10. Stone Street
The Dutch street name for Stone Street was Hoogh Straet. Hoogh Straet was later joined with Brouwer Straet, or Brewer Street, in approximately 1655. The British called it High Street, a translation of hoogh, and then Duke Street. The name Stone Street came after the Revolution when Americans wanted to get rid of royalist street names. Stone comes from the street’s history as the first paved street. Untapped Cities tour guide, Justin Rivers, who runs our Tour of the Remnants of Dutch New Amsterdam, tells us, “Apparently the lore was that a rich Brewer’s wife wanted Peg-leg Pete (Peter Stuyvesant) to pave that street because she lived on it and the dust from the horses was ruining her drapes.”
The road was paved with cobblestones in 1655. Stone Street used to run from Broad Street to Hanover Square, but 85 Broad cut the street in two. To compensate for this disruption of the original street path, there is an interior hallway that runs through 85 Broad where special paving denotes the former presence of the street. Inside the Stone Street Corridor, there are lights that display clouds and the sky, to invoke the idea of a street outside. There are also enlarged maps that show the transformation of New York City.
