Little Syria, New York: Walking Tours of Washington Street
Little Syria, New York: Walking Tours of Washington Street
WASHINGTON STREET HISTORICAL SOCIETY
June 11, 13, 15 Tours: 11am – 12pm
June 17 Tour: 3pm – 4pm
June 17 Event: 4pm – 5pm (see al Qalam: Poetry in the Park)
Meeting Place: Washington Street and Battery Place (Park-side)
RSVPs required
All events in the River To River Festival are free and all are welcome
RSVP Here!
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One of the best-kept secrets of early New York is the presence of the first Arabic-speaking community in the United States, located on Washington Street on the Lower West Side of Manhattan, first settled in 1880. Almost no buildings remain on Washington Street from the nineteenth century. Linda Jacobs, a scholar and historian will give in-person tours of the early Manhattan Syrian/Lebanese colony illustrated with stories, historical photos, and places of significance to the early Syrian colony.
The last three remaining buildings, including the façade of St. George’s Melkite Church, will conclude three of the tours. The fourth tour, on June 17th, will terminate in The Battery Labyrinth with a poetry recitation and performance of Arabic music celebrating the writers and poets of the colony.
Should you want to take the tour but cannot attend during the group walking tour hours, you can Beta-test the new app that walks you through Little Syria.
Presented in partnership with Washington Street Historical Society and The Battery Conservancy.
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LINDA K. JACOBS, PhD, is an independent scholar, is a historian of the early Lebanese/Syrian diaspora in the United States. She is the author of two books on the topic: Strangers in the West: The Syrian Colony of New York City, 1880-1900 (KalimahPress 2015) and Strangers No More: Syrians in the United States, 1880-1900 (KalimahPress 2019). A revised edition of Strangers in the West will appeared in 2023, and her third book, a collection of themed chapters about the earliest Syrian immigrants, will also appear in 2023.