A Photographer's New Book Looks at 40 Years of Documenting Tribeca

This is Warren Street in 1980, looking west towards the upper level of the West Side Highway. Today you would see Whole Foods on the left and PS 234 on the right. The lone building in the distance is 179 West Street, last of the old buildings that stood on West Street. The 30-story 200 Chambers Street occupies that lot today. From "Tribeca: Four Decades in Pictures." Photographs by Carl Glassman

As a photojournalist who moved to Tribeca in 1979—and editor/photographer of the Trib since 1994—I have been photographing the neighborhood for more than 40 years. My recently published book, “Tribeca: Four Decades in Pictures,” is a compilation of more than 150 of those photos, Out of those, I have selected 10 here with some additional thoughts about those images.

Go here [1] to preview and order the book. The book can also be viewed and purhased at Duane Park Patisserie, 179 Duane St.

1980 Looking east across Greenwich Street, these weeds grew in an empty lot at the corner of North Moore. Just out of the frame is a junked car that seemed a permanent fixture of this overgrown corner of Tribeca. Today it is the plaza of Citi’s world headquarters at 388 Greenwich St.

They Lived on a Raft at Pier 25

1994 Betsy Terrell rows towards her husband David “Poppa Neutrino” Pearlman on the old Pier 25 near North Moore Street. The couple were part of a “family” known as the Floating Neutrinos who lived on a raft made partly of scrap found on the pier. I was the first journalist they had allowed to photograph them and tell their story. In 1998, after leaving Tribeca, the Neutrinos sailed across the Atlantic on one of their home-made rafts. Years later, their daughter Jessica, 9 years old when I did my story, became a reporter for the Trib.

Cobblestones for Jay Street

1994 José Villa, a native of La Canuna, Spain, aligns Belgian stones on Jay Street. He, like many of the other workers with that skill, were from Spain and Portugal. The $300,000 repaving was controversial at the time, but a city requirement. After an excavation by utilities, the street had to be repaved with Belgian stones because it lies within the Tribeca West Historic District.

Partying on North Moore

1995 Block parties on North Moore Street took place between 1984 and 1996, sponsored by businesses on the street. The winning prize for one of the activities, a pie-eating contest, was all the Bubby’s pies you could eat for a year. Traffic on North Moore was so sparse that, without official permission, residents periodically closed the street for volleyball games. 

Neighborhood in Transition, Grime and All

1999 Before warehouses were converted to the high-end condos and condominiums of today, many were coated with decades of grime, much like can be seen on the Castree Building, 53 North Moore St., as it was being power washed in preparation for residential conversion.

A Movie Explosion Rocks the Neighborhood

2000 For this photo I waited hours on the roof of the building at the southeast corner of West Broadway and Beach Street, across the street from a parking lot turned gas station movie set for “Zoolander.” With the FDNY standing by, a crew meticulously prepared for the scene of a giant explosion that would send two stuntmen (pre-set on flame) running toward North Moore. When it blew, the thunderous explosion jolted my camera so that I could barely keep the two figures at bottom left within the frame. Firefighters quickly doused the burning branches of nearby trees. That corner is now the site of a residential building.

Waiting to Help, in Vain

Sept. 11, 2001 In the hours following the attack on the World Trade Center, volunteers with clipboards went around the neighborhood, soliciting volunteers to go down to the burning site and aid in the rescue effort. No one at the time knew that there were few survivors to be aided. In the early afternoon many people, some still dressed neatly for work, or in shorts or short skirts, lined up on Jay Street, waiting to go down. Some donned multiple ties that they intended to use as tourniquets. But they would be turned away. For me, the scene is a reminder of the goodness in humanity.

Last Goodbye, to a Store and a Friend

2013 Pearl Paint was a beloved art supply store on Canal Street that had been the go-to retailer for local artists over many years. For a story on the closing of the store, I wandered the aisles on the last day with a small camera, having been told I couldn’t take pictures. Ken Colman, who had worked on the store’s second floor for 29 years, was about to lose his job. And Laura Lee, an illustrator and frequent customer, would never see the store, nor Colman, again. “You’ve helped me so much,” she told him as they embraced. The photo embodies the kind of loss that goes unseen when a neighborhood business goes away.

Covid-Emptied Greenwich Street

2020 At the height of Covid in Tribeca, 9 p.m. looked like 3 a.m. That’s about when I took this picture of a food delivery person on an otherwise deserted Greenwich Street. I am now struck by the quaint image of a pedaling delivery worker. E-bikes had yet to be legalized. 

Closing Time on Bogardus Plaza

2024 I’m drawn to bad weather photography, and as I strolled the streets on a frigid, rainy evening I saw this woman closing up the food stand at Bogardus Plaza. For me, the picture speaks to both the loneliness of night-time work, and the pleasures of finally getting to go home.