Church Street is named after Trinity Church, a historic
Gothic-style parish church on
Broadway at
Wall Street. Extended in 1784, Church Street was in existence as early as 1761. Part of the street was owned by the church, but was given to the city in 1804.[2]: 39 Trinity Place is also a namesake of the church, being named so in 1834, prior to which it was known at various times as "Lumber Street" and "Lombard Street".[2]: 101
Before 1869, the south end of Church Street was at
Fulton Street, three blocks north of Trinity Place.[3] Then, over several years, an 80-foot wide connection was cut through the intervening blocks and Trinity Place was widened to 80 feet (24 m) and extended south to Morris Street; Church Street north of Fulton Street was left 40 feet (12 m) wide at the time. The work, plagued by delays and allegedly corruption, was completed by the end of 1872.[4]
In June 1878 an
elevated railway line, the
IRT Sixth Avenue Line, opened. It ran on Trinity Place and Church Street to Murray Street, where it turned west and then north on
West Broadway. It closed in 1938 and was razed the following year.[5]
As part of the construction of the
Eighth Avenue subway line, from 1929 to 1932 Church Street was widened between Fulton Street and Franklin Street from 40 feet including 10-foot sidewalks, to 90 feet including 15-foot sidewalks. Only the west property line was moved; the east side of the street was left intact.[6]
Near Rector Street, Trinity Place passes under the Trinity Place bridge. Designed by
LHP Architects[12] and completed in 1989,[13] the bridge is a private elevated walkway which formerly connected the rear side of Trinity Church to its offices and preschool in the
Trinity Court Building across Trinity Place.[14] That building has been demolished, and its replacement is currently under construction, with the opening expected in 2020. The bridge has been preserved and will return to use at that time.[15]
The
IND Eighth Avenue Line (A, C, and E trains) of the
New York City Subway runs below Church Street north of Fulton Street to Sixth Avenue. A portion of the
BMT Broadway Line (N, R, and W trains) runs under Church Street and Trinity Place from Greenwich Street to Fulton Street. Its
Cortlandt Street station, damaged in the
September 11 attacks, is adjacent to the World Trade Center.[1] The northbound
M55 bus runs along Trinity Place/Church Street from Morris Street to Franklin Street, where it continues north on Sixth Avenue.[1]
^
abc"MTA Neighborhood Maps: Lower Manhattan"(PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York State. September 2018.
Archived(PDF) from the original on December 6, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
^"St. Paul's Chapel". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. September 11, 2007. Archived from
the original on April 13, 2014.