West side Rambler

  • Blog
  • About
  • Real Estate
  • Subscribe
The Joseph R. Hennessey Oyster Market & Restaurant designed by Clarence Fagan True in 1893

The Joseph R. Hennessey Oyster Market & Restaurant designed by Clarence Fagan True in 1893

Where Have All the Oysters Gone?

May 04, 2017 by Pamela Ajhar in New York City History

There’s a quaint two-story red brick shop on Columbus Avenue that is currently a Patagonia store. It’s a lovely Flemish style brownstone and terra cotta building located directly across the street from the American Museum of Natural History. With its large archway, I always assumed it must have been a horse stable. I was surprised to discover that it was built in 1893 for Joseph R. Hennessy as an oyster market and restaurant and was designed by Clarence True. True was a very prolific architect of this era, designing 33 buildings that year alone. He is best recognized for his outstanding contributions to the townhouse and row house inventory on the Upper West Side, but I have not been able to find any other existing commercial properties by his hand.

Oyster Stands in Fulton Market 1870 - NY Public Library

Oyster Stands in Fulton Market 1870 - NY Public Library

What really intrigued me most when I began my research on this structure was the ubiquitous local oyster industry of that century. Today oysters are on the menus of many restaurants around the city with most east coast varieties coming from places like the Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay and the waters of New England and Canada. However, as recently as the early 20th century, New York City Harbor supplied the city’s oyster diet.  When Henry Hudson arrived in 1609, it was said that the waters contained over 220,000 acres of oyster beds; nearly half of the oysters in the entire world. Many grew to enormous sizes; some as large as dinner plates. Introduced to the new settlers by the local Lenape Indians, they would prepare them by wrapping the entire shell in seaweed and placing them into an open fire. Oysters quickly became a staple in the diet of the average New Yorker and taverns and street carts that served these bivalves began to pop up all over the city.

Oyster Cart Photo Courtesy of Detroit Publishing, Library of Congress, Circa 1900

Oyster Cart Photo Courtesy of Detroit Publishing, Library of Congress, Circa 1900

By the early 1900’s, oysters were on the verge of complete depletion with over 1 billion per year being harvested and consumed. To contribute to the problem, the oyster beds were disrupted by continuous urban expansion and development. The marshy shorelines and rocky shallows, where the oyster beds thrived, were routinely being replaced with bulkheads, piers and landfill. To make matters worse, millions of gallons of raw sewage were being dumped into the harbor on a regular basis. In the early 1920’s, the city began closing down oyster beds, due to fears of food borne illness. In 1927, the City closed the last oyster bed in Raritan Bay.

Billion Oyster Project

Billion Oyster Project

New York City oysters never really disappeared completely, but they are functionally extinct. Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the water quality of the harbor has improved. Since oysters play a key role in the ecosystem, with their ability to filter up to 50 gallons of water per day and their function to attract other marine life, there is an initiative to boost the population. By 2030, The Billion Oyster Project seeks to distribute one billion live oysters around 100 acres of reefs around the harbor, hoping to restore New York City’s title as “oyster capital of the world”.

You can find out more by visiting their website: https://www.billionoysterproject.org/

Click here for a link with maps and descriptions of oysters currently found in the Long Island Sound https://www.oysterater.com/region/long-island-sound/

To read more about the history of the NYC Oyster:
http://untappedcities.com/2016/02/09/aw-shucks-the-tragic-history-of-new-york-city-oysters/

Click here for more about the history of the Joseph R. Hennessey Oyster Market and Restaurant designed by Clarence True:
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/12/1893-flemish-revival-oyster-mkt-no-426.html

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it.
If you’d like to subscribe to my blog and receive notification of future posts, please select SUBSCRIBE from the pull-down menu above.
If you’d like to know more about me and my listings at Brown Harris Steven, please select REAL ESTATE from the pull-down above of CLICK HERE or Visit: https://www.bhsusa.com/real-estate-agent/pamela-ajhar
Pamela Ajhar

May 04, 2017 /Pamela Ajhar
New York City History, Oysters
New York City History

 

Written by Pamela Ajhar
pamelaajhar@gmail.com

Powered by Squarespace

  • Architecture
    • May 3, 2020 The Century at 25 Central Park West
    • Apr 5, 2020 The Prasada at 50 Central Park West - Then and Now
    • Apr 23, 2019 Seeing Double on Broadway - 221 W 82nd & 222 W 83rd St
    • Dec 6, 2018 555 West End Avenue - St Agnes Reimagined
    • Feb 27, 2018 The IRT Powerhouse
    • Jul 31, 2017 44 West 77th Street - Facade Transformed
    • Apr 12, 2017 Astor Court's Grand Garden
    • Feb 16, 2017 101 West 78th Street aka The Evelyn
    • Dec 19, 2016 Old Meets New at the Hearst Tower
    • Jul 7, 2016 The Clebourne - 924 West End Avenue
    • Jun 23, 2016 The Chatsworth -344 West 72nd Street
    • Jun 2, 2016 Durland's Riding Academy - West 66th Street
    • May 20, 2016 The Hendrik Hudson - 380 Riverside Drive
    • May 3, 2016 The Association Residence for the Respectable Aged Indigent Females aka The American Youth Hostel
    • Apr 26, 2016 A Gang of Gargoyles - 527 West 110th Street
    • Apr 13, 2016 The Manhasset Apartments - West 108th and 109th Street
    • Apr 6, 2016 The First Battery Armory on West 66th Street
    • Mar 28, 2016 The Sun Always Shines on 55 Central Park West
    • Mar 23, 2016 Hotel Belleclaire - 250 West 77th Street
    • Mar 9, 2016 The Red House (350 West 85th Street)
  • Monuments and Memorials
    • Oct 26, 2017 Revson Fountain at Lincoln Center
    • Feb 5, 2017 Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park
    • Dec 1, 2016 Dante Park
    • Oct 14, 2016 Central Park Lake Boat Landings
    • Sep 8, 2016 Firemen's Monument 9/11
  • New Development
    • Aug 13, 2017 The Vessel at Hudson Yards
  • New York City History
    • Jan 23, 2019 Visit Essex Street Market Before It Moves
    • Jul 23, 2018 The Randel Bolt in Central Park
    • Mar 21, 2018 The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
    • May 4, 2017 Where Have All the Oysters Gone?
    • Aug 23, 2016 The Windermere is making a comeback
    • May 12, 2016 It's Fun to Stay at the YMCA
    • Apr 20, 2016 Former Horn & Hardart Automat - Broadway and 104th St
  • Roadtrip
    • Sep 3, 2017 Wharton Esherick Studio
  • Streetscapes
    • Apr 17, 2020 Pomander Walk - A Storybook Community
    • Aug 31, 2016 Linda's Lawn in Riverside Park South
    • Jun 8, 2016 Norman Rockwell Place
    • Mar 16, 2016 Miles Davis Way (West 77th Street)