Fulton Ferry District

Fulton Ferry District occupies a point of land on Brooklyn's East River shore, opposite lower Manhattan. It was the core of Brooklyn's early commercial center, tied to a ferry crossing first established in 1642. The district follows lower Fulton Street and Water Street and holds commercial and warehouse buildings dating from 1830 to 1895, mostly brick and two to four stories tall. Notable examples include the 1830s buildings at 85 Water Street and 5-7 Front Street, a row of 1837-1839 buildings on Fulton Street, the 1860-61 Brooklyn City and Newtown Railroad Company Building, an 1869 cast-iron bank facade, the Empire Stores coffee and sugar warehouses designed by Thomas Stone, and the seven-story Eagle Warehouse by Frank Freeman, built in 1893. After the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, the ferry declined and the waterfront became a warehouse and light industrial area. City plans called for preserving its character and reusing its buildings.