Unloading The Cargo At The Fulton Fish Market 1923

The Fulton Fish Market turned 200 years old in 2021. According to Richard C. McKay author of South Street A Mariritme History of New York (Putnam) 1934, after a fire in January 1821 destroyed a large number of wooden buildings around South Street, a fish market building was erected in the area and was open for business in November of that year.

Our photograph was taken by Percy Loomis Sperr in 1923 and shows the loading of fish into barrels. For more than 180 years, 365 days a year, vessels brought their catch into South Street between Fulton and Beekman Streets.

Once there the fishmongers would bargain and sell their cargo to wholesalers, who would then supply New York and the nation. The smell of the area could be overpowering, even for those who love fish.

The city moved the Fulton Fish Market from South Street to the Bronx on November 14, 2005, so the market still exists, but in name only, at a climate controlled indoor facility in Hunts Point.