China Clipper Ship - Flying Cloud

Clipper Ships
In the 1850's they built the famous China clippers at the shipyards at Corlear's Hook in the Lower East Side. On of the most famous was the Flying Cloud – a clipper ship that made it from South Street New York to San Francisco around the horn in 89 days in 1851. The Gold Rush of 1849 stirred a tremendous demand to reach California as quickly as possible.

Corlear's Hook at its peak had the greatest shipyards in the world. They produced the yacht America that beat its British rival to take the first cup in 1851. It was also something of a red light district. Filled with sailors, saloons and bordellos, it's thought that the word ‘hooker' comes from there - from the women who worked the Hook.

Abiel Abbot Low

Low
In the mid-1800's, Abiel Abbot Low was one of the princes of the South Street waterfront. He was a tea merchant engaged in the China trade, and had his warehouse down on South St (which you'll see on our tour) - a beautiful building with Corinthian pilasters and a cast iron facade.

He lived in magnificent brownstone mansion on Brooklyn Heights - which is still standing on Pierpont St - and commuted everyday across the river by ferry. From his terrace on Pierpont, he could see his ships come and go from the slips at the seaport.

Abiel's son Seth Low, who grew up in that brownstone, became mayor of Brooklyn, and in 1901 after the five boroughs were consolidated, he was elected mayor of greater New York.

He was also President of Columbia University, whence comes the great Low Library - the centerpiece of the Morningside Heights campus that he created.