Historic 1875 Subterranean Vault, Once a Speakeasy, is Stabilized
The City’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) has completed a rehabilitation project on the streetscape adjoining a historic structure at 22 Reade Street, in the Civic Center neighborhood. The building at 22 Reade dates from 1875 and is the work of an architect whose name is lost to history. Situated at the corner of Elk Street, it lies inside the security zone that surrounds the federal office buildings between Chambers and Worth Streets, and also within the African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District.
The project aimed to stabilize and preserve a “sidewalk vault” that penetrates two stories below street level. In the years between the Civil War and World War One, Lower Manhattan’s street grid was mostly dirt roads, without sidewalks. This led builders to extend the basements of their structures past the facade, creating underground chambers (or “vaults”) that could be more than 30 feet deep. They were used mostly to accept coal deliveries directly to basement furnaces, but also served as storage space.
Such was the case for 22 Reade. In the 1920s, by which time its vault was no longer used as a coal bunker, the space became a Prohibition speakeasy, according to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which oversees the publicly owned property. In the century since, the space became an inconspicuous dumping ground for debris from nearby construction projects, while its structural supports became seriously deteriorated.
To tackle these issues, starting in March 2023, DDC first removed 293 tons of debris from inside the vault, after which the plumbing and electrical conduits inside the five-chamber vault were rerouted. The curb, sidewalk, and roadway adjacent to 22 Reade were reconstructed and restored. A spokesman for DDC notes that the project, which recently wrapped up, was completed four months ahead of schedule and $4 million under its original budget of $9.7 million.
Used in recent decades as office space for various City agencies, 22 Reade has been mostly empty since 2015, when the Department of City Planning moved out. Since then, the City Council has blocked sales to real estate developers, hoping that the structure will become home to an African Burial Ground Museum and education center, and serve as an adjunct to the nearby African Burial Ground National Monument, a site that holds the remains of an estimated 15,000 African-Americans from the Colonial era (both free and enslaved).
Under this proposal, a new facility at 22 Reade would be managed by the National Park Service in consultation with a newly created African Burial Ground Advisory Council, which would be established by federal legislation. The museum and education center also would serve as a sister site to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.