Lower Manhattan, a brief visit

Getting off of the subway at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station, one finds much of New York City's government buildings. But a short walk brings you to other sites, some more well-known than others. We left for Manhattan shortly after lunch and had only a few hours to spend touring before meeting friends for dinner and the theatre.

Municipal Building - Borough of Manhattan

State Court

United States Courthouse

Chi Wara headdress statue.
These headdresses are worn by the Bamana people of Mali.

In 1654, Governor Peter Stuyvesant begrudgingly allowed 23 Jews escaping the Portuguese Inquisition in Brazil to settle in New Netherland. They founded their synagogue shortly thereafter. Nestled between two storefronts on St. James Street catercorner to Chatham Square at the foot of Chinatown's Mott Street is the first Jewish cemetery in North America.

Shearith Israel, The Remnant of Israel, was the first synagogue in North America and the only Jewish congregation in New York City until 1825. This is the first of their three Manhattan cemeteries whose use spanned more than two centuries until New York forbade burials in Manhattan (1858).

At one time, this cemetery was much larger, but what remains is now the size of a large NYC backyard.





.
































In Chinatown, at the foot of Mott Street is Chatham Square with its Asian arch and statue of Lin Zexu, known for his fight against the opium trade in China.

Photos of Mott Street south of Canal Street.

There are many fine Chinese restaurants here
and shops where one can purchase a "genuine" Gucci purse for about ten bucks.

Shearith Israel's second cemetery is located on West 11th street just east of Sixth Avenue. What remains of it is slightly smaller than the previous cemetery. It was in use from 1805 until 1825.

































The Rubin Museum of Art is one of New York City's newest museums. The Rubin is dedicated to displaying art of the Himalayas. Most of the works presented are Hindu or Buddhist, but they occasionally, as they do now, have works from Christianity, Islam and Judaism, other groups which have their roots in Southwest Asia. 

They also have a pretty good restaurant which serves foods of various Himalayan countries.

Sarah on the Rubin's helical staircase.

Allen examines two contrasting masks.

As an added treat, there was a free afternoon concert in the lobby which ran until seven. We would have stayed longer, but we had those plans and another cemetery to see.









The third cemetery of Shearith Israel has more of its original land still intact and is the largest of what remains of Shearith Israel's three Manhattan cemeteries.

This cemetery is located between apartment buildings on West 21st Street just west of Sixth Avenue. It was used for interments from 1829 until 1851.

Shearith Israel's current cemetery is in Queens.












Then on to dinner and Hair.