Coenties Slip

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

What was here before?

In 17^th-century New Amsterdam, this area was owned by Coenradt and Antje Ten Eyck

Coenties Slip was built on the southeastern shoreline of Manhattan, which followed the present-day line of Pearl Street. As was common during the colonial period, markets developed directly next to slips, or piers where merchant ships docked. This area specifically was a marketplace for corn, rum, and other dry goods. The property lies in the precise location of the original slip, but an 1835 landfill project moved the waterfront further into the river to the line of Water Street, and likewise the slip was extended as well. The latter-day Coenties Slip was then filled in 1884. Today that land is occupied by 55 Water Street and Vietnam Veterans Plaza.

How did this site become a park?

In 2006, a triangular traffic island was reconstructed as a granite and bluestone sitting area with benches, plantings and a formal central plaza.

The park has a two-tiered bluestone plaza with radial granite steps leading to the upper plaza, which has park benches surrounding the park’s centerpiece, Brian Hunt’s curving metal sculpture, “Coenties Ship,” which commemorates the city’s important maritime history. The sculpture is set atop a bell-shaped pedestal made of cast glass with inlaid decorative glass pavers. Together, the cast glass swirl panels in the pedestal, the radial cut bluestone pavers, and the swirl steel bands in the pavement provide a perfect counterpoint to the upward swirl of the glass pedestal and cast stainless steel sculpture.

This site is maintained by NYC Parks and the Alliance for Downtown New York but is under the jurisdiction of the NYC Department of Transportation.

Who is this park named for?

“Coenties” is a rough transliteration of the Dutch diminutive Coentje, meaning “Coenradt’s and Antje’s.” Coenradt Ten Eyck (1617-1686) was born in Moers, Germany and immigrated here around 1651.

Ten Eyck worked as a tanner and shoemaker near his home, which was located nearby. By 1674, Ten Eyck had accumulated $5,000, a fortune for that time. He died on April 5, 1686. His many descendants settled in various sections of the New York area including the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where Ten Eyck Playground is located.