Financial District

The Financial District is the southern tip of Manhattan, especially the area around Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. The term “financial district” appears in 1891, but the terms “Wall Street” and “financial centre” were used much earlier, too early to pinpoint an exact date.
 
In 2006, the abbreviation “FiDi” was used.
 
 
NY.com
The Financial District is an area at the southern tip of Manhattan. Major sights include South Street Seaport, Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, Battery Park, Trinity Church and the Woolworth Building. 

New York Stock Exchange Chronology
1653 Stockade Erected in Manhattan
A 12-foot-high wood stockade is erected across lower Manhattan from river to river to protect Dutch settlers from attacks by the British and Indians. 
 
1685 Wall Street Laid Out
Surveyors lay out Wall Street along the line of the stockade. 
 
1790 US Investment Markets Born
The federal government refinances all federal and state Revolutionary War debt, issuing $80 million in bonds. These become the first major issues of publicly traded securities, marking the birth of the U.S. investment markets. 
 
1792 Five Securities Traded
There are five securities traded in New York City. (...)
 
6 October 1869, New York Times, pg. 8:
THE FINANCIAL CENTRE.
   
22 January 1875, New York Times, pg. 7:
THE NEW EQUITABLE LIFE BUILDING
More than six or seven years ago it was believed by some that the financial centre of the City would be changed from Wall street to the vicinity of the City Hall Park, but the erection of a large number of very substantial and commodious buildings in Wall street and its immediate vicinity, the permanent location of the Stock Exchange, the purchase by the United States of the Assay Office and the Sub-Treasury, the establishment of the New-York Clearing-house one block from the centre of Wall street, have settled this matter for the future.
   
21 August 1891, Boston Daily Advertiser, “New York Bankers,” pg. 1, col. 5:
He ran, in fact, right through the very heart of the financial district, and not a policeman was in sight.
 
4 February 1894, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. 1:
In THE TRIBUNE yesterday a New York dispatch related that a syndicate of Chicago capitalists had bought the entire block in downtown New York bounded by Broadway, Cedar, Liberty, and Temple streets and proposed to remove the buildings upon it to make room for a towering modern structure. (...) It is one of the choicest locations in New York, in the heart of the financial district, with many of the strongest concerns and institutions in the city within a stone’s throw.
 
21 July 1894, New York Times, pg. 2:
General Approval in the Financial
District of the President’s Course.