R.I.P. Rector Street Bench — A “Summer Trip to New York!” Clip Staple

Just a few months into mourning the loss of the Financial District’s 12th best spot, we are forced to bid adieu to the Financial District’s 13th best spot.

The Rector Street Bench was quite possibly the only place in the Financial District that you had .01% chance of getting kicked out of — rendering it a staple of “Summer Trip to New York!” clips throughout the 2010s. Earlier this week, we learned that it will not be joining us in the 2020s.

He wasn’t very fun, but he was a resilient little fucker. Those of us 65 years or older might remember when this very same bench was on Water Street, across from the Veteran’s Plaza, and visible in the background of the Jason Dill Photosynthesis line that has been mentioned in every article about lines ever written. Amid that spot’s reconstruction, the benches were removed and forgotten — except through some glitch in the algorithm, they ended up at the mouth of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel on Rector Street, over some cobblestones.

Jake Johnson did a backside noseblunt shove over it, and it has been in the hearts and minds of any children looking to film a crooked grind ever since. (And I’m sure someone has drunkenly tried to skate it after a China Chalet party let out before.)

I know what you’re thinking! “It’s survived before, maybe it’s just being moved…AGAIN!”

Well, you little optimist you, it’s better not to get your hopes up. Jason Sherman, who shot us over the original tip, said he spoke with the construction dudes and a third chapter seemed unlikely. Should we just get an Uber XL + a couple hands to bring it over to Tompkins?

R.I.P. Rector Street Bench. Long Live T.G.I. Friday’s.

Thanks to Jason Sherman for the photos ♥