The East River Waterfront: A Historical Perspective

Andrea Renner 

New Yorkers sometimes forget that their city is surrounded by water, that their grand metropolis has more coastline than either Los Angeles or Miami. Only in the past century has the water become less intertwined in our daily lives. For most of the city’s history, as exemplified by the East River waterfront, the rivers and waterways have been instrumental in the city’s growth. 

Through the early 19th century, the East River waterfront was the site of farms, villas, and meadows. New York’s elite settled along the northern stretches of the shoreline, erecting their country homes away from the bustle of the city developing on the island’s southern tip. Archibald Gracie built his mansion, which is currently the official mayoral residence, in 1799 at what is today 88th Street. As New York’s economy grew through the 19th century, wooden docks and piers were built along the shoreline, followed by factories, slaughterhouses, coal yards, and breweries, as filling continuously widened the island. 

A view of the Brevoort Estate and Vicinity Between 54th & 55th Streets near First Avenue. Lithograph by Major & Knapp for D.T. Valentine’s Manual, 1866 

Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Chester Dale, X2011.40.1. 

In the late 19th century, the riverfront went into decline, in part due to the rise of superior port services in Brooklyn and New Jersey. A new vision for the shoreline began to emerge in the late 1920s, when civic leaders proposed building an arterial highway along Manhattan’s eastern edge, flanked by a riverside promenade, in order to ease traffic and modernize the city. It was to be a clean, streamlined highway, making it possible for cars to drive from Battery Park to 125th Street without traffic lights or other interruptions. Such modern highways arose throughout the United States in the 1930s, including Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles. In 1939, when New York officials secured money from the federal Public Works Administration to cover 45% of construction costs, construction on the first section of New York City’s East River Drive (today FDR Drive) and Esplanade commenced. 

Manhattan Borough President Stanley Isaacs, who oversaw the project with assistance from Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, viewed the Drive as a backbone for broad development, a project that would encourage new economic growth along the East Side and bring parks, playgrounds, and modern housing to the people. The East River Esplanade provided a paved, narrow walk, making use of the area between the highway and the waterfront. Between 81st and 89th Street, engineers tucked the roadway below Carl Schurz Park, creating a magnificent, cantilevered walkway for pedestrians, designed by Harvey Stevenson. 

With renewed interest in the East River waterfront, as displayed by CIVITAS, it seems New Yorkers are beginning to reevaluate their relationship to the water. The city has recently initiated a number of large-scale improvements across the five boroughs, from the Hudson River Park in Manhattan to a planned Greenway in the South Bronx. In March 2011, the Bloomberg administration unveiled Vision 2020, its long-term plan for the city’s waterfront, which seeks to better integrate the waterways into the daily life of the city and improve access. New York is returning to its watery roots. 

Andrea Renner curated the Reimagining the Waterfront exhibition and is the Museum of the City of New York Andrew W. Mellon Post- Doctoral Curatorial Fellow. 

To read the complete fall 2012 issue of CIVITAS News, visit http://civitasnyc.org/civitas-newsletters/