The Titanic & The Village

Today marks one hundred and one years since the RMS Titanic sank into the cold dark North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg over 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Though the ill-fated liner never made it to New York, many sites in the city and right here in the Village are associated with the tragedy that claimed over 1,500 lives.

GVSHP has highlighted many of these connections over the years:

The Jane Hotel at 507 West Street, was in 1912 the American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailors’ Home and Institute. It was the site of the first legal inquisition into the sinking as well as the site of the first unofficial memorial service attended by surviving Titanic crew members.

Pier 54: Following the sinking of the Titanic, the RMS Carpathia, a Cunard ship, rescued survivors of the disaster.  The Carpathia first arrived in New York at Pier 59 at 18th Street, the pier of the White Star Line where the Titanic was supposed to arrive, to drop off the Titanic’s lifeboats that had been brought aboard.  It then traveled south to Pier 54 where it dropped off the survivors of the sinking.

The former Macy’s store on 14th Street — the co-owner of Macy’s, Isidor Straus, and his wife Ida, perished when the ship sank.

St. Vincent’s Hospital cared for more than 100 injured Titanic crew and passengers.