Exploring Downtown

174 Broadway

A century ago the glittering heart of the city's diamond, jewelry and watchmaker district beat right here. "Within these stores," wrote the Daily Graphic in 1876, "are diamonds as bright as the eyes of the ancient Dutch beauties." A proud lone survivor operates here: William Barthman, jewelers to the Financial District since 1884, the oldest such establishment in the city. Barthman's is known to busy Wall Street moguls as the "Downtown Tiffany." Legendary patrons have included the Morgans and the Vanderbilts and such celebrities as British actress Lily Langtry and dapper New York Mayor "Gentleman" Jimmy Walker. Embedded in the pavement, at the corner, is one of New York's most unusual timepieces. In an age of ubiquitous tall, standing sidewalk clocks, Barthman installed his novel clock directly in the sidewalk itself, considering it a snappy piece of advertising.

In 1946, New York police estimated that 51,000 people stepped over the clock every day between 11am and 2pm. In the words of the Press in December 1899: "Sometimes two swift District telegraph messengers, who have stopped to match pennies in the shadow of the corner building, see the clock in the pavement with sudden twinges of conscience. It electrifies their feet and sends them flying on their errand."

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