Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan . Its name comes from Avenues A , B , C , and D , the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bounded by Houston Street to the south and 14th Street to the north, and extends roughly from Avenue A to the East River. Some famous landmarks include Tompkins Square Park , the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and the Charlie Parker Residence .
111-560: (Redirected from Sixth Street ) 6th Street may refer to: Places [ edit ] 6th Street (Manhattan) in Manhattan, New York City Sixth Street (Austin, Texas) , a historic and entertainment district in Downtown Austin, Texas Sixth Street (Wells, Nevada) in Wells, Nevada Other uses [ edit ] Sixth Street Partners ,
222-482: A 1991 application to demolish the house and replace it with an AIDS hospice with financing from the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe . Time Magazine was started at 141 East 17th Street. 18th Street has a local subway station at the crossing with Seventh Avenue , served by the 1 (and the 2 at late nights) on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line . There used to be an 18th Street station on
333-542: A dead end, just before Avenue B, and runs to Greenwich Avenue, and the third part is from Eighth Avenue to Tenth Avenue . 14th Street is a main numbered street in Manhattan. It begins at Avenue C and ends at West Street. Its length is 3.4 km (2.1 mi). It has six subway stations: From Avenue A or Avenue C to West Street there is service M14A/D bus. At 6th Avenue, there is a PATH stop with service to Midtown Manhattan and New Jersey . Traffic on 15th Street moves from east to west. The street formerly started at
444-476: A global investment company [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about roads and streets with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=6th_Street&oldid=1104804881 " Category : Road disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
555-508: A large portion of the neighborhood's demographics. Even so, crime remained prevalent and there were often drug deals being held openly in Tompkins Square Park. Tensions over gentrification contributed to the 1988 Tompkins Square Park riot , which occurred following opposition to a proposed curfew that had targeted the park's homeless. The aftermath of the riot slowed gentrification somewhat, as real estate prices declined. However, by
666-416: A new committee, echoed the former market place design, calling for open, ornamented canals on 6th, 9th and 14th Streets. In 1832, as no amount of fill seemed to stem periodic flooding, the city resolved on a simpler sewer system. In this design, the land would slope down to Avenue C from both east and west like a trough, and flow through a sewer to the river at 14th Street (Avenue C was widened to 80 feet for
777-532: A pedestrian road for a quarter of a block and turns back into a street. Then it runs the rest of the way to 12th Avenue. It runs on the north side of Hudson Yards and the south side of the Empire State Building . 35th Street runs from FDR Drive to Eleventh Avenue. Notable locations include East River Ferry , Mercy University Manhattan Campus, and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center . 36th Street runs from
888-474: A plan for the area, mapping out streets to build and lots to sell. In doing so, he was following the precedent of landowners to the south. However, by this time, the city was laying out roads of its own and wanted to connect the whole. The first proposal for a unified street system was the Mangin–Goerck Plan . Presented in 1799, it extended Stuyvesant's grid into the cove above Alphabet City, straightening
999-450: A post–World War II private residential development, blotted out the rest of A and B above 14th Street (sparing only a few blocks of Avenue C ). What remained of 1811's lettered avenues came to be called, by some, Alphabet City. There is disagreement about the earliest uses of the name. It is often characterized as a marketing invention of realtors and other gentrifiers who arrived in the 1980s. However, sociologist Christopher Mele connects
1110-522: A significant impact in the East Side, erecting houses of worship next to each other along 7th Street at the turn of the 20th century. By the 1890s, tenements were being designed in the ornate Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles, though tenements built in the later part of the decade were built in the Renaissance Revival style. At the time, the area was increasingly being identified as part of
1221-441: A square tower topped by a striking gilded pyramid. Twenty-Seventh Street passes one block north of Madison Square Park and culminates at Bellevue Hospital on First Avenue . The segment of 27th Street east of Second Avenue is a pedestrian mall and passes through Bellevue South Park . There are three local subway stations on 28th Street: Also: 30th Street runs uninterrupted across the island from 12th Avenue to FDR Drive. It
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#17328517797651332-588: A stubbornly persistent plague of street dealers in narcotics whose flagrantly open drug dealing has destroyed the community life of the neighborhood. In common, Mele notes, the early uses shared the "mystique of 'living on the edge.'" As early as 1989, however, a Newsday article suggested the mood, even among newcomers, had changed: Residents call the area east of Avenue A between Houston and 14th Streets "the neighborhood," "The East Village," "The Lower East Side" or its Spanglish version, "Loisaida." That's because calling it "Alphabet City" brings too many memories of
1443-646: A surviving vestige of the Dry Dock District, which once filled the East River waterfront with bustling industry. Alphabet City has a large number of surviving early 19th century houses connected to the maritime history of the neighborhood, which also are the first houses ever to be built on what had been farmland. Despite efforts by the GVSHP to preserve these houses, the LPC has not done so. An 1835 rowhouse at 316 East 3rd Street
1554-485: A well-capitalized group of shipowners and builders formed the New York Dry Dock Company to upgrade the city's repair facilities. They bought a chunk of waterfront recently sold off by Stuyvesants, running from 6th to 13th Street, and built an elaborate campus around 10th Street including Dry Dock Bank, Dry Dock Street (present-day Szold Place), and novel marine railways to elevate ships for repair. Hence,
1665-545: Is a pedestrian plaza between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue , and ends at Madison. Then West 24th and 25th streets continue from Fifth Avenue to Eleventh Avenue (25th) or Twelfth Avenue (24th). 26th Street is all in one part and after reaching FDR Drive bends and runs parallel to FDR Drive up to 30th Street. 27th Street is a one-way street that runs from Second Avenue to the West Side Highway with an interruption between Eighth Avenue and Tenth Avenue . It
1776-499: Is alternatively known as Police Officer Anthony Sanchez Way. Along the northern perimeter of Gramercy Park, between Gramercy Park East and Gramercy Park West, 21st Street is known as Gramercy Park North. 23rd Street is another main numbered street in Manhattan. It begins at Avenue C/FDR Drive and ends at Eleventh Avenue. Its length is 3.1 km/1.9m. It has two-way travel. On 23rd Street there are five local subway stations providing uptown and downtown service only: Additionally, there
1887-452: Is called St Mark's Place, but it is counted in the length below. The M8 bus route operates eastbound on 8th Street and westbound on 9th Street between Avenue A and Sixth Avenue. 8th Street has one subway station: Eighth Street–New York University , served by the N , R and W Trains. ( N late nights and weekends, R all times except late nights, and W all times except late nights and weekends.) Amos, Hammond, and Troy Streets were in
1998-424: Is demarcated at Broadway below 8th Street , and at Fifth Avenue at 8th Street and above. The numbered streets carry crosstown traffic. In general, but with numerous exceptions, even-numbered streets are one-way eastbound and odd-numbered streets are one-way westbound. Most wider streets, and a few of the narrow ones, carry two-way traffic. Although the numbered streets begin just north of East Houston Street in
2109-454: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages 6th Street (Manhattan) The New York City borough of Manhattan contains 214 numbered east–west streets ranging from 1st to 228th, the majority of them designated in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 . These streets do not run exactly east–west, because the grid plan is aligned with
2220-472: Is for pedestrians only and resumes at Szold Place, which runs from north to south toward 10th Street as a continuation of the flow of traffic from East 12th Street which runs east to west from Avenue D to Szold Place. Additionally, Little West 12th Street runs parallel to West 13th Street from West Street to the northeast corner of Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street. 13th Street is in three parts. The first runs from Avenue C to Avenue D. The second starts at
2331-534: Is gradually becoming recognized as an extension of Greenwich Village ... thereby extending New York’s Bohemia from river to river". The area became a center of the counterculture in New York, and was the birthplace and historical home of many artistic movements, including punk rock and the Nuyorican literary movement. By the 1970s and 1980s, the city in general was in decline and nearing bankruptcy, especially after
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#17328517797652442-524: Is interrupted by Union Square It picks up again at Union Square West, and continues unimpeded to Eleventh Avenue at the Hudson River. Sights along 15th Street include: the southern border of Stuyvesant Square ; the landmarked Friends Meeting House and Seminary at Rutherford Place; Irving Plaza at Irving Place ; the Daryl Roth Theatre in the landmarked Union Square Savings Bank Building, across
2553-506: Is most noted for its strip between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues , known as Club Row because it features numerous nightclubs and lounges. Some of the most notable venues are Bungalow 8 , Marquee, Suzie Wong, Cain, and Pink Elephant. Since 2011, starting at 530 W. 27th and continuing down almost the entire rest of the block, the former warehouse spaces of clubs Twilo , Guesthouse, Home, Bed, and more have been repurposed by British immersive theater group Punchdrunk as The McKittrick Hotel,
2664-472: Is the M23 Select Bus Service , running through the length of 23rd Street. 24th Street is in three parts. A small portion of 24th Street exists between First Avenue and East Midtown Plaza ending at a dead end before Second Avenue, a second portion is between East Midtown Plaza and Madison Avenue , ending because of Madison Square Park . 25th Street, which is in three parts, starts at FDR Drive ,
2775-798: Is the southern terminus of Dyer Avenue and thus also of the Lincoln Tunnel 's eastern approach. There is also an elevator with access to the High Line on the West Side. Tisch Hospital is bounded on the south by 30th Street between 1st Avenue and FDR Drive. 31st Street begins on the West Side at the West Side Yard , while 32nd Street, which includes a segment officially known as Korea Way between Fifth Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan's Koreatown , begins at
2886-520: The 1975 New York City fiscal crisis . Residential buildings in Alphabet City and the East Village suffered from high levels of neglect, as property owners did not properly maintain their buildings. The city purchased many of these buildings, but was also unable to maintain them due to a lack of funds. In spite of the deterioration of the area's structures, its music and arts scenes were doing well. By
2997-499: The Bowery . Peretz Square, a small triangular sliver park where Houston Street, First Street and First Avenue meet marks the spot where the grid takes hold. East 2nd Street begins just north of East Houston Street at Avenue C and also continues to the Bowery. The east end of East 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th streets is Avenue D , with East 6th Street continuing further eastward and connecting to
3108-452: The East River . In 2009, the two-way section of 10th Street between Avenue A and the East River had bicycle markings and sharrows installed, but it still has no dedicated bike lane. West 10th Street was previously named Amos Street for Charles Christopher Amos, who is also the namesake of Charles Street and Christopher Street . The end of West 10th Street toward the Hudson River was once
3219-455: The East Village , they generally do not extend west into Greenwich Village , which already had established, named streets when the grid plan was laid out by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 . Some streets in that area that do continue farther west change direction before reaching the Hudson River. The highest numbered street on Manhattan Island is 220th Street, but Marble Hill is also within
3330-701: The FDR Drive , but most of the street between the Drive and Avenue C was permanently closed, as was the 15th Street exit from the Drive, after the September 11 attacks , due to the presence of the Con Edison East River Generating Station there. Only Con Edison personnel have access to the closed portion. The street is then interrupted by Stuyvesant Town from Avenue C to First Avenue . It then continues to Union Square East (Park Avenue South) where it
3441-544: The FDR Drive . The west end of most of these streets is the Bowery and Third Avenue , except for 3rd Street (formerly Amity Place), which continues to Sixth Avenue ; and 4th Street, which extends west and then north to 13th Street in Greenwich Village . Great Jones Street connects East 3rd to West 3rd. East 5th Street goes west to Cooper Square, but is interrupted between Avenues B and C by The Earth School and Public School 364, and between First Avenue and Avenue A by
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3552-528: The Greenwich Village street grid and continue to West Street on the Hudson River . Because West 4th Street turns northward at Sixth Avenue, it intersects 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th streets in the West Village . The M8 bus operates on 10th Street in both directions between Avenue D and Avenue A , and eastbound between West Street and Sixth Avenue. 10th Street has an eastbound bike lane from West Street to
3663-607: The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) are working to gain individual and district landmark designations for Alphabet City to preserve and protect the architectural and cultural identity of the neighborhood. In early 2011, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) proposed a small district along the block of 10th Street that lies north of Tompkins Square Park . The East 10th Street Historic District
3774-800: The High Line near Tenth Avenue ; Chelsea Market between Ninth and Tenth Avenues; the Google Building between Eighth and Ninth Avenues; the row houses at 5, 7, 9, 17, 19, 21 & 23 West 16th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues; the Bank of the Metropolis at Union Square West; and St. George's Church at Rutherford Place. 16th Street is 1.8 mi (2.9 km) long. 17th, 18th and 19th streets start at First Avenue and finish at Eleventh Avenue. On 17th Street ( 40°44′08″N 73°59′12″W / 40.735532°N 73.986575°W / 40.735532; -73.986575 ), traffic runs one way along
3885-426: The Hudson River , rather than with the cardinal directions . Thus, the majority of the Manhattan grid's "west" is approximately 29 degrees north of true west; the angle differs above 155th Street, where the grid initially ended. The grid now covers the length of the island from 14th Street north. All numbered streets carry an East or West prefix – for example, East 10th Street or West 10th Street – which
3996-540: The IRT Lexington Avenue Line at the crossing with Park Avenue South . This street is home to the IAC Building , designed by Frank Gehry . 19th Street travels west for most of its length, except between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues the travel direction is reversed and traffic flows east. 20th Street starts at Avenue C, and 21st and 22nd Streets begin at First Avenue. They all end at Eleventh Avenue. Travel on
4107-638: The New York Public Library 's Ottendorfer branch. However, the community started to decline after the sinking of the General Slocum on June 15, 1904, in which over a thousand German-Americans died. The Germans who moved out of the area were replaced by immigrants of many different nationalities. This included groups of Italians and Eastern European Jews, as well as Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Slovaks and Ukrainians, each of whom settled in relatively homogeneous enclaves. In How
4218-472: The Old Grapevine tavern from the 1700s to its demolition in the early 20th century. 12th Street is in two parts. Traffic on most of 12th Street runs from west to east. The first segment of West 12th Street runs southwest to northeast from West Street to Greenwich Street, then turns straight west to east. At Fifth Avenue, West 12th Street becomes East 12th Street, and ends at Avenue C. One block of 12th Street
4329-472: The 1820s, the marshes of Alphabet City. During the 1840s and 50s, the East River, from Corlears Hook to 13th Street, and inland as far as Avenue C, represented the greatest concentration of shipbuilding activity in the country. After the Civil War , land and labor costs, along with the switch from wood to more massive iron hulls , would push the industry off the island entirely. Shipyards first appeared along
4440-663: The 1970s, gay dance halls and punk rock clubs had started to open in the neighborhood. These included the Pyramid Club , which opened in 1979 at 101 Avenue A; it hosted musical acts such as Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers , as well as drag performers such as RuPaul and Ann Magnuson . Alphabet City was one of many neighborhoods in New York to experience gentrification in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Multiple factors resulted in lower crime rates and higher rents in Manhattan in general, and Alphabet City in particular. Avenues A through D became distinctly less bohemian in
4551-581: The 19th century, many of the wealthy had continued to move further northward to the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side . Some wealthy families remained, and one observer noted in the 1880s that these families "look[ed] down with disdain upon the parvenus of Fifth avenue." In general, though, the wealthy population of the neighborhood started to decline as many moved northward. Immigrants from modern-day Ireland , Germany , and Austria moved into
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4662-483: The 21st century than they had been in earlier decades. In the 1970s, rents were extremely low and the neighborhood was considered one of the least desirable places in Manhattan to live in. However, as early as 1983, the Times reported that because of the influx of artists, many longtime establishments and immigrants were being forced to leave the area due to rising rents. By the following year, young professionals constituted
4773-482: The Alphabet City area was part of Bowery Number 2. The southwest quarter was part of Bowery Number 3. Both belonged initially to the company but were soon sold to individuals. By 1663, a year before surrendering the colony to England, Director General Peter Stuyvesant had acquired the relevant part of Number 2 and much of Number 3 from other settlers. The company divided the southeast quarter of Alphabet City into small lots associated with larger parcels further away from
4884-639: The FDR Drive to Eleventh Avenue. It runs on the south side of the Queens–Midtown Tunnel's Manhattan entrance/exit and over the Lincoln Tunnel's Manhattan entrance/exit. Notable locations on 36th Street are the American Copper Buildings , Sniffen Court , The Morgan Library & Museum , Gotham Hall, and the Javits Center . 37th Street runs from the FDR Drive to Eleventh Avenue. It runs on
4995-467: The Ficketts, another shipbuilding clan, built numerous three-story brick houses along Avenue D as well as cross streets west to Avenues C. They occupied some themselves and rented lesser variants to skilled laborers. By the early 1840s, shipyard owners dotted the neighborhood, and the majority of the city's ship carpenters lived in a narrow strip of blocks along Avenue D and Lewis Street, a stone's throw from
5106-472: The Greenwich Village street grid before 1811. In the middle 19th century they were renamed as the western parts of West 10th, 11th and 12th Streets, respectively. 10th Street ( 40°44′03″N 74°00′11″W / 40.7342580°N 74.0029670°W / 40.7342580; -74.0029670 ) begins at the FDR Drive and Avenue C . West of Sixth Avenue , it turns southward about 40 degrees to join
5217-531: The Javits Center. Alphabet City, Manhattan The neighborhood has a long history, serving as a cultural center and ethnic enclave for Manhattan's German , Polish , Hispanic , and immigrants of Jewish descent. However, there is much dispute over the borders of the Lower East Side , Alphabet City, and East Village. Historically, Manhattan's Lower East Side was 14th Street at the northern end, bound on
5328-551: The LPC has not granted these rowhouses landmark status. The LPC also declined to add 264 East 7th Street (the former home of illustrator Felicia Bond ) and four neighboring rowhouses to the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. In 2008, nearly the entire Alphabet City area was "downzoned" as part of an effort led by local community groups including GVSHP, the local community board, and local elected officials. In most parts of Alphabet City,
5439-646: The Lower East Side of Manhattan)." The term appeared in March 1983 in the New York Daily News regarding anti-drug raids in the area. It also appeared in The New York Times in an April 1984 editorial by Mayor Ed Koch justifying recent police operations: The neighborhood, known as Alphabet City because of its lettered avenues that run easterly from First Avenue to the river, has for years been occupied by
5550-526: The Lower East Side. The New York State Tenement House Act of 1901 drastically changed the regulations to which buildings in the East Side had to conform. Simultaneously, the Yiddish Theatre District or "Yiddish Rialto" developed within the East Side, centered around Second Avenue . It contained many theaters and other forms of entertainment for the Jewish immigrants of the city. By World War I ,
5661-542: The Other Half Lives , continued to attempt to alleviate the problems of the area through settlement houses , such as the Henry Street Settlement , and other welfare and service agencies. Because most of the new immigrants were German speakers, modern Alphabet City, East Village and the Lower East Side collectively became known as " Little Germany " (German: Kleindeutschland ). The neighborhood had
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#17328517797655772-505: The Other Half Lives , Riis wrote that "a map of the city, colored to designate nationalities, would show more stripes than on the skin of a zebra, and more colors than any rainbow." One of the first groups to populate the former Little Germany were Yiddish -speaking Ashkenazi Jews , who first settled south of Houston Street before moving northward. The Roman Catholic Poles as well as the Protestant Hungarians would also have
5883-613: The Owners unless upon the most Economical Scale of Expense and under all the Encouragements which can be offered by the Corporation Consistently with the public Interests. To this end, the proposed market place, like most of the public spaces in the plan, was returned to private hands. It was reduced to a sliver in 1815, then scrapped altogether in 1824. The city argued that the land was too remote to serve its intended purpose at
5994-505: The Same names & be regulated by the Corporation as Streets." Weighing heavily in these decisions was the marsh itself and the water that drained—or failed to drain—through it. The debate about grading and draining Alphabet City's streets went round and round for over a decade, even as filling proceeded. The standard design called for the land to slope down to the river uniformly throughout
6105-532: The United States. The Polish enclave in the East Village persisted, though numerous other immigrant groups had moved out, and their former churches were sold and became Orthodox cathedrals . Latin American immigrants started to move to the East Side, settling in the eastern part of the neighborhood and creating an enclave that later came to be known as Loisaida. The East Side's population started to decline at
6216-503: The Village View Apartments. East 6th Street contains many Indian restaurants between First and Second Avenues and is sometimes known as Curry Row . 8th and 9th streets run parallel to each other, beginning at Avenue D, interrupted by Tompkins Square Park at Avenue B , resuming at Avenue A and continuing to Sixth Avenue. West 8th Street is an important local shopping street. 8th Street between Avenue A and Third Avenue
6327-431: The area's largest employers. Novelty had about 1200 workers at its peak in the 1850s, and was regarded as a marvel of engineering and operations. As shipyards filled the riverfront, housing popped up nearby. In many cases, shipbuilders themselves played the role of developer. Noah Brown, for example, built a boardinghouse for apprentices south of Houston and invested in large plots to the north. Beginning around 1830,
6438-669: The borough of Manhattan, so the highest street number in the borough is 228th Street. The numbering system continues in the Bronx , up to 263rd Street, though east of Van Cortlandt Park the system ends at 243rd Street. The lowest numbered street in Manhattan is East 1st Street, which runs through Alphabet City near East Houston Street . There are also three streets numbered as First, Second and Third Place in Battery Park City . Download coordinates as: East 1st Street begins just north of East Houston Street at Avenue A and continues to
6549-416: The city's shipbuilding reputation. Brothers Adam and Noah Brown (no relation to Charles) and Henry Eckford took over the spot and, by 1819, extended the wharf along Lewis Street, east of the new grid plan, to 5th Street. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 called for a wholesale food market between 7th and 10th Street, but local landowners put a stop to this, clearing the way for more of the same. In 1825,
6660-519: The corner of Broadway and West 31st Street is the Grand Hotel . The former Hotel Pierrepont was located at 43 West 32nd Street, The Continental NYC tower is at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 32nd Street. 29 East 32nd Street was the location of the first building owned by the Grolier Club between 1890 and 1917. 33rd Street runs uninterrupted from First Avenue to Seventh Avenue where it turns into
6771-455: The days when outsiders began coming to Avenues A, B, C and D for the galleries, the clubs and the drugs. Several local nickname sets associated with the ABCD denotation have included Adventurous, Brave, Crazy and Dead and, more recently by writer George Pendle, "Affluent, Bourgeois, Comfortable, Decent". Prior to development, most of present-day Alphabet City was a salt marsh , regularly flooded by
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#17328517797656882-487: The district's theaters hosted as many as 20 to 30 shows a night. After World War II , Yiddish theater became less popular, and by the mid-1950s few theaters were still extant in the District. The city built First Houses on the south side of East 3rd Street between First Avenue and Avenue A , and on the west side of Avenue A between East 2nd and East 3rd Streets in 1935–1936, the first such public housing project in
6993-531: The east by East River and on the west by First Avenue ; today, that same area is Alphabet City. The area's German presence in the early 20th century, in decline, virtually ended after the General Slocum disaster in 1904. Alphabet City is part of Manhattan Community District 3 and its primary ZIP Code is 10009. It is patrolled by the 9th Precinct of the New York City Police Department . The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 , which laid out
7104-424: The end of the 20th century, real estate prices had resumed their rapid rise. About half of Alphabet City's stores had opened within the decade since the riot, while vacancy rates in that period had dropped from 20% to 3%, indicating that many of the longtime merchants had been pushed out. The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space opened on Avenue C in the building known as C-Squat in 2012. An archive of urban activism,
7215-458: The entire block of 10th Street from Avenue A to Avenue B . The block was located adjacent to Tompkins Square Park , located between 7th and 10th Streets from Avenue A to Avenue B, designated the same year. Though the park was not in the original Commissioners' Plan of 1811, part of the land from 7th to 10th Streets east of First Avenue had been set aside for a marketplace that was ultimately never built. Rowhouses of 2.5 to 3 stories were built on
7326-641: The entrance to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden . On the East Side , both streets end at Second Avenue at Kips Bay Towers and NYU Medical Center which occupy the area between 30th and 34th streets. The Catholic church of St. Francis of Assisi is situated at 135–139 West 31st Street. At 210 West is the Capuchin Monastery of St. John the Baptist, part of St. John the Baptist Church on 30th Street. At
7437-470: The former low-water mark of the marsh. Shipbuilders included Smith & Dimon (4th to 5th Street), William H. Webb (5th to 7th Street), Jacob A. Westervelt (7th to 8th Street) and William H. Brown (11th to 12th Street). Alongside them were sparmakers, who built masts for the booming clipper trade, as well as iron works, which manufactured steam engines. Morgan Iron Works (9th to 10th Street) and Novelty Iron Works (12th to 14th Street) soon became
7548-510: The grid scheme of Manhattan above Houston Street, designated 16 north-south "avenues." Twelve numbered avenues were to run continuously to Harlem , while four lettered ones—A, B, C and D—appeared intermittently wherever the island widened east of First Avenue . The plan called for stretches of Avenue A and Avenue B north of midtown, all of which have been renamed. In 1943, Avenue A went as far north as 25th Street, Avenue B ended at 21st Street and Avenue C reached 18th Street. Stuyvesant Town ,
7659-401: The home of Newgate Prison, New York City's first prison and the United States' second. 11th Street is in two parts. It is interrupted by the block containing Grace Church between Broadway and Fourth Avenue . East 11th Street runs from Fourth Avenue to Avenue C and runs past Webster Hall . West 11th Street runs from Broadway to West Street. 11th Street and Sixth Avenue was the location of
7770-469: The last block of the 20th, 21st, and 22nd streets, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, is in the opposite direction than it is on the rest of the respective street. 20th Street is very wide from the Avenue C to First Avenue. Along the southern perimeter of Gramercy Park , between Gramercy Park East and Gramercy Park West, 20th Street is known as Gramercy Park South. Between Second and Third Avenues, 21st Street
7881-419: The marshy environs, Alphabet City landowners, mostly Stuyvesants, argued for an extra measure of deference and the city concurred: It is stated in the memorial [of the landowners] and the fact is unquestionable that the extensive tract of sunken meadow land lying between North Street [now Houston Street] and Brandy mulah Point [Burnt Mill Point, near 12th Street] cannot be improved with any prospect of Benefit to
7992-499: The most degraded areas east of Avenue B as Alphabet City in the 1950s. Whatever its origins, the name began to appear in print around 1980 with all three associations—crime, art, and gentrification. A December 1980 article in the Daily News reported on the eastward flow of gentrification: Ave A. is still the DMZ. While the one side has been the East Village since the days of hippie heaven,
8103-525: The mouth of the East River. Stuyvesant and his heirs, with the help of slave labor, continued to occupy their farm as a country estate, cultivating it lightly and making few changes to the land. After the Revolutionary War , with a surge in population and trade, the city was poised to grow northward. Around 1789, Peter Stuyvesant , great-grandson of the Director General by that name, came up with
8214-668: The museum explores the history of grassroots movements in the East Village and offers guided walking tours of community gardens, squats, and sites of social change. Politically, Alphabet City is in New York's 7th and 12th congressional districts. It is also in the New York State Senate 's 27th and 28th districts, the New York State Assembly 's 65th and 74th districts, and the New York City Council 's 1st and 2nd districts. Local community groups such as
8325-406: The neighborhood as a whole was often called Dry Dock. In 1828, an observer wrote, "No place on this island has the destroying hand of man done more to alter the face of nature... Hills of great magnitude have been entirely levelled, or cut down, and used to fill up docks and wharves." By the early 1840s, the shipyards formed a solid line along the riverfront, jutting out several hundred feet from
8436-463: The neighborhood. The population of Manhattan's 17th ward, which included the western part of the modern Alphabet City, doubled from 18,000 people in 1840 to over 43,000 in 1850, and nearly doubled yet again to 73,000 persons in 1860, becoming the city's most highly populated ward at that time. As a result of the Panic of 1837 , the city had experienced less construction in the previous years, and so there
8547-463: The new one. On the other hand, Alphabet City retained its long, arcing bank along the East River, just north of the ever-growing ports and shipyards that animated the city. The commissioners placed the avenues on the east side of the island closer together in anticipation of denser development there. For Alphabet City proper, they envisioned a wholesale food market supplying the entire city. It would extend from 7th to 10th Street and from First Avenue to
8658-509: The new roads were rotated relative to the existing ones just below Alphabet City. Moreover, the commissioners could do little to straighten the shoreline. They were limited by charter to reclaiming 400 feet beyond the low-water mark, much less than the Mangin-Goerck plan entailed. First Avenue reflected this limit. It was drawn parallel to Fifth Avenue (called Middle Road in earlier designs ) as far east as possible while not straying too far into
8769-712: The north side of the Queens–Midtown Tunnel's Manhattan entrance/exit and over the Lincoln Tunnel's Manhattan entrance/exit. Notable locations on 37th Street are the Corinthian, the Morgan Library & Museum , Gotham Hall, and the Javits Center . 38th Street runs from FDR Drive to Eleventh Avenue. It runs on the south side of the Lincoln Tunnel's Manhattan entrance/exit. Notable Locations on 38th Street are The Corinthian , The Town House Hotel, 425 Fifth Avenue , and
8880-618: The other side has become known, by Spanish-speaking locals, as Loisaida, and, by hand-rubbing realtors, as Alphabet City. The Official Preppy Handbook , published in October 1980, caricatured a subgroup of preppies as "connoisseurs of punk ... who spend their weekends in alphabet city (Avenues A, B, C, and D) on the Lower East Side." Similarly, a November 1984 article in The New York Times reported "Younger artists ... are moving downtown to an area variously referred to as Alphabetland, Alphabetville, or Alphabet City (Avenues A, B, C and so forth on
8991-420: The other side of the park at Union Square East (Park Avenue South), but is shortly stopped again by Stuyvesant Square from between Second and Third Avenues (Rutherford Place) to between First and Second Avenues (Perlman Place). At First Avenue, it is interrupted by Stuyvesant Town , and starts up again at Avenue C . It then dead ends between that avenue and the FDR Drive . Sights on 16th Street include:
9102-424: The purpose). With this decided, roads and buildings went forward, though sewer construction itself would wait for decades. Archaeological excavations along Avenue C at 8th Street show that the site was incrementally raised 10–12 feet between 1820 and 1840, occupied from the 1840s (with the aid of a private cistern), and only drained by the proposed sewer line in 1867. The Alphabet City area initially developed along
9213-413: The rare industry where tradition persisted and kept wages, skill and respect generally high. He and others also credit shipyard workers with pioneering the reduction of work hours in the United States. A "Mechanics' Bell" hung for decades along the Alphabet City riverfront to enforce the ten-hour day that journeymen secured around 1834. Labor reformer George McNeill likened it to a "'Liberty Bell' ... for
9324-572: The rezoning requires that new development occur in harmony with the low-rise character of the area. Loisaida / ˌ l oʊ . iː ˈ s aɪ d ə / is a term derived from the Spanish (and especially Nuyorican ) pronunciation of " Lower East Side ". Originally coined by poet/activist Bittman "Bimbo" Rivas in his 1974 poem "Loisaida", it now refers to Avenue C in Alphabet City , whose population has largely been Hispanic (mainly Nuyorican ) since
9435-409: The river, with a canal up the middle. The commissioners wrote: "The place selected for this purpose is a salt marsh, and from that circumstance, of inferior price, though in regard to its destination, of greater value than other soil." Despite having sought a binding plan, the city requested many modifications from the state during execution, generally along lines demanded by property interests. Given
9546-523: The riverfront, during the 1820s, as part of the city's expanding shipbuilding and repair industry. Shipyards tended to form tight clusters in close proximity to specialized workers, such as ship carpenters, and ancillary manufacturers, such as iron works . They also required lots of cheap space. Hence, the city's growth forced the shipyards to migrate periodically to peripheral sites: above Dover Street around 1750, below Corlears Hook (some five blocks south of Houston Street) around 1800, then, beginning in
9657-476: The same are overflowed by the spring tides, particularly near the seaboard. These meadows resemble the lows and outlands of the Netherlands. Most of them could be dyked and cultivated. The Dutch, then, were singularly attuned to the potential for land reclamation. During the city's first two centuries, however, large-scale landfill was limited to the more commercial southern end of the island, particularly wharfs at
9768-425: The shore. In this way, upland farmers gained access to the unique tidal ecosystem—"salt meadow" as they called it—and with it, " salt hay ," a cordgrass species valued as fodder. In his influential Description of New Netherland (1655), Adriaen van der Donck informed his fellow Dutchmen: There [are] salt meadows; some so extensive that the eye cannot oversee the same. Those are good for pasturage and hay, although
9879-423: The shoreline such that Alphabet City and the Lower East Side were no longer an isolated bulge. When this plan succumbed to political squabbles and landowner demands, the city appealed to the state to dictate a design. The result was the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 , setting out the street grid of Manhattan above Houston Street. "In general," the commissioners resolved, everything "should be rectangular." However,
9990-400: The side streets by such developers as Elisha Peck and Anson Green Phelps ; Ephraim H. Wentworth; and Christopher S. Hubbard and Henry H. Casey. Following the rapid growth of the neighborhood, Manhattan's 17th ward was split from the 11th ward in 1837. The former covered the area from Avenue B to the Bowery, while the latter covered the area from Avenue B to the East River. By the middle of
10101-476: The site of the old St. Nicholas Kirche . Until the mid-20th century, the area was simply the northern part of the Lower East Side, with a similar culture of immigrant, working-class life. In the 1950s and 1960s, the migration of Beatniks into the East Village attracted hippies, musicians, writers, and artists who had been priced out of the rapidly gentrifying Greenwich Village . Among the first displaced Greenwich Villagers to stray as far east as Alphabet City
10212-535: The site of their theatrical experience Sleep No More . Heading east, 27th Street passes through Chelsea Park between Tenth and Ninth Avenues , with the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) on the corner of Eighth . On Madison Avenue between 26th and 27th streets, on the site of the old Madison Square Garden , is the New York Life Building , built in 1928 and designed by Cass Gilbert , with
10323-451: The sons of toil." The Commissioners' Plan and resulting street grid was the catalyst for the northward expansion of the city, and for a short period, the portion of the Lower East Side that is now Alphabet City was one of the wealthiest residential neighborhoods in the city. Following the grading of the streets, development of rowhouses came to the East Side and NoHo by the early 1830s. In 1833, Thomas E. Davis and Arthur Bronson bought
10434-429: The southern end of the area's shoreline, roughly between Stanton and 3rd Street. This location was not only close to existing yards but also a relative high point. Indeed, it was called, rather confusingly, Manhattan Island, in reference to a knoll in the salt marsh, increasingly buried under wharfs. Here, in 1806-7, Charles Brownne built the first commercial steamboat, Robert Fulton 's Clermont , which helped establish
10545-576: The start of the Great Depression in the 1930s and the implementation of the Immigration Act of 1924 , and the expansion of the New York City Subway into the outer boroughs. Many old tenements, deemed to be "blighted" and unnecessary, were destroyed in the middle of the 20th century. The Village View Houses on First Avenue between East 2nd and 6th Streets were opened in 1964, partially on
10656-531: The street from the Zeckendorf Towers at Union Square East; the Google Building between Eighth and Ninth Avenues; Chelsea Market , between Ninth and Tenth Avenues; and the High Line near Tenth Avenue. 15th Street is 1.9 mi (3 km) in length. Traffic on 16th Street moves from west to east. It starts at Eleventh Avenue at the Hudson River, and runs until it is interrupted at Union Square West (Broadway) by Union Square . It picks up again on
10767-435: The street, from east to west excepting the stretch between Broadway and Park Avenue South, where traffic runs in both directions. It forms the northern borders of both Union Square (between Broadway and Park Avenue South ) and Stuyvesant Square . Composer Antonín Dvořák 's New York home was located at 327 East 17th Street, near Perlman Place. The house was razed by Beth Israel Medical Center after it received approval of
10878-422: The term to the arts scene of the late 1970s which in turn attracted real estate investors. As such, argues Mele, Alphabet City and its many variants—Alphaville, Alphabetland, etc.—were "playful" but also "concealed the area's rampant physical and social decline and downplayed the area’s Latino identity." Pete Hamill , a longtime New York City journalist, cites darker origins. NYPD officers, he claims, referred to
10989-409: The third largest urban population of Germans outside of Vienna and Berlin . It was America's first foreign language neighborhood; hundreds of political, social, sports and recreational clubs were set up during this period. Numerous churches were built in the neighborhood, of which many are still extant. In addition, Little Germany also had its own library on Second Avenue in nearby East Village, now
11100-439: The tides of the East River (technically an estuary, not a river). Marshes played a critical role in the food web and protected the coast. The Lenape Native Americans who inhabited Manhattan before European contact presided over similar ecosystems from New York Bay to Delaware Bay . They tended to settle in forest clearings. In summer, however, they foraged shellfish, gathered cordgrass for weaving, and otherwise exploited
11211-447: The time and that holding onto it would deter development. Urban historian Edward Spann lamented, "What was perhaps the most far-sighted feature of the Plan was the first to be completely eliminated." In the same act that abolished the market place, the state accommodated a landowner petition to narrow just the lettered avenues. From the standard avenue width of 100 feet (30 m), Avenue A
11322-481: The water. Irregular bits of land protruded beyond First Avenue and, for these cases, the commissioners turned to lettered avenues. Avenues A and B appeared around Alphabet City, popped up again above midtown, and once more in Harlem (they were eventually renamed or eliminated above Alphabet City). Avenues C and D existed only in Alphabet City. Thus the neighborhood was misaligned with the old grid and relatively disconnected to
11433-417: The watershed, which extended as far inland as Bowery . However, landowners, who would be assessed the cost of road construction, objected to the expense of so much landfill. In 1823, a newly created committee, with latitude to amend the 1811 plan, proposed to save money with a network of closed sewers, but these suffered a bad reputation from repeated clogging in older parts of the city. Another proposal, from
11544-520: The wetlands. Dutch settlers brought a different model of land ownership and use. In 1625, representatives of the Dutch West India Company set their sights on lower Manhattan, with plans for a fortified town at its tip served by farms above. In 1626, they "purchased" the island from a local Lenape group and began parceling the land into boweries (from the Dutch for "farm"). The northern half of
11655-468: The wharfs. Throughout this period, the industry was dominated by in-migrants drawn to the booming shipyards from surrounding countryside and boatbuilding regions across New England . They shared a traditional production model in which artisans progressed from apprentices to journeymen to masters , all while living and working side by side. Sean Wilentz , who documented the sweatshop proclivities of antebellum New York City, points to shipbuilding as
11766-652: Was a dearth of units available for immigrants, resulting in the subdivision of many houses in lower Manhattan. Another solution was brand-new "tenant houses", or tenements , within the East Side. Clusters of these buildings were constructed by the Astor family and Stephen Whitney . The developers rarely involved themselves with the daily operations of the tenements, instead subcontracting landlords (many of them immigrants or their children) to run each building. Numerous tenements were erected, typically with footprints of 25 by 25 feet (7.6 by 7.6 m), before regulatory legislation
11877-566: Was demolished in 2012 for the construction of a 33-unit rental called "The Robyn". In 2010, GVSHP and the East Village Community Coalition asked the LPC to consider for landmark designation 326 and 328 East 4th Street, two Greek Revival rowhouses dating from 1837–41, which over the years housed merchants affiliated with the shipyards, a synagogue, and most recently an art collective called the Uranian Phalanstery . However,
11988-478: Was designated by the LPC in January 2012. Several notable buildings are designated as individual landmarks. These include: Other buildings of note include "Political Row", a block of stately rowhouses on East 7th Street between Avenues C and D, where political leaders of every kind lived in the 19th century; the landmarked Wheatsworth Bakery building on East 10th Street near Avenue D; and next to it, 143-145 Avenue D,
12099-400: Was passed in the 1860s. To address concerns about unsafe and unsanitary conditions, a second set of laws was passed in 1879, requiring each room to have windows, resulting in the creation of air shafts between each building. Subsequent tenements built to the law's specifications were referred to as Old Law Tenements . Reform movements, such as the one started by Jacob Riis 's 1890 book How
12210-487: Was poet Allen Ginsberg , who moved to 206 East 7th Street in 1951. His apartment served as a "nerve center" for writers such as William Burroughs , Jack Kerouac and Gregory Corso . Further change came in 1955 when the Third Avenue elevated railway above the Bowery and Third Avenue was removed. This in turn made the East Side more attractive to potential residents, and by 1960, The New York Times said that "this area
12321-571: Was reduced to 80 feet (24 m), Avenues B, C and D to 60 feet (18 m), the width of most cross-streets. "Incapable of use as thoroughfares to and from the City," wrote the city council, "they cannot be considered as avenues in the proper Sense of the term." Instead, they should "correspond as far as possible with the Old Streets [below Houston] of which they will form the Continuation & be called by
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