Nassau St, Financial District

Nassau begins at the Printing House Square which was named as such because it was Newspaper row. A quick look at a wonderful film with Christian Bale singing (Newsies) will tell you all the history you need to know about that. Pace University is also right here. The old New York Times Building is just across Spruce and it is now the Pace Book Store. It's a pretty impressive building so I always suggest that people check it out. The Potter Building, an equally impressive brick building is directly next door. The Potter building housed the Scientific American and the New York World at the time that newspapers were actually read.
The west corner after Beekman was where the Beekman Street Theatre used to be. In 1761, Hamlet had its New York debut in this theatre. It's a shame that it is no longer. If more places like this were around, maybe the Fidi wouldn't be such a dud of a neighborhood. In fact, this block used to be quite the artsy little haunt. 126 Nassau was the address of Mary Rogers. She was a celebrated beauty whose disappearance inspired Poe's The Mystery of Marie Roget. And, next door to that was Henry Miller's bookstore. It's now some sad men's suit shop or something. It's such a shame. I would love for this area to be lively because the buildings are so old and beautiful. There are a lot of sad excuses for shops, massive condo structures and a ton of bank buildings as you head south on Nassau. Once Nassau becomes Broad, forget it: all bank. I would love to want to live on a street like this because of the buildings and history. But, Nassau just doesn't have anything going on aside from financial institutions, the university and tourism. And, it's just too far removed from theatres, restaurants, etc to want to live here.