10 Favorite Places (2) Lower Manhattan

I've been able to work in some fabulous places in New York City and I especially liked the years spent in Lower Manhattan. It feels odd writing this because some of the time was among the most traumatic of my life, but on the whole I loved being "downtown," and enjoy so much being back in the neighborhood. Sometimes it's for meetings during the week and sometimes it's for shopping or sight seeing during the weekend. The photos here were taken on the walk from the building I used to work in -- and many colleagues still do, so there are lots of meetings here -- to the subway about six blocks away.

This first photo is the Custom House, now the National Museum of the American Indian. It was built in 1907 and is officially the Alexander Hamilton Custom House. Customs duties were the most important revenue for America before the income tax and the Port of New York was very important in this effort. I passed it daily and it was also part of the view from my window for over five years and I never grew tired of it. The collection inside is fascinating and highly recommended, as well as the decorative pieces of the interior of the building. And for the shoppers among us, it has a great gift shop.


My walk continued up Broadway -- over the sidewalks we saw last week, and past Trinity Church which is shown in the background of this picture. I'm standing at Nassau Street and Wall Street and it's the usual rush hour crowd. We're right around the corner from the New York Stock Exchange. If you look very carefully you can see the cranes that are part of the construction equipment for the World Trade Center site.

Turning in the opposite direction and a block from my subway stop is Federal Hall, with its statue of George Washington on the front steps. This building was once too, a customs house, but more importantly it was on this site -- though in a building not preserved -- that Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. There are interesting exhibitions here and currently there is one marking the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in 1809.

I've really enjoyed sharing one of my favorite walks in one of my favorite places. Thanks so much for joining me.