About Christopher Street Pier (Pier 45)
Following the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, a pier at Christopher Street was first constructed in 1828. The waterfront pier served as a main entry point for necessary incoming building materials and supplies required for expansion happening in northern Manhattan. The pier opened the same year Newgate Prison closed, and was followed a year later by the opening of the short-lived Weehawken Market.
Though boat travelers had been crossing from New Jersey into New York in this area for years, the City officially established the Hoboken Ferry in 1841. By 1845, waterfront life was thriving along Christopher Street, with reports of the opening of both a sailmaker’s shop and an oyster market. They were joined in 1860 by the addition of the Great Eastern Hotel (later the Keller Hotel and Hotel Christopher), conveniently situated across from the wharf. As businesses continued to come and go over the years, the Hoboken Ferry Station continued to operate until 1953, when it was then shuttered and demolished.
Following the closure of the ferry, and especially during the Post-Stonewall/pre-AIDS late 70’s and early 80’s period, the rotting old piers and dock houses near Christopher Street became home to an infamous queer scene for cruising, prostitution, and drug dealing. Gay men would sunbathe and party on the open docks before venturing into the remnants of nearby Pier 48 for anonymous sexual encounters. A similar scene could be found inside the empty trucks parked at the docks. This would end with the onset of the AIDS epidemic, though the piers would remain a home to homeless queer youth left with nowhere else to go (including Sylvia Rivera and RuPaul). Pier culture is discussed at great length in the brilliant documentary, Paris is Burning.
As part of the Hudson River Park renovation project, Pier 45 was cleaned up, rebuilt, and reopened in 2003. Today, while still a sanctuary to so many homeless queer youth, it also attracts a fair number of sunbathers, bicyclists, and tourists. Christopher Street Pier (Pier 45) is located on West Street between W. 10th Street and Christopher Street in New York City.
