The Cherry Orchard the three or four outstanding plays by Chekhov, along with "The Seagull", "Three Sisters", and "Uncle Vanya". The play concerns an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. Unresponsive to offers to save the estate, she allows its sale to the son of a former serf; the family leaves to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down. The story presents themes of cultural futility – both the futile attempts of the aristocracy to maintain its status and of the
Cherry Street (Manhattan) lane, which bends into Cherry Street as it ends. Prior to the constructions of the FDR, both Cherry Street and Grand Street extended a short distance further east than they now do, and met each other at the riverbank. The street was named for the cherry orchard that sat on the general location that was owned by Goovert Loockermans, a wealthy Dutch merchant who was the New Amsterdam representative of the Amsterdam trading firm of Gillis Verbrugge & Company in the 1660s. Cherry Street was renamed for Firefighter Robert Foti in honor if his sacrifice on September 11, 2001. Loockermans'