Ann Street is a 3-block-long street located in the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...
in
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
. It runs roughly east to west from
Broadway to
Gold Street.
History
Ann Street is one of the oldest streets in New York City, appearing on a map created in 1728. Ann Street was named after Ann White, the wife of a developer and merchant, Capt. Thomas White. She may have urged him to name the street after her because other merchants' wives already had streets named after them. The street is relatively small and short compared with the other lower Manhattan streets named after merchants' wives.

There have been several other streets in the city named Ann Street. One laid out between Reade and Franklin Streets prior to 1797 later became Elm Street. "Anne Street" was also a name circa 1748 for part of the present William Street. Today, there is only one Ann Street in Manhattan.
In 1809, John Scudder, a former seaman, had taken over
Edward Savage's "Columbian Gallery of Painting and City Museum" on Water Street, and added additional curiosities.
He operated
Scudder's American Museum on Chatham Street until 1817, when he relocated to the New York Institution on the site of the city's former almshouse in
City Hall Park
City Hall Park is a public park surrounding New York City Hall in the Civic Center of Manhattan. It was the town commons of the nascent city of New York.
History
17th century
David Provoost came to New Netherland as early as 1638, probab ...
. The museum shared this space with the
New-York Historical Society
The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...
. Scudder died in 1821. In 1830, his son moved
Scudder's American Museum to a five-story building on the corner of Broadway and Ann Street, across the street from
St. Paul's Chapel
St. Paul's Chapel is a chapel building of Trinity Church (Manhattan), Trinity Church, an Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal parish, located at 209 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, between Fulton Street (Manhattan), Fulton Street and V ...
.
In 1841 P.T. Barnum acquired Scudder's Museum. "
Barnum's American Museum
Barnum's American Museum was a dime museum located at the corner of Broadway, Park Row, and Ann Street in what is now the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, from 1841 to 1865. The museum was owned by famous showman P. T. Bar ...
" became one of the most popular showplaces in the United States during the 19th century. Barnum made a special hit in 1842 with the exhibition of Charles Stratton, the celebrated
midget
Midget (from ''midge'', a tiny biting insect) is a term for a person of unusually short stature that is considered by some to be pejorative due to its etymology.
While not a Medical terminology, medical term like ''dwarf'' (for a person with d ...
"
General Tom Thumb
Charles Sherwood Stratton (January 4, 1838 – July 15, 1883), better known by his stage name "General Tom Thumb", was an American with dwarfism who achieved great fame as a performer under circus pioneer P. T. Barnum.
Childhood and early ...
", as well as the
Fiji Mermaid
The Fiji mermaid (also Feejee mermaid) was an object composed of the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish. It was a common feature of sideshows where it was presented as the mummified body of a creature that was su ...
which he exhibited in collaboration with his
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
counterpart
Moses Kimball. The line in the Charles Ives song, ''Barnum's Mob, Ann Street,'' refers to the crowds drawn to see the curiosities at this museum. Other nineteenth-century businesses on Ann Street include the publisher
Dick and Fitzgerald on 18 Ann Street.

On May 10, 1979, a woman was attacked on Ann Street by a "pack of rats" as she was walking to her car. The woman hurried into the car and the rats climbed onto it. Several witnesses called the police. The rats were later found living in the burnt-out wreck of "Ryan's Cafe," a
bar that had served the area since the 1860s. The bar had exploded due to a
gas leak
A gas leak refers to a leak of natural gas or another gaseous product from a pipeline or other containment into any area where the gas should not be present. Gas leaks can be hazardous to health as well as the environment. Even a small leak into ...
on
December 11, 1970, and remained an empty lot throughout the 1970s. This empty lot was widely regarded to be the source of the rat problem. The city tugboat strike in 1979 compounded the problem as heaps of
garbage
Garbage, trash (American English), rubbish (British English), or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or ...
collected on Ann Street and in the abandoned lot causing the rat population to explode. The rat attack incident prompted
Mayor Ed Koch to order city pest control personnel to take immediate action on the problem. They killed and trapped hundreds of rats in just a few days, drawing media attention. The close proximity of Ann Street to City Hall made the incident all the more embarrassing. It helped to add to negative impressions of the city for years, but it also prompted people to act to improve downtown.
The recent addition of
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...
s to the upper floors of the some of older buildings has added more life to the area. Ann Street was gutted and repaved in 2006, as part of a city water main replacement project, greatly reducing the rat problems and further beautifying the area. The corner of Ann and Vesey Streets, Park Row, and Broadway is still as busy as it was in Barnum's day, shoppers and tourists frequent
J&R Computer World, one of the largest electronics stores in the nation.
In popular culture

Ann Street is the title and subject of a song by the early 20th century experimental classical composer
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale. His music was largely ignored d ...
with lyrics based on a poem written by Maurice Morris in 1921:
hout.br>
Broadway!
ing.
Ing, ING or ing may refer to:
Art and media
* '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film
* i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group
* The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes''
* "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...
br>
''Quaint name Ann street.''
''Width of same, ten feet.''
''
Barnum's mob Ann street,''
''Far from ob- solete.''
''Narrow, yes Ann street,''
''But business, Both feet.''
hout.br>
Nassau crosses Ann Street!
ing.
Ing, ING or ing may refer to:
Art and media
* '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film
* i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group
* The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes''
* "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...
br>
''Sun just hits Ann street,''
''Then it quits Some greet!''
''Rather short, Ann Street.''
The crossing of
Nassau Street and Ann Street is a highlight of the song and the street itself. Nassau Street is a business district filled with shops. At the intersection one can see a view deep into the heart of the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...
and the facade of the
New York Stock Exchange Building
The New York Stock Exchange Building (also NYSE Building) is the headquarters of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), located in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is composed of two co ...
(NYSE) six blocks away. Nassau Street and Ann Street meet at uneven angles leading one to feel rather surprised by the sudden explosion of pedestrian traffic, shops and lights when crossing their intersection.
See also
*
Vesey Street
Vesey Street ( ) is a street in New York City that runs east-west in Lower Manhattan. The street is named after Rev. William Vesey (1674–1746), the first rector of nearby Trinity Church (Manhattan), Trinity Church.
History
The intersection ...
—the western extension of Ann Street
*
2023 New York City parking garage collapse
References
Notes
External links
About the Song by Charles Ives Ann Street Water Main Replacement Project
{{Streets of Manhattan, state=collapsed
Streets in Manhattan
Financial District, Manhattan