page_title: Civic Center, Manhattan
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Civic Center, Manhattan / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Manhattan, New York City
context_page_description: The Civic Center is the area of lower Manhattan, New York City, that encompasses New York City Hall, One Police Plaza, the courthouses in Foley Square, the Metropolitan Correctional Center and the surrounding area. The district is bound on the west by Tribeca at Broadway, on the north by Chinatown at Worth Street or Bayard Street, on the east by the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge at South Street, and on the south by the Financial District at Ann Street.
context_section_description: The Civic Center’s financial power and economy were growing in the early 1900s.
  The Emigrant Savings Bank was established in 1850 to provide financial services for New York City's rising Irish Catholic immigrant population, and to enable easy transfer of funds between New York and Emigrant's branch offices in Dublin. In 1908, they decided to relocate their headquarters to the Civic Center and to create the largest bank building in the United States.
  The Surrogate's Courthouse building, originally designed to be the Hall of Records, was built between 1899 and 1907.
  Frank Winfield Woolworth, the owner of the "five and dime" Woolworth's retail chain, needed a new office building for the headquarters of his company and asked Cass Gilbert to build a Gothic tower with plenty of windows. In response, the Woolworth Building was constructed in 1913 and was the tallest building in the world until 1930, when the Chrysler Building claimed the title. The Woolworth Building became an instant landmark, due both to the then very impressive height, and because of its Gothic ornamentation. This gave it the nickname "Cathedral of Commerce". The interior of the building is one of the most sumptuous in New York. Woolworth's private office was modeled and furnished after Napoleon's Palace in Compiègne.
  As early as 1915, Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News contained many advertisements for stamp dealers in Nassau Street. In the 1930s, stamp collecting became very popular, and Nassau Street was the center of New York City's "Stamp District", called its "Street of Stamps", with dozens of stamp and coin dealers along its short length. The Stamp Center Building was located at 116 Nassau Street, and the Subway Stamp Shop was located at 87 Nassau Street.
  During the Great Depression, masses gathered in City Hall Park as a place to protest the government.
caption: Pace University, on Park Row
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