway (internally referred to as the IND Second Avenue Line by the MTA and abbreviated to SAS) is a New York City Subway line that runs under Second Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan. The first phase of this new line, ...

is proposed to extend subway service to Hanover Square.MTA map
of future 2nd Avenue Line

References

External links

NYC Parks history of Hanover Square
{{Protected areas of New York City Parks in Manhattan Squares in Manhattan Pocket parks Financial District, Manhattan