The Foley Square

The Foley Square contains the Foley Courthouse, the Foley Square Apartments  which are located on 111 Worth Street in Manhattan, and the Foley Federal building. Foley Square Greenmarket is a year round farmer's market located on Center Street between Worth and Pearl Streets. I have yet to discover the reason for the name Foley but is probably due to the Contractor - Tishman Foley Partners.

Foley Square Federal Office Building
290 Broadway, New York, NY 10278
Architect: Helmuth, Obata, Kassabaum (HOK)
Constructed: 1991 - 1995
Nat'l Register ID #:
GSA Building #: NY0350ZZ

The Courthouse was Named After Thurgood Marshall this year although it is continued to be called Foley Courthouse in Foley Square
The Associated Press
April 15, 2003, 11:02 AM EDT

"A historic federal courthouse in lower Manhattan has been named in honor of Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice.

The Thurgood Marshall Federal Courthouse at 40 Foley Square was dedicated Monday before an audience of judges, local elected officials and Marshall's family members.

Marshall worked at the Foley Square courthouse from 1961 to 1965, when he was a justice on the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He became the first black to sit on the nation's highest court in 1967 and was known as one of its most liberal members.

Marshall won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the court as a lawyer. The most notable was Brown v. Board of Education, which found segregation in public schools illegal.

Marshall spent more than 30 years of his career in New York, working as a federal justice and before that chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People In August 2001, Congress passed legislation, sponsored by New York Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, both Democrats, to name the courthouse after Marshall."

History of the site as it relates to Irish Americans

The courthouse and Square were built over the Five Points section of New York infamous for its Irish Gangs. It is situated between the residential communities of Chinatown, Little Italy and the Foley Square civic precinct. "Before the Five Points, there was a little part of Manhattan called the Collect that became home to many breweries, and tanneries because the pond was a major source of fresh water. Eventually, though, the pond grew too polluted for use, and was filled in 1803. The recovered, waterlogged land, was used to build a massive prison called the Tombs in 1838."¹ The Five Points built in this area was geometrically named in the 1830’s from intersection of five streets: Mulberry, Anthony (now Worth Street), Cross (now Park), Orange (now Baxter), and Little Water Street (no longer exists). The land was unsuitable at the time for large buildings due to its marshy unstaible geology. "In the 19th century, the area around Foley Square was known as Five Points and was one of Manhattan's worst neighborhoods. The residents of Five Points were among the city's poorest and the living conditions were deplorable. Additionally, the area was home to some of the most offensive industries in the city, including the livestock slaughterhouses and bone crushing factories. Archeologists working in this area have located remnants of kitchen utensils, butchery and tanning tools. Bricks from an earlier seventeenth century Dutch community have also been found. As the neighborhood was transformed at the turn of the century the majority of buildings were demolished. As the new century emerged the area assumed a new identity and character defined by the dignified and architecturally important buildings for the courthouses and federal buildings for which Foley Square is known today."²

The Five Points is a whole bit of important Irish American History that every Irish American should be aware of. It was a tenement for those new arrivals in this great country. It was a slum like none we know of today. People there were so poor that for a cheap sum they could have a drink from a barrell where all the dredge from the bottom of glasses and bottles of any and all alcholic beverages were emptied. This concoction was known as "Allsorts". Driven into it were the Irish "lowlifes" that arrive fresh from their homeland. Later it was also the home to Afro-Americans. It was the home to the precursers of todays gangs. I is now imortalized in the movie "Gangs of New York". Prior to watching the movie I had done much reading on the Five Points.

On the above map you can see Paradise Park in which much blood was shed and the historic Five Point Mission were Ministers tried to bring God back in to the life of all denominations that lived there.

Charles Dickens wrote of the Five Points: "This is the place: these narrow ways diverging to the right and left, and reeking every where with dirt and filth. Such lives as are led here, bear the same fruit here as elsewhere. The coarse and bloated faces at the doors have counterparts at home and all the wide world over. Debauchery has made the very houses prematurely old. See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how the patched and broken windows seem to scowl dimly, like eyes that have been hurt in drunken frays. Many of these pigs live here. Do they ever wonder why their masters walk upright in lieu of going on all-fours? and why they talk instead of grunting?"³

During the Civil War there was much unrest among the immigrants as they lost their sons in a war they could not comprehend. They resented the Afro Americans and blamed them partially for the war. A rich man could buy out of the draft for $300 and the immigrants resented them as well which led up to the Draft Riots.

Current Maps of the Five Points Yahoo and Mapquest

Archeologists unearthed thousand of artifacts from the Five Points around Foley Square. The Foley Courthouse was completed in 1994 and is a grand building that bears our name. The site is also the location of an 18th century African-American burial ground, which has been excavated and is memorialized in the building. As an archeology fan, It seems a shame that progress takes history from us but that is society.

Other Foley named sites in New York is Foley's Restaurant & Bar in the Renaissance New York Hotel Times Square. There is also the Foley Fish House in the Renaissance New York Hotel located on 714 7th Avenue. It's only restaurant with a panoramic view of Times Square. Fresh seafood and a variety of other entrees are served in a comfortable and elegant setting.

References

¹History of Chinatown
² Historic Federal Buildings
³ What is Five Points

Related Historical Links

A Picture History of the Five Points
The Witch Hunt You Never Heard Of By R. Brian Ferguson
The Draft Riots
Historic Federal Buildings - Foley Courthouse
Foley Square Courthouse New York, New York, USA
Where the Gang's Lived - New York's Desparate Five Points Neighborhood  It includes a nice big old drawing of the neighborhood.

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