Pier A
22 Battery Place | Battery Park City | built 1886
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1886
A March 1886 blizzard shows how well Pier A's offices are insulated
Pier A's first winter brought a fierce storm to the city. The Docks Department had packed the building with tar paper, mineral wool and tongue-and-groove paneling. Chief Engineer George Greene reported that during the blizzard in early March the rooms stayed at 85 degrees, with the boiler running at 60 pounds of pressure against a licensed limit of 100.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1886
Pier A is completed as headquarters for the Dock Department and Harbor Police
Built from 1884 to 1886, Pier A housed the city's Board of Dock Commissioners and the New York City Police Department's harbor police. The engineer George Sears Greene Jr. designed it, and the whole project cost about $120,000, including $80,000 for the pier deck.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1894
A transatlantic cable receiving station moves from Coney Island to Pier A
In 1894 the cable ship Mackay-Bennett laid a telegraph line linking Pier A with Coney Island. The Commercial Cable Company then moved the receiving station for its transatlantic cable to the pier, because streetcars were causing heavy electrical interference at the Coney Island station.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1900
The Docks Department adds a three-story annex at the shore end of Pier A
According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the 1900 annex is the three-story structure at the inshore end of Pier A, built to give the Docks Department the room it needed. A further story went on toward the inshore end in 1904. Together with the clock installed in 1919, these were the three major alterations made after the original construction.
- 1917
A Docks Department employee dives into the river to save a drowning boy
Joseph J. Madden of the Docks Department, which was headquartered at Pier A, was working at his desk when he heard cries from the waterfront. The boy, William Murphy, had fallen in and the tide was dragging him away. Madden dived in fully dressed, swam 200 feet to reach him and got them both onto a float. He was awarded a silver Congressional medal for the rescue.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1919
A ship's clock is installed as the nation's first World War I memorial
In 1919 a clock donated by the industrialist Daniel G. Reid was placed in Pier A's tower as the first memorial in the United States to those who died in World War I. Rather than striking the hours, its bells ring ship's time, sounding one to eight bells at half-hour intervals as on a vessel's watch.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1927
Aviator Charles Lindbergh is received at Pier A
Pier A served as a ceremonial gateway for dignitaries arriving in New York Harbor. Charles Lindbergh was welcomed there in 1927, joining a roster of notable visitors that included Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1923 and, later, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1960
The Fire Department makes Pier A the home of its Marine Company 1
From 1960 to 1992 the FDNY's Marine Fire Company 1 was based at Pier A, operating the fireboat John D. McKean and commissioning newer vessels such as the Governor Alfred E. Smith there. The pier became a city landmark in 1977 after preservationists fought plans to demolish it during the building of Battery Park City. It reopened in 2014 as a restaurant after a $40 million renovation.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1964
A 'face-lifting' strips Pier A's ornament and covers it in aluminum siding
Five years after the Docks Department moved out of Pier A, Fire Commissioner Edward Thompson announced a renovation to turn an eyesore into a sight to be fond of. The old metal exterior came off and aluminum siding went on, and the Beaux-Arts scrolls and pilasters were discarded. By then the tower clock, installed as a war memorial, no longer worked.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1975
New York's fiscal crisis spares Pier A from demolition and it gains landmark protection
Plans had been drawn up to tear the pier down for office towers and a marine facility, but the city's money troubles left lower Manhattan with millions of square feet of empty offices and the towers were dropped. In 1975 preservationists won a National Register listing, which brought matching grants of $90,000 each from the federal and state governments. The city designated Pier A a landmark in 1977.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2001
After September 11, six ferry slips go up at Pier A within six weeks
The attacks of September 11, 2001 badly disrupted the city's transit system, and commuters crowded onto the ferries at Pier 11. The city and state built a temporary commuter ferry dock at Pier A with six slips in six weeks, and NY Waterway began running boats from it. New York Water Taxi added service in late 2002, and the terminal closed in December 2003.
“…the city and state governments built a temporary dock for commuter ferries at Pier A, constructing six slips within six weeks of the attack…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
Harbor House restaurant opens at Pier A
After a $40 million renovation, the Harbor House restaurant opened inside Pier A in November 2014, giving the century-old harbor building its first sustained public use as a dining destination. The restaurant closed in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- City Pier AWikipedia
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