Group of Four Trees (Jean Dubuffet)

The Financial District of Lower Manhattan, also known as FiDi, is a neighborhood located on the southern tip of Manhattan island in New York City. It is bounded by the West Side Highway on the west, Chambers Street and City Hall Park on the north, Brooklyn Bridge on the northeast, the East River to the southeast, and South Ferry and the Battery on the south. The City of New York was created in the Financial District in 1624, and the neighborhood roughly overlaps with the boundaries of the New Amsterdam settlement in the late 17th century. The district comprises the offices and headquarters of many of the city's major financial institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Anchored on Wall Street in the Financial District, New York City has been called both the most financially powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, and the New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest stock exchange by total market capitalization. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Financial District, including the New York Mercantile Exchange, NASDAQ, the New York Board of Trade, and the former American Stock Exchange. The Financial District is part of Manhattan Community District 1, and its primary ZIP Codes are 10004, 10005, 10006, and 10038. It is patrolled by the 1st Precinct of the New York City Police Department.

28 Liberty Street, formerly known as One Chase Manhattan Plaza, is a 60-story International style skyscraper in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, between Nassau, Liberty, William, and Pine Streets. The building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Opened in 1961, it is 813 feet (248 m) tall. 28 Liberty Street occupies only about 28 percent of its 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) site. It consists of 60 above-ground stories, a ground-level concourse, and five basement levels. The tower is surrounded by a plaza that contains a sunken Japanese rock garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi, to the south. The building's design is similar to that of SOM's earlier Inland Steel Building in Chicago. It contains a stainless steel facade with black spandrels below the windows. The superstructure contains 40 steel columns, arranged around the perimeter and clustered around the core to maximize usable space. There were only 150 private offices for the 7,500 employees who worked in the tower upon its opening. David Rockefeller, Chase's executive vice president, proposed the tower in the 1950s as a means to keep the newly merged Chase Manhattan Bank within Lower Manhattan while merging its 8,700 employees into one facility. Construction started in early 1957, and though the tower opened in early 1961, the basements and plaza were not opened until 1964. Despite some early challenges, One Chase Manhattan Plaza was nearly fully occupied from its opening, with numerous financial and legal tenants. The building was renovated in the early 1990s, and Chase moved its headquarters in 1997. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a landmark in 2008. Chase Manhattan's parent company JPMorgan Chase sold the building to Chinese investment company Fosun in 2013; the building was subsequently renamed 28 Liberty Street.

The Church of Our Lady of Victory, also known as the War Memorial Church, is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 60 William Street on the northeast corner of William Street and Pine Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1944, during World War II, by Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York and Apostolic Vicar for the U.S. Armed Forces from December 11, 1939, to December 2, 1967, at a time when "victory in the war was in sight but not yet assured." A quote from Cardinal Spellman greets worshipers at the front door: "This Holy Shrine is dedicated to Our Lady of Victory in Thanksgiving for Victory won by our valiant dead, our soldier’s blood, our country’s tears, shed to defend men’s rights and win back men’s hearts to God."A Soldier's Shrine is in the lower chapel, and the Teresa Benedicta Auschwitz Memorial in the lobby commemorates a victim of the Holocaust. A 9-11 Remembrance Book is displayed.Today, the church primarily serves as a place for daytime worship, rather than as a neighborhood church.

56 Pine Street – originally known as the Wallace Building after its developer, James Wallace – at 56-58 Pine Street between Pearl and William Streets in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, was built in 1893-94 and was designed by Oscar Wirz in the Romanesque Revival style. The building's facade consists of brick, stone and terra cotta and features colonnettes, deeply inset windows and rounded arched openings. The flowered panels and fantastic heads which embellish the building is "some of the finest Byzantine carving in New York."The building was designated a New York City landmark in 1997 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building, also known as 33 Liberty Street, is a building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, which serves as the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The building occupies the full block between Liberty, William, and Nassau Streets and Maiden Lane; it narrows at its east end, following the footprint of the block. The Federal Reserve Building has fourteen above-ground stories and five basement levels, designed by York and Sawyer with decorative ironwork by Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia. Its facade is separated horizontally into three sections: a base, midsection, and top section. The stone exterior is reminiscent of early Italian Renaissance palaces such as Florence's Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Vecchio. The horizontal and vertical joints of the facade's stones are deeply rusticated. The Federal Reserve Building's gold vault rests on Manhattan's bedrock, 80 feet (24 m) below street level and 50 feet (15 m) below sea level. The vault contains the largest known monetary-gold reserve in the world, with about 6,190 short tons (5,620 metric tons) in storage as of 2019. The building was erected from 1919 to 1924, with an eastward extension built in 1935. The Federal Reserve Building's design and scale was largely praised upon its completion. The building was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1980. It is a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, an NRHP district created in 2007.

40 Wall Street, also known as the Trump Building, is a 927-foot-tall (283 m) neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau and William streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. Erected in 1929–1930 as the headquarters of the Manhattan Company, the building was originally known as the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building, and also as the Manhattan Company Building, until its founding tenant merged to form the Chase Manhattan Bank. It was designed by H. Craig Severance with Yasuo Matsui and Shreve & Lamb. The building is on an L-shaped site. While the lower section has a facade of limestone, the upper stories incorporate a buff-brick facade and contain numerous setbacks. Other features of the facade include spandrels between the windows on each story, which are recessed behind the vertical piers on the facade. At the top of the building is a pyramid with a spire at its pinnacle. The Manhattan Company's main banking room and board room were on the lower floors, while the remaining stories were rented to tenants. The former banking room was converted into a Duane Reade store. Plans for 40 Wall Street were revealed in April 1929, with the Manhattan Company as the primary tenant, and the structure was completed in May 1930. 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building were competing for the distinction of world's tallest building at the time of both buildings' construction, though the Chrysler Building ultimately won that title. In its early years, 40 Wall Street suffered from low tenancy rates, as well as a plane crash in 1946. Ownership of the building and the land underneath it, as well as the leasehold on the building, has changed several times throughout its history. Since 1982, the building has been owned by two German companies. The leasehold was once held by interests on behalf of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, though in 1995, a company controlled by developer and later U.S. president Donald Trump assumed the lease. The building was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1995 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2000. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.

Louise Nevelson Plaza (formerly known as Legion Memorial Square), is a public art installation and park in Lower Manhattan, New York City, which includes an arrangement of large abstract sculptures designed by the American 20th-century female artist Louise Nevelson. Described as an "outdoor environment", the triangle-shaped plaza is bounded by Maiden Lane, Liberty Street and William Street, adjacent to the building of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The original site, created to display seven large-scale abstract sculptures commissioned from Nevelson by New York City, opened in 1977 as Legion Memorial Square. Officially inaugurated as Louise Nevelson Plaza in 1978, it marked the city's first public space named after and designed by a living artist.: 90  The plaza, while suffering from poor maintenance, remained mostly unchanged for many years. However, following the September 11 attacks in 2001, a security booth was installed, the first deviation from Nevelson's original design. By 2007, faded sculptures and required sub-surface repairs led to a comprehensive redesign by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the New York City Department of Transportation, and the New York City Department of Design and Construction. Reopened in 2010, the updated plaza featured new ground cover, an elevated platform, benches, plantings, and rearranged, restored Nevelson sculptures. Despite criticism from some art historians for altering the original concept, Louise Nevelson's granddaughter Maria Nevelson supported the renovations, citing her grandmother's embrace of the "now" over the past.

Maiden Lane is an east–west street in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its eastern end is at South Street, near the South Street Seaport, and its western end is at Broadway near the World Trade Center site, where it becomes Cortlandt Street.

Duane Reade Inc. ( dwayn REED) is a chain of pharmacy and convenience stores owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance. Its stores are primarily in New York (metropolitan New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, and Fairfield counties) and in New Jersey. They are known for high-volume, small store layouts in densely populated Manhattan locations. In 2012, the company headquarters was moved to 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, the location of its newest flagship store.

The Museum of American Finance is the United States's only independent public museum dedicated to preserving, exhibiting and teaching about American finance and financial history. Located in the Financial District in Manhattan, New York City, it is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization chartered by the Board of Regents of the New York State Department of Education. With education at the core of its mission, it is an active national-level advocate on behalf of financial literacy. The museum was founded in 1988 as the Museum of American Financial History but was renamed the Museum of American Finance in 2005. Until December 2006, it was located at 26 Broadway. On January 11, 2008, the Museum opened in a new location at 48 Wall Street, the former headquarters of the Bank of New York. In 2018, their building experienced a flood and as of late 2020, they remain in search of a permanent home.

48 Wall Street, formerly the Bank of New York & Trust Company Building, is a 32-story, 512-foot-tall (156 m) skyscraper on the corner of Wall Street and William Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1927–1929 in the Neo-Georgian and Colonial Revival styles, it was designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris. The current structure is the third to be erected on the same plot, as the Bank of New York had previously erected buildings on the site in 1797 and 1858. The structure was erected during a period when many skyscrapers were being erected in Lower Manhattan. 48 Wall Street is designed with many neo-Georgian details. The lowest three stories, built over a raised basement, were used as the banking floor and feature large arched windows on the second story, as well as pediments over the entrances. The top of the building contains a cupola designed in the Federal style and topped by a statue of an eagle. The Bank of New York moved out of 48 Wall Street in 1998, after which it was renovated extensively. Museum of American Finance occupied the former banking hall from 2007 to 2018; it was replaced by Will & Wall, a multi-purpose event venue. The building was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1998 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2003. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.

The 1835 Great Fire of New York was one of three fires that rendered extensive damage to New York City in the 18th and 19th centuries. The fire occurred in the middle of an economic boom, covering 17 city blocks, killing two people, and destroying hundreds of buildings, with an estimated $20 million of property damage (equivalent to $544 million in 2021).