William Street is a street 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 headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

Lower Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is sit ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It runs generally southwest to northeast, crossing

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

. At Beaver Street, William Street splits in two. The western segment is known as South William Street and terminates at Broad Street, while the eastern segment continues as William Street and terminates at Stone Street. The northern terminal is

Spruce Street Spruce Street is a three-block-long street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It starts at Park Row (Manhattan), Park Row, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, and runs east to Gold Stre ...

. North of Beekman Street, in front of

New York Downtown Hospital New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital is a nonprofit, acute care, teaching hospital in New York City and is the only hospital in Lower Manhattan south of Greenwich Village. It is part of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System and ...

, William Street is a pedestrian-only street.

History

It is one of the oldest streets in Manhattan and can be seen in the 1660

Castello Plan The Castello Planofficially entitled ''Afbeeldinge van de Stadt Amsterdam in Nieuw Neederlandt'' ( Dutch, "Picture of the City of Amsterdam in New Netherland")is an early city map of what is now the Financial District of Lower Manhattan from ...

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

. It was originally called King Street, but was later renamed William after Willem Beekman who arrived in

in 1647 as a fellow passenger of

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant ( – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as the Directors of New Netherland, director-general of New Netherland from 1647 to 1664, when the colony was pro ...

. Beekman got his start as a

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

clerk and later served nine terms as mayor of the young port city. The buildings on South William Street 13-23 were reconstructed in the Dutch revival style by architect

C. P. H. Gilbert Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert (August 29, 1861 – October 25, 1952) was an American architect of the late-19th and early-20th centuries best known for designing townhouses and mansions. Ancestry and early life Born in New York City, G ...

and later Edward L. Tilton in the early 1900s, evoking New Amsterdam with the use of red brick as building material and the features of

stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

s. These buildings are part of the Stone Street Historic District, designated in 1996 by the

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the Government of New York City, New York City agency charged with administering the city's Historic preservation, Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting Ne ...

Buildings

The buildings on William Street tend to cater to the financial underpinnings of the area and include luxury

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

s, offices, and at least one

conference center A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

. Notable buildings fronting William Street include: *

1 William Street 1 William Street (formerly the J. & W. Seligman & Company Building and the Lehman Brothers Building; also the Banca Commerciale Italiana Building) is an office building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The buildin ...

*13-23 South William Street, constructed in

Dutch Colonial Revival architecture Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial Re ...

*85 Broad Street (

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

) * 2 South William Street (

Delmonico's Restaurant Delmonico's is a series of restaurants that have operated in New York City, and Greenwich, Connecticut, with the present version located at 56 Beaver Street in the Financial District of Manhattan. The original version was widely recogni ...

) *

15 William 15 William, formerly known as the William Beaver House, is a 47-story, condominium apartment building at 15 William Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 2008, at which time it was the only ground-up reside ...

20 Exchange Place 20 Exchange Place, originally the City Bank–Farmers Trust Building, is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Completed in 1931, it was designed by Cross & Cross as the headquarters of the City Bank–Farm ...

55 Wall Street 55 Wall Street, formerly the National City Bank Building, is an eight-story building on Wall Street between William and Hanover streets in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The lowest three sto ...

48 Wall Street 48 Wall Street, formerly the Bank of New York & Trust Company Building, is a 32-story, skyscraper on the corner of Wall Street and William Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1927–1929 in the N ...

28 Liberty Street 28 Liberty Street, formerly known as One Chase Manhattan Plaza, is a 60-story International Style skyscraper between Nassau, Liberty, William, and Pine Streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building, designed by ...

33 Liberty Street 33 may refer to: *33 (number) *33 BC *AD 33 *1933 * 2033 Science * Arsenic, a metalloid in the periodic table * 33 Polyhymnia, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Music * La 33, a Colombian salsa music band Albums * ''33'' (Luis Miguel album) (2 ...

(

Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses the New York (state), State of New York, the 12 norther ...

) * 130 William *

Pace University Pace University is a private university with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, United States. It was established in 1906 as a business school by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace. Pace enrolls about ...

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

* Our Lady of Victory Church (Manhattan)

Transportation

The

IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line IRT may refer to: Organisations * Indiana Repertory Theatre, an American company of actors * Institut für Rundfunktechnik, a German research institute for broadcasters * Interborough Rapid Transit Company, a defunct New York subway operator Sci ...

() of the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

runs under William Street, with stops at

and Fulton Street.

References

External links

* Financial District, Manhattan Streets in Manhattan {{NYC-road-stub