Shopping District – Hallie Alexander

Down Maiden Lane, where clover grew,
Sweet-scented in the early air,
Where sparkling rills went shining through
Their grassy banks, so green, so fair,
Blithe little maids from Holland land
Went tripping, laughing each to each,
To bathe the flax, or spread a band
Of linen in the sun to bleach…
“In Sun or Shade” Louise Morgan Sill, 1906.

Maiden Lane, in New York’s financial district, stretches from the South Street Seaport to the World Trade Center Site. Over three hundred years ago, when New York was New Amsterdam, a rippling brook wended the same path as the lane. Known as Maagde Paatje, it was named for the women who washed their clothes there. It was also a place where lovers met and gadded about the pebbly brook.

An illustration from the 1921 book A History of the United States by Henry Eldridge Bourne. A brookside path with the name of Maiden Lane followed a valley to the East River

When the British took over Manhattan, they changed the name to English as Maiden Lane. In 1696, the path was paved with cobbles, but the stream continued to flow down the center of it until 1827 when it was engineered to flow under the streets. It still runs under Lower Manhattan today.