Foley Square, also called Federal Plaza, is a street intersection in the
Civic Center neighborhood of
Lower Manhattan,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, which contains a small triangular park named Thomas Paine Park.
The space is bordered by
Worth Street
Worth Street is a two-way street running roughly northwest-southeast in Manhattan, New York City. It runs from Hudson Street, TriBeCa, in the west to Chatham Square in Chinatown in the east. Past Chatham Square, the roadway continues as Oliver ...
to the north,
Centre Street to the east, and
Lafayette Street
Lafayette Street is a major north-south street in New York City's Lower Manhattan. It originates at the intersection of Reade Street and Centre Street, one block north of Chambers Street. The one-way street then successively runs through Chi ...
to the west, and is located south of
Manhattan's Chinatown and east of
Tribeca
Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stree ...
. It was named after a prominent
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
district leader and local
saloon owner,
Thomas F. "Big Tom" Foley (1852–1925).
Site
Foley Square sits on part of the former site of
Collect Pond, specifically the smaller portion known as "Little Collect Pond" which used to lie to the south of Collect Pond proper. This was one of the original fresh water sources for the city, but in 1811 was drained and filled in because it had become severely polluted and implicated in
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
and
cholera outbreaks. The neighborhood around the pond was the notorious
Five Points neighborhood, home of many
gangs
A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...
.
Description
The square is the site of a number of civic buildings including the classic facades and colonnaded entrances of the 1933-built
United States Courthouse, fronted by the sculpture ''
Triumph of the Human Spirit'' by artist
Lorenzo Pace; the
New York County Courthouse
The New York State Supreme Court Building, originally known as the New York County Courthouse, at 60 Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, houses the Civil and Appellate Terms of the New ...
; the Church of St. Andrew; the
Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse
The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse (originally the United States Courthouse or the Foley Square Courthouse) is a 37-story courthouse at 40 Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New Yor ...
– known before 2003 as the Foley Square Courthouse – where the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate ju ...
is based; the
Manhattan Municipal Building
The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building (originally the Municipal Building and later known as the Manhattan Municipal Building) is a 40-story, building at 1 Centre Street, east of Chambers Street, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhat ...
; the
Ted Weiss Federal Building and the
Jacob K. Javits Federal Building and
Court of International Trade
The United States Court of International Trade ( case citations: Int'l Trade or Intl. Trade) is a U.S. federal court that adjudicates civil actions arising out of U.S. customs and international trade laws. Seated in New York City, it exercise ...
.
[, p.421.]
Also featured in the square are five
bronze historical medallions, set flush into areas of the surrounding sidewalks, telling the history of the park and its surroundings, including one for the "Negro Burial Ground", an 18th-century African-American burial ground unearthed during construction of the square. This burial ground has been preserved as the
African Burial Ground National Monument.
''
Tilted Arc,'' a
public art
Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...
installation
Installation may refer to:
* Installation (computer programs)
* Installation, work of installation art
* Installation, military base
* Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...
by
Richard Serra
Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, Urban area, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material q ...
, was displayed in the square from 1981 until it was removed amid controversy in 1989. In 2005, Thomas Paine Park was established as a part of the square.
Foley Square has been used several times for special purposes. It was used as a triage center on
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
. The Foley Square Greenmarket operates year-round at the corner of Centre Street between Worth and Pearl Streets, and offers baked goods as well as local farm picked fruits and vegetables which are guaranteed to have been harvested within three days of sale. Because of its proximity to
Chinatown, Foley Square is often host to a large group of people performing
tai chi
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. ...
in the mornings.
Site of protests
On November 17, 2011, Foley Square was the site of a protest which was part of the
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to t ...
movement, which took place after the protestors had been removed from nearby
Zuccotti Park
Zuccotti Park (formerly Liberty Plaza Park) is a publicly accessible park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is located in a privately owned public space (POPS) controlled by Brookfield Properties and Goldman Sachs ...
. Thousands of people attended the rally, including members of a dozen different unions.
Foley Square has been the site of many other protests and rallies. In December 2014, many thousands gathered there to protest the decision in the
death of Eric Garner
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the incide ...
. In November 2016, in protest of the
Dakota Access Pipeline and in solidarity with
Standing Rock
The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North Dakota, North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa Lakota, Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate a ...
water protectors
Water protectors are activists, organizers, and cultural workers focused on the defense of the world's water and water systems. The ''water protector'' name, analysis and style of activism arose from Indigenous communities in North America du ...
, dozens of the thousands of protesters were arrested. In January 2017, to protest the
inauguration of Donald Trump
The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States marked the commencement of Donald Trump's term as president and Mike Pence as vice president. An estimated 300,000 to 600,000 people attended the public ceremony hel ...
, a collection of activist groups organized a rally titled "NYC Stand Against Trump", held at Foley Square.
[ ]
Gallery
Image:New York Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street.jpg, New York County Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street
Image:WTM sheila 0036.jpg, Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse
The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse (originally the United States Courthouse or the Foley Square Courthouse) is a 37-story courthouse at 40 Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New Yor ...
at 40 Centre Street
Image:WTM sheila 0042.jpg, Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street
See also
*
Foley Square trial
The Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in New York City from 1949 to 1958 were the result of US federal government prosecutions in the postwar period and during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Leaders of the ...
References
External links
Photographs of Foley Square buildings and surroundings.NYC Parks - Foley Square
{{Streets of Manhattan
Civic Center, Manhattan
Parks in Manhattan
*
Squares in Manhattan