Allen Street (Manhattan)
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
which runs north-south through the Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...
neighborhood of Chinatown, and the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
. It is continued north of Houston Street as First Avenue
First Avenue (Manhattan)
First Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, running from Houston Street northbound for over 125 blocks before terminating at the Willis Avenue Bridge into The Bronx at the Harlem River near East 127th Street. South of Houston Street, the...
, and south of Canal Street
Canal Street (Manhattan)
Canal Street is a major street in New York City, crossing lower Manhattan to join New Jersey in the west to Brooklyn in the east . It forms the main spine of Chinatown, and separates it from Little Italy...
by Division Street
Division Street, Manhattan
Division Street is a one way street in the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs in a northeasterly direction with westbound traffic and passes beneath the Manhattan Bridge...
and Pike Street. Northbound and southbound sides are separated by a meridian mall and each has a bike lane
Cycling in New York City
New York City offers a mix of favorable cycling conditions — dense urban proximities, short distances and relatively flat terrain — along with significant cycling challenges: congested roadways with stop and go traffic, a sometimes unsympathetic regulatory environment, and streets with...
. The street's namesake was Captain William Henry Allen
William Henry Allen
William Henry Allen was an American naval officer during the War of 1812.-Quotation [a1]:Influences: "His father, William Allen, on the breaking out of the American Revolution, was appointed a first lieutenant in the army...
, the youngest person to command a Navy ship in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. He died in action at the age of 28. His exploits included the capture of the British ship HMS Macedonian.
History
Prior to 1799, this street in lower Manhattan was laid out and named Chester Street". After the building of the New York Orphan Asylum on this street around May 1806 "Chester Street" was renamed "Asylum Street". In 1833, "Asylum Street" was quietly renamed Third Street, and finally to "Allen Street."During its heyday in the early part of the 20th Century, it was populated by Romanian Jews, as well as Sephardic Jews from Turkey, Syria, Egypt and Greece. Many worked in brass and copper fabrication shops in the basements, while the wares were sold in street level store.
In September 1903, a gun battle was fought beneath the El tracks at Allen and Rivington Streets between followers of Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly (criminal)
Paul Kelly was an Italian immigrant who founded the Five Points Gang in New York City after starting some brothels with prize monies earned in boxing...
, leader of the Five Points Gang
Five Points Gang
Five Points Gang was a 19th-century and early 20th-century criminal organization, primarily of Italian-American origins, based in the Sixth Ward of Manhattan, New York City. Since the early 19th century, the area was first known for gangs of Irish immigrants...
, and the rival gang of Monk Eastman
Monk Eastman
Edward "Monk" Eastman was a New York City Gangster who founded and led one of the most powerful street gangs in New York City at the turn of the Twentieth Century, the Eastman Gang. His other aliases included Joseph "Joe" Morris, Joe Marvin, William "Bill" Delaney, and Edward "Eddie" Delaney...
. At one point a hundred men joined the fray, with police driven off by gunfire. Three men were killed and numerous innocent civilians were injured.
Fire destroyed an overcrowded tenement on Allen Street in March 1905, claiming the lives of twenty people. The five-story building at 105 Allen Street housed 200 people.
The street was widened in the early 1930s, by demolition of buildings on the east side of the street. This created a broad thoroughfare with a meridian mall in the center, and the El running down the western roadway. The El was demolished in 1942.
Allen Street was the site of numerous shops specializing in brassware in the 1910s through the 1940s, but only two such shops remained by the late 1970s. In 1979, Allen Street was described by New York magazine as an "unbusy area removed from the bustle of Grand Street and the Bowery."
Transportation
A portion of the elevated IRT Second Avenue LineIRT Second Avenue Line
The IRT Second Avenue Line, also known as the Second Avenue El, was an elevated railway in Manhattan, New York City, United States, operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company until city takeover in 1940...
, commonly known as the Second Avenue El, was constructed on the full length of Allen Street in 1878, blocking out most of the light from this narrow street. The EL was taken down in 1942. Currently the nearest subway stations are Grand Street Station: B, D and Essex St - Delancey Street Station: F, J, M Z. There is also an intercity bus station at 84-86 Allen Street.