Saving NYC's Washington Street: First Arab-American Neighborhood In Grave Danger

http://savewashingtonstreet.org/

First Arab-American Neighborhood In Grave Danger
Lower Manhattan Was Once The Center of Arab Life in U.S.

Most Americans, and even many Arab-Americans, are unaware that Lower Manhattan -- along Washington Street from Battery Park through the 9/11 Memorial to Chambers Street -- was once the center of Arab-American life in the United States, then called "Little Syria" or the "Mother Colony."

Obscured from history as the result of the construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and the World Trade Center, its physical destruction was compounded by vanishing memory within the Arab-American community, reinforced by an atmosphere unprepared to acknowledge that the Arab-American story of hard-work and community -- both Christian and Muslim -- began at the very location the violent tragedy occurred.

Fortunately, by a kind of miracle, three buildings remain and are physically connected: 103 Washington Street, an Arab church that served as a Irish bar for many years; 105-107 Washington Street, a community house inaugurated by the governor of New York to serve the Little Syria neighborhood; and 109 Washington Street, a tenement building still containing apartments.

Tens of millions of tourists every year will walk between Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum -- all through historical Arab New York! -- and these three buildings deserve to be preserved as landmarks to leave some general trace of an ethnic neighborhood that has been devastated like no other in the city.

Save the Community House

The most urgent priority is to send letters to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission encouraging them to preserve the "Little Syria" Community House at 105-107 Washington Street. Community Board One in Lower Manhattan passed a resolution encouraging this action, but the Commission needs to hear from more Americans that this disappearing heritage and this building are valued. There is a danger that this building could be demolished in the coming months, and we need to act quickly.

Lobby for Recognition

Unlike nearly every other ethnic neighborhood in New York City, Little Syria has no signs, no memorials, and no statues to recall the tens of thousands of immigrants who passed through. We believe that the 9/11 Museum should acknowledge the long Arab history at the location in order to dispel stereotypes, and that the city should erect an informational sign communicating this heritage to the millions of tourists who shall walk within this neighborhood