Fulton-Nassau Historic District

This commercial district in Lower Manhattan covers all or part of ten blocks north of Wall Street, centered on Fulton and Nassau streets. Its 75 contributing resources include early nineteenth-century brick counting houses, Italianate stone and cast-iron buildings, and a notable group of late nineteenth-century skyscrapers such as Temple Court, the Bennett Building, the Morse Building, the Potter Building and the New York Times Building. Taller office buildings followed the steel skeleton frame, and the last office building, built in 1939-40 for the Aetna Life Insurance Company, combines Art Deco and Modern elements. Streets laid out in the colonial era are irregular, producing unusual lot shapes and vistas. Low shops and restaurants stayed between the taller buildings because the streets carried heavy pedestrian traffic. Storefronts and ground-floor windows have been altered many times, yet the upper floors and overall street pattern remain largely intact. The district is listed for its record of the development of commercial architecture and the early skyscraper in Lower Manhattan.