When I think about the South Street Seaport (aka “The Seaport”), my first thought is of my paternal grandmother, who immigrated to New York City in the mid 1960s. She was born in 1935 in Toisan (Taishan), in China’s Guangdong province. Toisan is often known as the “hometown of overseas Chinese” (St. Cavish 2026) because many people in the Chinese diaspora, including many Chinese Americans like myself, consider it their ancestral hometown. I don’t speak much Taishanese, but one thing I can say to my grandma when I visit is: “let’s go to the Seaport for a walk.”
My grandma currently lives in St. Margaret's House, a senior housing community on Fulton Street, with mostly Chinese residents due to its proximity to Chinatown. From here, if you head to the left, cross a few streets, you’ll reach the Seaport. On a nice day, there are many people relaxing outside. They are reading, sunbathing, or just hanging out. The Seaport is a place to unwind, to escape from the hustle and bustle. My grandma usually doesn’t like walking but she enjoys being by the river and seeing the boats sail by.
The Seaport is located in a unique spot in downtown Manhattan, in between Wall Street/the Financial District and Chinatown. While it doesn’t have the flashiness of FiDi or isn’t as deeply rooted in a particular culture as Chinatown, it has a distinct historical charm, which draws locals and tourists. The Seaport has classic New York red brick buildings and cobblestone streets. When you wander around, you are immediately transported to the 19th century, when New York was a big city but not quite the huge metropolis it is today. Seeing the historic buildings, you can imagine the sounds of the busy port and of trade happening all around.
However, the Seaport has a complex history that is rooted in colonialism and slave labor. The area later known as the Seaport was first known by the indigenous Lenape people as being part of “Manna-hata,” what we now know as Manhattan (Jelly-Schapiro 2021). The Seaport was founded in 1624 by the Dutch West India company, who established New Amsterdam (Seaport Museum, n.d.). This marked the arrival of Europeans, with British colonists taking control of the area in 1664 and renaming it to New York.
Enslaved Africans were forcibly transported by boat to Lower Manhattan, with New Amsterdam being considered an important slave port by 1660 (Equal Justice Initiative 2022). And “in 1711, New York City opened an official market for the trafficking of enslaved people on Wall Street, which became the central location for the trading of enslaved people” (Equal Justice Initiative 2022). Today, a few blocks away from the Seaport, stands the African Burial Ground. It is the largest and oldest cemetery of enslaved people, and “the resting place of 15,000 enslaved and free Blacks, along with some Native Americans and impoverished white people” (Seaport Museum, n.d.). This historical reality is important to acknowledge, and presents a stark contrast to the Seaport most people think of.
In the 1800s, as the Seaport became more prosperous and the port expanded, it was a major hub for trade with Asia. In 1844, large and fast ships, called clippers, often sailed into the Seaport. One of these ships was the “Houqua, [the] first streamlined ship, designed by Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer for China trade, launched in New York for A.A. Low & Brothers of Burling Slip” (Seaport Community Coalition n.d.). When I recently visited the Seaport Museum, there were colorful and eye-catching ads for teas and other merchandise on display: oolong tea from Taiwan (Formosa), gunpowder and young hyson (green tea) from China, along with silk goods, chinaware, and fancy Japanese goods.
New York City has always been a major center of migration, and the Seaport has played a large role in this. The Seaport has seen “thousands of Immigrant families from all over the world seeking new opportunities In America. Between 1820 and 1860, five and one half million alien passengers came to the U.S. and more arrived at the South Street Seaport piers than at any other port of entry” (Landmarks Preservation Commission 1977, 3). The Seaport is a site where people and goods have constantly flowed through, shaping its culture in the process.
To some, the Seaport may seem an odd mix, a dichotomy of old and modern, quiet and busy, a place full of contradictions and transformations. This area has endured a lot of modernization and gentrification, having undergone several construction projects over the years, including the environmental alteration caused by landfill used to artificially expand downtown Manhattan. This process is known as land reclamation. From the late 18th century, “...landfill took it [the shoreline] to Water Street, then to Front Street and finally, in the early 19th century, to South Street, which is the eastern boundary of that part of Manhattan today. Parts of South Street were still swamp as late as 1821” (City Lore 2007).
For me, the Seaport holds many memories. I was born and raised downtown, and the Seaport is a spot my family would constantly visit. When I was in elementary school, I remember my grandmother would take my sister and I to the Pearl Street Playground, on the corner right across from the Seaport. The playground, like the Seaport itself, has gone through many iterations. The latest version, with its cheery sky blue and yellow paint, isn’t the park I knew. I feel somewhat guilty to admit that I don’t remember what the park looked like before. I wonder if that’s what my grandmother feels when she sees the world now, her memory and mind failing her in her old age.
Despite all this change, New York City’s history still continues to endure in the Seaport.
Bibliography
City Lore. 2007. “South Street Seaport.” District Lines Newsletter. https://citylore.org/places/south-street-seaport/.
Equal Justice Initiative. 2022. “The Transatlantic Slave Trade.” https://eji.org/report/transatlantic-slave-trade/new-york/#trading-on-wall-street.
Jelly-Schapiro, Joshua. “How New York Was Named.” The New Yorker, April 13, 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-new-york-was-named.
Landmarks Preservation Commission. 1977. "South Street Seaport Historic District Designation Report." New York: City of New York.
Seaport Community Coalition. n.d. “The South Street Seaport History.” Accessed March 28, 2026. https://www.seaportcoalition.org/seaport-history-old.
Seaport Museum. n.d. “Poetry of Enslavement and the African Burial Ground.” Accessed April 9, 2026. https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/boneyarn/.
Seaport Museum. n.d. “The History of the Seaport.” Accessed March 28, 2026. https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/history-of-the-seaport/.
St. Cavish, Christopher. “The Chinese City Where Waffles, Watchtowers and World History Meet.” South China Morning Post, February 21, 2026. https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3342496/how-taishan-learned-absorb-world.
