Named after a freshwater spring in Lispenard’s Meadow.
Spring Street takes its name from a freshwater spring that ran through Lispenard's Meadow, where West Broadway is now. Until 1806 it was called Brannon Street, because it ran through the garden of a man of that name, at today's Spring and Hudson Streets. In 1803 it was the only street through an area that was still rural, hilly and wooded.