Front Street (Manhattan)

"[1] During the early 18th century, slips were built to increase river frontage and later filled in so that new piers could be extended to even deeper water to accommodate larger ships.

[1] About 1798, grocer Matthew Howell built a Federal style store and residence at 206 Front Street that is one of the oldest buildings in the Seaport.

In 1800, The shipping firm of Jenkins & Havens built 205 Front Street, before moving to #195, part of Schermerhorn Row.

[5] In 1808 merchant David Lydig built a house on the corner of Front and Dover Streets.

[6] Lydig owned a fleet of schooners that would transport flour from his upstate mills to his wharf at 36-38 Dover Street.

His daughter Mary married merchant George Codwise Jr., who built a wharf along the eastern edge of John Street, adjacent to Burling Slip.

Number 189 was later owned by Josiah Macy, a sea captain from Nantucket, Massachusetts, who established a successful business shipping whale oil, and later expanded into the New York-Liverpool trade.