In the lobby of the office building at 85 Broad Street, salvaged curbs are embedded in the floor to mark the place where Stone Street once passed through — a perfect homage to the past in a city that builds ever upward without losing sight of its history. Stone Street, named after its famous cobbles, is one of the oldest streets in New York. It’s also one of the best places to enjoy the atmosphere of the city, both past and present. With spring in bloom, now is the ideal time to take a trip to the Financial District to soak in the layers of history at Trinity Church and Churchyard, and to take in Stone Street by foot to enjoy its outdoor bars and dining. And it’s all just a short walk from the Downtown condos at One Manhattan Square.
Trinity Church is one of the historical and architectural gems of New York. A building that was constructed no less than three times at the same site, it is a place of fantastic stories, like that of the pirate Captain Kidd, who supposedly helped build the church with materials from his ship, earning himself a pew and a place in history. The church and its grounds were born from the country’s early ties to England, sponsored by a land grant from Queen Anne. It was both a place of worship and the burial grounds for some of the most notable New Yorkers in the city’s early history, including Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza. As the church’s archivist Joseph Lapinski told Business Insider, “The Ludlows, the Bleeckers, the Livingstons — all the people whose names are on New York street signs — were people who attended Trinity Church.” The churchyard cemetery is also a beautiful green space, an oasis where you can viscerally experience the textures of the stones, read the names of the prominent New Yorkers interred there, and absorb the atmosphere of the city’s history.
After visiting the churchyard, head to Stone Street for lunch or dinner and a beer at the storied Stone Street Tavern, which has plentiful outdoor seating and is beloved by the writers at the Infatuation who say, “When summer Fridays roll around on Stone Street, it can be tough to tell where one bar ends and the next one begins. The outdoor seating on this cobblestone street in FiDi kind of resembles Oktoberfest, but instead of lederhosen, you’ll mostly see recently polished shoes and white dress shirts. We tend to gravitate to the picnic tables outside Stone Street Tavern, which has a better beer list than most spots on the block, a big menu of affordable bar food, and Happy Hour till 7 p.m.” It’s just the right vantage point to engage with the history of the street, and to be a part of its current vitality in present-day New York.