Streets that Bend - Before there was a grid

[NYatKNIGHT]

It was the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that organized the famous street grid of Manhattan, but below 14th Street, with a few notable exceptions, the street layout was left undisturbed.

There are obviously very famous big streets that bend: Broadway, Bowery, and Riverside to name a few. However, they have mostly been realigned to bend at street intersections. These photos are taken of streets that bend mid-block, often along the boundaries of former colonial land grants, each developed separately before the city devised an overall street plan for Manhattan.


GREENWICH VILLAGE

St. Luke's Place
This street bends twice off 7th Avenue. The park to the left is named for Mayor Jimmy Walker who lived on this street.

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512391.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512393.jpg

A row of 15 Italianate town houses lines the north side of the street overlooking James J. Walker Park. The one to the left of the white one, No. 10, was made famous for being the Huxtable residence on the Cosby show.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512396.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512398.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512399.jpg

No. 6 St. Luke's Place was the home of Mayor Jimmy Walker.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512351.jpg


Morton Street

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512379.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512380.jpg


Barrow Street

Although Barrow Street bends at the intersection of Commerce Street, I included it anyway because it's such a great little street.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512358.jpg

[Eugenius]

Fabulous photos. *I lived in the West Village for a year, and still remember how charming and atypical the streets were. *I would frequently take a side-trip along Commerce street, just to follow the bend. *Interesting observation on the Minetta Brook, will have to remember that one.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Great stuff. That corner on Commerce is my favorite place in the Village.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Mine too. I take people there from out of town to show them just how quaint Manhattan can be. Plus its right there by Chumleys, a required stop on any Village (bar) tour.

[Bennie B]

Great tour, NYatKNIGHT! *Now which way to the gift shop? *:)

[Kris]

I cannot praise you enough for this presentation.

[Merry]

You're a gem, NYatKnight. *This is a wonderful post. *Thank you for the gorgeous photos and informative commentary. *This has made my (birth)day.

I've got a photo somewhere of that Cherry Street scene strewn with rubbish. *Glad to see things have improved (well I guess cars are better than garbage...).

(Edited by Merry at 4:59 pm on Mar. 26, 2003)

[amigo32]

Some very quaint pics! *A couple of those photos reminded me of Eureka Springs. :)

[NYatKNIGHT]

Happy Birthday Merry, and thanks everyone, I'm glad you enjoyed.

[North2South]

Neat thread. You know, West 28th Street and West 24th Streets between 8th and 9th Avenues bend as well (though I don't have any pics).

[Gulcrapek]

I've been on that part of W28 and I didn't even think it was a street; it looked more like a cul-de-sac-ish road in a complex..

[YesIsaidYesIwillYes]

Excellent, excellent photos! Thanks

[phxmania2001]

Plus its right there by Chumleys, a required stop on any Village (bar) tour.

Yeeeah... we have to do that again sometime. :wink:

Very nice job. The Five Points bit was especially good-it's always been one of the more fascinating parts of Manhattan's history.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Plus its right there by Chumleys, a required stop on any Village (bar) tour.

Yeeeah... we have to do that again sometime. :wink:

Okay :D

[DougGold]

I've been on a few movie studio lots, and each of them have a "street" made up to look like NYC, and I gotta tell you, any one of those curved streets from the village could be one of them if you hadn't told me otherwise. Pretty weird.

[professionalx]

Nice photo tour - thanks.
Minetta Brook still flows in a culvert under Minetta Street, by the way - after a heavy rain there are a whole line of basements in the West Village which it sometimes floods, including that of the Minetta Lane Theatre and (15 min. downstream) the Cherry Lane Theatre.

[AmeriKenArtist]

excellent presentation! thank you!

[NYatKNIGHT]

I saw that too. They aren't gone, I still have the originals somewhere, but it may take a while to reorganize. Thanks for being so distraught!

[oldNYC]

Hi, I was also wondering where the photos have gone (and am equally distraught ;))... I actually really like the doyers street area, just because of it's history and reputation, and was wondering where i could find photos!

Thanks!
-n

[GVNY]

I was equally curious where your tour had disappeared to. I am glad you have decided to put your photos back up.

[ablarc]

Still no pix?

[NYatKNIGHT]

I need to find them still, sorry...they're around here somewhere.

[ZippyTheChimp]

This reads like a Google Desktop Search promo.

If you weren't a moderator, I'd nuke this thread.

:)

[ablarc]

NYatKNIGHT, any chance of an encore presentation of your pics? I remember thinking how interesting they were when they were up. They'd be great to see again.

If it helps, I'd be happy to host them on my server; I have near-infinite capacity.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Commerce Street

The Off-Broadway theater was built as a farm silo in 1817, and also served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory before Edna St. Vincent Millay and other members of the Provincetown Players founded the Cherry Lane Theater in 1924.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512367.jpg

Commerce Street has a 90 degree bend.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512366.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59513118.jpg


Grove Street

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512373.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512374.jpg

At the bend of Grove Street lies this alley leading to Grove Court built around 1850. Originally known as Mixed Ale Alley, the Greek Revival mews was built as working-class homes.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512375.jpg


Gay Street

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512371.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512372.jpg


Minetta Street

This little street bends because it follows the course of Minetta Brook, now underground. Once a pristine trout stream, it originated in swamps that covered what is now Washington Square Park and flowed to the Hudson.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512377.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512378.jpg

[NYatKNIGHT]

Lafayette Street

Though a larger thoroughfare, Lafayette Street has some mid-block bends.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512376.jpg


LITTLE ITALY / CHINATOWN

Baxter, Mulberry, Mott, and Elizabeth Streets all have minor mid-block bends as they meander through Little Italy and Chinatown.

Baxter Street

A slight bend just south of the old Police Headquarters.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512360.jpg

The famous Five Points intersection was just south of this bend in Baxter Street (once Orange St.). Columbus Park on the east (right) side of the road is an entire block that was once the city's most notorious slum.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512363.jpg

Columbus Park looking toward the famous "Mulberry Bend".
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512385.jpg


Mulberry Street

The famous "Mulberry Bend" of the Five Points slum was widely known as the roughest block in all New York. In the 1890s, journalist Jacob Riis called Mulberry Bend "the foul core of New York's slums … where nothing short of total demolitions will ever prove of radical benefit." So it happened that the entire block was razed and made a park.
Here's a photo of this bend in the slum years:
http://www.geocities.com/synergy_two/chinatown/history/photos/mulbend1.html

The Bandit's Roost, right at the bend (now part of the park) was the scene of many brutal gang brawls. Now it's a brightly lit Chinatown street.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512386.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512387.jpg

Mulberry Street bends north into Little Italy.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512389.jpg

Mott Street

A bend in Mott Street north of Canal Street. Today Mott Street is the "main street" of Chinatown.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512384.jpg

South of Canal Street and parallel to the Mulberry Bend, this part of Mott Street was the site of New York's first tenements.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512382.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/59512383.jpg

[NYatKNIGHT]

Doyers Street

This tiny street in the heart of Chinatown has no less than three bends.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512368.jpg

Another famous bend, the “Bloody Angle” on Doyers Street becomes notorious for murderous ambushes. Even as late as the 1980's, clashes between gangs in today's Chinatown occured here.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512370.jpg

Down to the Bowery
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512369.jpg


THE LOWER EAST SIDE

Allen Street

Wide Allen Street with a median bends from the East Village grid to the Lower East Side grid.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512356.jpg

Manhattan Bridge in the background
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512354.jpg

Cherry Street

Under the Manhattan Bridge overpass, Cherry Street bends to follow the East River shoreline
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512364.jpg


Hope you enjoyed. There are more streets in the Lower East Side along Division Street that I have not yet visited, and Downtown needs a whole other day.

[NYatKNIGHT]

NYatKNIGHT, any chance of an encore presentation of your pics? I remember thinking how interesting they were when they were up. They'd be great to see again.

If it helps, I'd be happy to host them on my server; I have near-infinite capacity.

Thanks for the offer ablarc, but it was just a matter of ending the laziness and locating the photos on my hard drive out of the hundreds.

I had to break up the post into four, so the last three posts are obviously part of the original. Since then, I've noted so many more bending streets and even photographed a few, so hopefully I'll add those later.

[ablarc]

Thanks, NYatKNIGHT; your pictures are every bit as interesting as I remembered.

[Michi]

I've eaten in the Viet Nam Restaurant. It's great. Really cheap and good food.
It's on the 2nd pic of the Doyers Street.

[milleniumcab]

Doyers Street

This tiny street in the heart of Chinatown has no less than three bends.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512368.jpg

Another famous bend, the “Bloody Angle” on Doyers Street becomes notorious for murderous ambushes. Even as late as the 1980's, clashes between gangs in today's Chinatown occured here.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512370.jpg

Down to the Bowery
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512369.jpg


THE LOWER EAST SIDE

Allen Street

Wide Allen Street with a median bends from the East Village grid to the Lower East Side grid.
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512356.jpg

Manhattan Bridge in the background
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512354.jpg

Cherry Street

Under the Manhattan Bridge overpass, Cherry Street bends to follow the East River shoreline
http://www.pbase.com/image/59512364.jpg


Hope you enjoyed. There are more streets in the Lower East Side along Division Street that I have not yet visited, and Downtown needs a whole other day.
I enjoy driving through those streets even more now... And that house on Commerce bend before it meets Barrow, you know, the one with the Red Bricks.. She is mine the minute I hit the Megga....:)