Tribeca, sometimes known as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its name is an abbreviation for “Triangle Below Canal Street,” which is a syllabic abbreviation. Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Chambers Street form the “triangle” (which is more accurately a quadrilateral) that surrounds the city. In recent years, it has become common practice to extend Tribeca’s southern limit to either Vesey or Murray streets in order to boost the desirability of property listings in the neighborhood.
The neighborhood began as farmland, then became a residential neighborhood in the early nineteenth century, before transitioning to a mercantile district centered on produce, dry goods, and textiles, and then transitioning to artists, and then actors, models, entrepreneurs, and other celebrities, as the neighborhood has evolved. The neighborhood is home to the Tribeca Film Festival, which was established in reaction to the September 11th terrorist attacks in order to revitalize the neighborhood and downtown once the devastation inflicted by the terrorist attacks was completed.
Tribeca is a trendy neighborhood famed for its historic industrial buildings, many of which have been converted into residential loft space. Trendy boutiques and restaurants adorn the cobblestone streets of this historic district. The red-brick New York Mercantile Exchange building, built in 1884, is one of the city’s most historic commercial structures. Weekends are often calm, while Washington Market Park and Hudson River Park are popular with families throughout the week. Every spring, the Tribeca Film Festival takes place in this city.
Farming in the area now known as Tribeca, or TriBeCa, dates back to the time of the Dutch settlers to New Amsterdam, most notably Roeloft Jansen and his wife Anneke Jans, who went on to marry Everardus Bogardus. The land remained in the family until 1670, when it was transferred to Col. Francis Lovelace by a deed of gift. It was the Dutch who took command of the territory in 1674, and it was the English who reclaimed it a year later. Taking control of the territory in 1674 was Governor Andros, who was acting on the Duke of York’s behalf.
A huge piece of land donated to Trinity Church by Queen Anne in 1705 included Tribeca, which was later subdivided. When the church constructed St. John’s Chapel on Varick Street in 1807, it also planned the development of St. John’s Park, which is bordered by Laight Street, Varick Street, Ericsson Place, and Hudson Street. Hudson Square, a subdivision of brick residences that ringed the park and served as a model for Gramercy Park, was also constructed by the church. In fact, it was one of the earliest residential districts in New York City to be established outside of the city’s colonial bounds, and it continued to be predominantly residential until the 1840s.
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