Fly Market

In Dutch New Amsterdam, this location was a marshy valley called Smee’s Vly. When the city was under English rule, colonists in the late 1600s established a market here dubbed the "Fly." One of New York’s oldest and most vital marketplaces, the Fly extended up Maiden Lane from the East River and comprised three arcades—for fish, produce, and meat (shown here). Customers could expect a high level of quality due to the atypical degree of oversight provided by the city council that administered a small army of clerks, inspectors, and porters. To the left—at 197 Pearl Street—Chappel pictures the druggist J & T Schieffelin.

Credit: The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps, and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954