Mahicantuck Shoreline

The River that Flows Two Ways

400 years ago, the ground floor of 550 Washington would have been the shoreline of what we now call the Hudson River. Before contact and Dutch colonization, the land you are standing on was home to the Lenape people. Lenape and Algonquin tribes lived in small bands on the lower river estuary, traveling in dug-out canoes to visit and trade with each other. The Lenape understood how this estuary's cycle of high and low tides resulted in a daily change in the direction of its flow, naming it “Mahicantuck” or “the river that flows both ways”. Here, the Lenape harvested oysters, fished native species using nets, harpooned whales and seals, and shot ducks with bows and arrows.

In 1626, Dutch colonists arranged the sale of Mannahatta, a deal that stripped the Lenape of their ancestral homelands and eventually led to the formation of modern day New York City.

Men in dugout canoe.

Dugout canoe construction.

Delaware Tribal Seal featuring the Mesingw Maske Spirit(Keeper of the game animals on which the Lenape depended for food), Christian Cross, Fire Drill, and the three Clan Symbols: Turtle, Wolf, and Turkey.