The
New York State Legislature revised the
New York City Charter in 1870 to create the New York City Board of Dock Commissioners. The following year, the department published a plan for the development of piers on the city's waterfront, which the state legislature approved. Any subsequent piers had to be approved separately, including Pier A, which was not part of the 1871 plan. The Docks Department initially faced resistance from businesses on the waterfront, which previously had been subjected to little or no city regulation. The commissioners directed the Department of Docks to construct a new pier with offices for the Harbor Department, as well as for the Department of Docks' own headquarters. on July 3, 1884. Work on the building atop Pier A commenced in September 1885. The year after Pier A's opening, the
Chicago Daily Tribune reported that maritime crimes in New York Harbor had decreased drastically. The
CS Mackay-Bennett laid a telegraph cable between Pier A and
Coney Island in 1894. Subsequently, the
Commercial Cable Company transferred the receiving station for its
transatlantic telegraph cable from Coney Island to Pier A, as the receiving station at Coney Island had experienced excessive electrical interference from
streetcars. In 1899, the NYPD reestablished its Steamboat Squad, which patrolled the waters around lower Manhattan and was headquartered at Pier A. To make way for the Steamboat Squad, the Harbor Department relocated its offices to the western end of the building.
Expansion and 20th century The Department of Docks' engineer-in-chief introduced plans in February 1900 to extend Pier A about eastward. The first two stories of the eastward annex were constructed at this time, and a third story was built above the eastern annex in 1904. the project took over a year to complete. Pier A was the homeport of the Harbor Department
patrol boat Patrol, which traveled around New York Harbor nightly until she was retired in 1916. During World War I, the Harbor Department officers at Pier A were trained to guard against attacks by foreign enemies. After the end of World War I, a clock was installed in the pier's tower as a memorial to 116,000 US servicemen who died during World War I. Two years later, the NYPD acquired the speedboat
Battery, which was based out of Pier A. Numerous notable figures sailed to New York City through Pier A during the mid-20th century, including former British prime minister
David Lloyd George; aviator
Charles Lindbergh;
Crown Prince Olav and
Princess Martha of Norway; and
King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth of England. The pier also hosted events, such as a showcase of products from Florida, as well as an exhibition of a
U-boat captured during World War II. Docks Department employees dedicated a bronze tablet at Pier A, honoring former docks commissioner Michael Cosgrove, in 1930. The Department of Docks requested funding from the New York City Council in 1938 to erect a new administration building on Pier A. By 1941, docks commissioner John McKenzie had prepared plans for a new building on the site. The project was part of New York City park commissioner
Robert Moses's plan to rebuild Battery Park, which he presented to the
New York City Board of Estimate in March 1942. The Pier A building would be replaced with a larger facility that housed the Department of Docks, the NYPD, and a nearby
New York City Fire Department (FDNY) station. The Department of Docks subsequently became the Department of Marine and Aviation. Instead, by 1952, the Department of Marine and Aviation was planning to relocate to the
Battery Maritime Building on the
East River, allowing the FDNY and NYPD to consolidate their space at Pier A. The Department of Marine and Aviation built a heliport at Pier A, which opened on June 11, 1953, as the second heliport operated by the city government. Initially, the heliport was primarily used by the NYPD. The Department of Marine and Aviation requested $600,000 in 1958 to convert North River piers A and 1 into cargo piers. Eleven hundred employees of the Department of Marine and Aviation relocated from Pier A to the Battery Maritime Building in February 1959. By that time, Pier A only housed the department's executive and administrative staff, while other Marine and Aviation offices were housed in various buildings nearby. The city government planned to turn Pier A over to the FDNY and NYPD. Pier A was the headquarters of Marine Fire Company 1, The pier was also used to commission or re-commission
FDNY fireboats, including the
John Purroy Mitchel, the
Governor Alfred E. Smith, and the
John H. Glenn Jr.. Marine Fire Company 8, which used the
Governor Alfred A. Smith, also docked at Pier A until 1970, when Marine Co. 8 was disbanded. Most of the decorations on the facade were covered by corrugated iron panels as part of a 1964 renovation. In 1969, the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) acquired Pier A as part of its development of the Battery Park City neighborhood, with plans to raze the structure. The nonprofit
New York Landmarks Conservancy wanted the pier to be saved,
Mario Biaggi, a candidate in the
1973 New York City mayoral election, advocated for Pier A to be protected "as a landmark of beauty and historical significance and as a permanent memorial to American soldiers". The federal government added Pier A to the
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in mid-1975. The NRHP designation allowed city and state agencies to receive
matching funds from the federal government to pay for Pier A's renovation. The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Pier A as a New York City landmark on July 12, 1977. After winning the
1977 New York City mayoral election,
Ed Koch intended to restore structures on New York Harbor, starting with Pier A. Koch announced in 1980 that the city government would open a
request for proposals for the redevelopment of Pier A. However, the plans did not proceed for several years.
Redevelopment Initial proposals By 1987, the Koch administration was considering converting Pier A into a visitor center as part of the planned Harbor Park, a complex of parks around New York Harbor. That December, the Koch administration proposed relocating the headquarters of the FDNY's Marine Division, a repair shop, and several other offices while keeping Marine Company 1 at Pier A. City officials planned a visitor center on the ground level and restaurants on the upper stories. The city opened a request for proposals for Pier A's redevelopment in January 1988, Later that year, the city selected Wings Point Associates as the site developer. Another bidder, the Abbracciamento Group, had put forth a more profitable proposal; however, the city rejected the plan because Abbracciamento had wanted to buy a boat and relocate the restaurant there. To facilitate Pier A's redevelopment, in mid-1991, U.S. representative
Ted Weiss proposed that the waters around Pier A be declared non-navigable. Because the federal government could easily condemn a structure in navigable waters, it was difficult to obtain financing for such structures, including Pier A. By early 1993, the developers planned to begin renovating Pier A later that year. Work started in June 1997 after the
New York City Industrial Development Agency issued $8 million worth of
bonds; by then, the cost had risen to $27 million. As late as April 1999, Pier A was planned to open by the end of that year. A replica of the slave ship
La Amistad was temporarily docked at Pier A in July 2000, but the pier was otherwise unused and decrepit during the early 2000s, except for its clock tower.
Ferry dock plans After the
September 11 attacks in 2001 caused severe disruptions to the city's transportation system, the city and state governments built a temporary dock for commuter ferries at Pier A, constructing six slips within six weeks of the attack to address passenger crowding issues at
Pier 11. The city and state governments allowed
NY Waterway to operate ferries there.
New York Water Taxi started serving Pier A in late 2002, as part of an expansion of ferry service in New York City after the September 11 attacks. The temporary ferry terminal closed in December 2003, after ferry ridership had decreased following the reopening of the
World Trade Center PATH station. New York governor
George Pataki announced in January 2003 that the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) would buy out Pier A to speed up the redevelopment process. At the time, the
National Park Service (NPS), which conducted security screenings of
Liberty Island and
Ellis Island visitors at the nearby
Castle Clinton, wished to relocate its security-screening facility to Pier A. The same year, Wings Point sued NY Waterway because the latter company had not paid landing fees to use Pier A. and he tentatively planned to launch New York Harbor sightseeing cruises from Pier A. NY Waterway had planned to start operating sightseeing cruises from Pier A in April 2006, but the EDC did not allow NY Waterway to use the pier. Arnie Geller presented a competing plan to open an
RMS Titanic museum at Pier A, and the BPCA also wanted to acquire the pier. The NPS was still planning to relocate its security-screening facilities to Pier A, but the plan was delayed because of disputes between the EDC and Wings Point. The city government entered a tentative agreement with the NPS in April 2007 and, a few months later, acquired Wings Point's lease for $8 million. The BPCA leased the pier from the city for 49 years in May 2008, paying a
nominal fee of $1 a year. The BPCA hoped to convert Pier A into a transportation hub and negotiated with the NPS to relocate its security-screening facilities to Pier A. The NPS reneged from this plan in 2009, expressing concerns over the cost and timeline of Pier A's renovation. The bidders included Peter Poulakakos, who wished to convert the pier into a restaurant, and Joseph J. Grano Jr., who proposed an Italian heritage museum at the pier. prompting community members to complain that the BPCA had not consulted them about the plans beforehand. Poulakakos and his partners would pay $41 million over the duration of their lease. Under the terms of the lease, if the restaurant's gross revenue exceeded $18 million, the BPCA would share eight percent of any gross revenue above that amount. Poulakakos hoped to open the restaurant by late 2012, The $20 million renovation was delayed by several months after
Hurricane Sandy flooded Pier A in late 2012, causing $4.3 million in damage. In the hurricane's aftermath, the architects relocated the mechanical equipment to the second floor, The BPCA transferred control of Pier A to Poulakakos in mid-2013, although the agency was still responsible for constructing a plaza outside the building, work on which had been delayed by a lack of funding. The New York City government allocated $5 million for the plaza's development. more than three decades after the redevelopment project had started. The Blacktail Bar, a Cuban bar on Pier A's second story, opened in August 2016 and operated until January 2020. Harbor House closed in March 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The BPCA sought to reopen Harbor House, but the restaurant ultimately never opened again, even as Poulakakos continued to operate other restaurants in New York City. A group of investors with
EB-5 visas, who had provided $16.5 million for Pier A's renovation, sued Poulakako to recoup their investment.
Statue Cruises, which operated ferries to Liberty and Ellis islands, proposed relocating its ferry dock to Pier A, as Statue Cruises' existing dock at Castle Clinton was deteriorating. As part of the
Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency Project, in 2022, the BPCA proposed converting Pier A Plaza into a two-story park to protect the surrounding neighborhood from
rising sea levels. Pier A Plaza was to contain retractable
flood barriers on its upper level, as well as wooden benches, trees, and brick structures that could withstand prolonged flooding. The Battery Park City Authority sued the operators of Pier A's restaurants in early 2023 for $8 million. ==See also==