LOWER EAST SIDE:
Originally, "Lower East Side" referred to the area alongside the East River from about the Manhattan Bridge and Canal Street up to 14th Street, and roughly bounded on the west by Broadway. It included areas known today as East Village, Alphabet City, Chinatown, Bowery, Little Italy, and NoLIta.
Although the term today refers to the area bounded to the north by East Houston Street, parts of East Village are still known as Loisaida, a Latino pronunciation of "Lower East Sider."
This point of land on the East River was also called Crown Point under British rule. It was an important landmark for navigators for 300 years. On older maps and documents it is usually spelled Corlaers, but since the early 19th Century the spelling has been anglicized to Corlears. It was named after Jacobus van Corlaer, who settled there prior to 1640. The original location of Corlaers Hook is now obscured by shoreline landfill. It was near the east end of the present pedestrian bridge over the FDR Drive near Cherry Street.
One of the oldest neighborhoods of the city, the Lower East Side has long been known as a lower-class, working neighborhood and often as a poor and diverse community. The Lower East Side once was and still is a center for a lively Jewish culture. Vestiges of the area's Jewish heritage exist in shops on Hester Street and Essex Street and on Grand Street near Pike, and there is still an original Orthodox Jewish community, with yeshiva day schools and a mikvah.A few Judaica Shops can still be found along Essex Street such as The famous Double Staircased Weisberg and Sons Hebrew Religous Articles (45) Essex Street , and a few other Sofer's (Jewish Scribes) and, and other Jewish Variety stores can be found. Strictly Kosher Delies and Bakeries are present on Grand Street, and a few "Kosher Style" delies are also in the region, including the famous Katz's Deli. Downtown Second Avenue in the Lower East Side was the home to many Yiddish theatre productions during the early part of the 20th century, and Second Avenue came to be known as 'Yiddish Broadway', though most of the theaters are gone. More recently, it has been settled by immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere.
In what is now the East Village, a preexisting population of Poles and Ukrainians has been significantly replenished with newer immigrants, and the arrival of large numbers of Japanese people over the last fifteen years or so has led to the proliferation of Japanese restaurants and specialty food markets. There is also a notable population of Bangladeshis and other immigrants from Muslim countries, many of whom are congregants of the small Madina Masjid (Mosque), located on First Avenue and 11th Street.
The Neighborhood also presents many Historical and Beautiful synagouges (Shuls), such as the Bialystocker Shul Beth Hamedresh Hagadol, The Eldridge Street Shul, Congregation Kehila Kedosha Yanina (only Greek Synagouge in Western Hemisphere), and many various smaller, and colorful Synagouges- called Shteebles along East Broadway. a great variety of churches, both in terms of denomination and ethnic and linguistic makeup. In addition, there is a major Hare Krishna temple and Buddhist houses of worship.
The Bowery, though no longer a largely deserted place save for the legendary Bowery bums, remains the location of the famous Bowery Mission, serving the down-and-out since 1879. Another notable landmark on the Bowery was CBGB, a nightclub that presented live music – including some of the most famous figures in rock 'n roll – from 1973 until it closed on October 15, 2006. A bit further north and east is McSorley's Old Ale House, a famous Irish bar that opened its doors in 1854.
The part of the neighborhood south of Delancey Street and west of Allen Street has in large measure become part of Chinatown, and Grand Street is one of the major business and shopping streets of Chinatown. Also contained within the neighborhood are strips of lighting and restaurant supply shops on the Bowery.
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NOLITA:
sometimes written as NoLIta (North of Little Italy), is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Nolita is bounded on the north by Houston Street, on the east by the Bowery, on the south roughly by Broome Street, and on the west roughly by Lafayette Street. It lies east of SoHo, south of NoHo, west of the Lower East Side, and north of Little Italy and Chinatown.
The neighborhood was long regarded as part of Little Italy. The area, however, lost much of its recognizable Italian character in recent decades because of the migration of Italian-Americans out of Manhattan.
In the second half of the 1990s, the neighborhood saw an influx of young urban professionals and an explosion of expensive retail boutiques and trendy restaurants and bars. Having previously tried unsuccessfully to pitch the neighborhood as part of SoHo, real estate promoters and others came up with several different suggested names for this newly upscale neighborhood. The name that stuck, first taken from an ad campaign in The Village Voice by real estate agent William R. MacLeod, Jr. in 1994, was Nolita, an abbreviation for North of Little Italy. This name follows the portmanteau pattern started by SoHo (South of Houston Street) and TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal Street).
The neighborhood includes St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, at the corner of Mott and Prince Streets, which opened in 1815 and was rebuilt in 1868 after a fire. The cornerstone was laid on June 8, 1809. This building served as New York City's Roman Catholic cathedral until the new St. Patrick's Cathedral was opened on Fifth Avenue in Midtown in 1879. St. Patrick's Old Cathedral is now a parish church.
Another neighborhood landmark is the Puck Building, an ornate structure built in 1885 on the corner of Houston and Lafayette Streets, which originally housed the headquarters of the now-defunct Puck Magazine.
Vanessa Carlton's first single off her third album Heroes and Thieves is named "Nolita Fairytale" after this neighborhood.
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Mott St. between Houston St. and Prince St., New York, N.Y.
NOHO:
NoHo, for North of Houston Street (as contrasted with SoHo, South of Houston) is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, roughly bounded by Houston Street on the south, The Bowery on the east, Astor Place on the north, and Broadway on the west. NoHo is wedged between Greenwich Village, west of Broadway, and the East Village. There was no such thing as "Noho" until the late 1980s, when the name was invented by a cabal of real estate developers. When Lafayette Street was opened in the 1820s, it was one of the most fashionable streets in New York: the only survivor of that era is half of the original Colonnade Row, 1833, perhaps designed by Alexander Jackson Davis for speculative builder Seth Geer. Across from it is the Public Theater. When it was a light manufacturing and warehouse district, Robert Mapplethorpe's loft was in NoHo.
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LITTLE ITALY:
Historically, Little Italy extended as far south as Bayard St, as far north as Bleecker, as far west as Lafayette, and as far east as the Bowery. As Italian-Americans left Manhattan for other boroughs and neighborhoods, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, the neighborhood recognizable as Little Italy gradually shrank..
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Mulberry Street, ca.1900
UPPER WEST SIDE:
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River above West 59th Street.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the Upper West Side-to-be contained some of colonial New York's most ambitious houses, spaced along Bloomingdale Road. It became increasingly infilled with smaller, more suburban villas in the first half of the nineteenth century, and in the middle of the century, parts had become decidedly lower class. The Hudson River Railroad line right-of-way, granted in the late 1830s, soon ran along the riverbank, and creation of the Central Park caused many squatters to move their shacks westward into the UWS. Parts of the neighborhood became a ragtag collection of squatters' housing, boarding houses, and rowdy taverns.
As this development occurred, the old name of Bloomingdale Road was being chopped away and the name Broadway was progressively being applied further northward to include what had been lower Bloomingdale Road. In 1868, the city began straightening and grading the section of the Bloomingdale Road from Harsenville north, and it became known as "The Boulevard". It retained that name until the end of the century, when the name Broadway finally supplanted it.
Development of the neighborhood lagged even while Central Park was being laid out in the 1860s and 70s, then was stymied by the Panic of 1873. Things turned around when the elevated train's rapid transit was extended up Ninth Avenue (renamed Columbus Avenue in 1890), and with Columbia University's relocation to Morningside Heights in the 1890s, using lands once held by the Bloomingdale Asylum. The Upper West Side was built in a boom from 1885 to 1910, thanks in large part to the arrival of IRT subway stations at 72nd, 79th, 86th and 96th Street after 1904.
In the early part of the 1900s, the Upper West Side area south of 67th Street was heavily populated by African-Americans and supposedly gained its nickname of "San Juan Hill" in commemoration of African-American soldiers who were a major part of the assault on Cuba's San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. But by 1960, the area was a rough neighborhood of tenement housing and was used for exterior shots in the movie musical West Side Story. Urban renewal then swept through with the construction of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Lincoln Towers apartments during 1962–1968.
Riverside Park was conceived by Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted, as was the adjacent, gracefully curving Riverside Drive. But the park came into its own only in the 1930s, when Robert Moses added playgrounds, promenades, distinctive stonework and the 79th Street boat basin. According to Robert Caro's book, The Power Broker on Moses, Riverside Park was designed with most of the amenities located in predominately white neighborhoods, with the neighborhoods closer to Harlem getting shorter shrift.
From the post-WWII years until the AIDS epidemic the neighborhood, especially below 86th Street had a substantial gay population. Theater people had been attracted to the neighborhood because of its proximity and easy transportation to the Theater District, and among these were many gay men. As the neighborhood had deteriorated it was affordable to working class gay men, and those just arriving in NYC and looking for their first white collar jobs. Its ethnically mixed gay population, mostly Hispanic and white, with a mixture of income levels and occupations patronized the same gay bars in the neighborhood, making it markedly different from most gay enclaves elsewhere in the city. The influx of white gay men in the Fifties and Sixties is often credited with accelerating the gentrification of the Upper West Side, and by the mid and late 70's the gay male population had become predominantly white.
Another component that brought about the eventual gentrification of the neighborhood were the recent college graduates in the late '70s and early '80s who moved in, drawn to the neighborhood's large apartments and cheap housing.
The Upper West Side is also a largely Jewish neighborhood, populated with both well-to-do German Jews who moved in at the turn of the century, and Jewish refugees escaping Hitler's Europe in the 1930's.
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BROOKLYN:
The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle the area on the western edge of Long Island, which was then largely inhabited by the Canarsie Native American tribe. The first Dutch settlement was Midwout (Midwood), established in 1634. The Dutch also purchased land in the 1630s from the Mohawks around present day Gowanus, Red Hook, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Bushwick. The Village of Breuckelen was authorized by the Dutch West India Company in 1646 and became the first municipality in what is now New York State. At the time Breuckelen was part of New Netherland.
Dorie named the bourough. The Dutch lost Breuckelen in the British conquest of New Netherland in 1664. In 1683, the British reorganized the Province of New York into 12 counties, each of which was sub-divided into towns. Over time, the name evolved from Breuckelen, to Brockland, Brocklin, Brookline, and eventually Brooklyn. Kings County was one of the original 12 counties, and Brooklyn was one of the original six towns within Kings County. The county was named in honor of King Charles II of England.
In August and September 1776, the Battle of Long Island (occasionally now called, anachronistically, the "Battle of Brooklyn") was fought in Kings County. It was the first major battle in the American Revolutionary War following the Declaration of Independence, and the largest battle of the entire conflict. New York, and Brooklyn along with it, gained independence from the British with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
The first half of the 19th century saw urban areas grow along the economically strategic East River waterfront, across from New York City. The county had two cities: the City of Brooklyn and the City of Williamsburgh. Brooklyn annexed Williamsburgh in 1854, which lost its final "h." It took until 1896 for Brooklyn to annex all other parts of Kings County.
Brooklyn's skyline as seen from the East RiverThe building of rail links such as the Brighton Beach Line in 1878 heralded explosive growth, and in the space of a decade the City of Brooklyn annexed the Town of New Lots in 1886, the Town of Flatbush, the Town of Gravesend, and the Town of New Utrecht in 1894, and the Town of Flatlands in 1896.
Brooklyn had reached its natural municipal boundaries at the ends of Kings County. The question was now whether it was prepared to engage in the still-grander process of consolidation now developing throughout the region.
In 1898, Brooklyn residents voted by a slight majority to join with Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens and Richmond (later Staten Island) as the five boroughs to form modern New York City. Kings County retained its status as one of New York State's counties.
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A TALE OF TWO CITIES:
A Tale of Two Cities is a 1935 film directed by Jack Conway and Robert Z. Leonard (uncredited), adapted by W.P. Lipscomb and S.N. Behrman from Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities.
The film stars Ronald Colman as Sydney Carton, Donald Woods as Charles Darnay, Elizabeth Allan as Lucie Manette and Blanche Yurka as Madame Defarge.
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Ronald Colman had long wanted to play Sydney Carton on film. He was even willing to shave off his moustache.
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A TALE OF TWO CITIES, NOVEL:
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel by Charles Dickens. The plot centres on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. It starts with Dr Alexandre Manette's 1759 imprisonment and concludes 36 years later with the trial of Charles Darnay.
The book tells, first and foremost, the story of Darnay and Sydney Carton, who look similar but are very different in their personalities: Darnay is a romantic French aristocrat; Carton is a cynical English barrister. Both are deeply in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette.
Other major characters include Dr Manette (Lucie's father), who was unjustly imprisoned in the infamous Bastille for many years under a lettre de cachet, and Madame Defarge, a female revolutionary with an implacable grudge against the aristocratic Evrémonde dynasty.
The opening -- "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." -- and closing -- "It is a far, far better thing that I do..." -- of the book are among the most famous lines in English literature.
The story oscillates between London and Paris. Two of the 45 chapters are set in both countries, nineteen in England and 24 in France. They tell of the shameless corruption, abuse and inhumanity of the French nobles towards the peasantry. The masses, oppressed for centuries, rise up at last and destroy their masters, becoming themselves just as evil and corrupt.
Book the First: Recalled to Life
Jarvis Lorry travels to Dover to meet a young woman, Lucie Manette, in 1775. When he arrives, he informs her that her father, Doctor Manette, whom she previously believed to be dead, has actually been incarcerated as a prisoner in Paris for the past eighteen years, and has recently been released by the French government. Tellson's Bank is sending Lorry to identify the doctor (who had been one of Tellson's clients) and bring him to England. The news upsets Lucie greatly; he tries to comfort her, but Miss Pross takes over when she fears he has frightened Lucie too much.
The story shifts abruptly to Saint Antoine, a suburb of Paris, where a cask of wine accidentally splits and spills on the ground. The poor seize the unexpected windfall, jubilantly drinking the wine off the street. Watching the degradation in disgust is Defarge, the owner of a wineshop and leader of a band of revolutionaries. Afterwards, he goes back into his shop and talks to a group of fellow revolutionaries, who call each other "Jacques".
Mr. Lorry and Lucie Manette arrive and Defarge takes them to his apartment to see Dr. Manette. The doctor is, to all appearances, completely mad. He sits in a dark room all day making shoes, as he did while in prison. Lucie takes him to England.
Book the Second: The Golden Thread
Five years later (1780), Dr. Manette has recovered from his ordeal. French emigre Charles Darnay is tried at the Old Bailey for spying. Those testifying against him are a John Barsad and a Roger Cly, who claim that he had been reporting on English troops in North America to the French. Dr. Manette and his daughter vouch for Darnay because he had sailed with them on their voyage to England. In the end, Darnay is acquitted because the witnesses are unable to tell him apart from junior defense counsel Sydney Carton, who bears a striking resemblance to him. Carton is depicted unflatteringly as a drunkard; conversely Darnay is set out as a handsome, gallant victim of a deficient British legal process. Carton becomes enamoured with Lucie and jealous of Darnay.
In Paris, the Marquis St. Evrémonde, Darnay's uncle, is returning from an audience with Monseigneur, one of the 'greatest lords in France', when his coach runs over and kills the son of the peasant Gaspard; he throws a coin to Gaspard to compensate him for his loss; in the assembled crowd is the implacable tricoteuse, Madame Defarge. She throws the money back, enraging the Marquis and leading him to exclaim that he would willingly kill any of the peasants of France.
On his way back to his château, the Marquis passes through a village, where a road mender tells him that he saw a man clinging to the bottom of his carriage. The Marquis has his servant investigate, but no one is found.
Darnay returns to France to meet his uncle. Their political positions are diametrically opposed: Darnay is a democrat, while the Marquis is an adherent of the ancien régime. The Marquis is portrayed as a cruel, heartless nobleman:
"Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend," observed the Marquis, "will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof," looking up to it, "shuts out the sky."
That night, Gaspard, the man who had ridden underneath the carriage, murders the Marquis in his sleep. Gaspard is later captured and hanged for his crime.
Returning to England, Darnay asks Dr. Manette for his consent to marry Lucie. He is not the only suitor however. Both Stryver, Carton's patron (by way of comic relief) and, more seriously, Carton himself, are captivated by her. Carton is the only one who reveals his feelings directly to Lucie--Stryver is convinced of the futility of his aspirations, and Darnay proposes the marriage to Dr. Manette. When Carton confesses his love to Lucie, he admits he is incapable of making her happy; she has inspired him to lead a better life, but he lacks the energy to follow through. However, he promises to "embrace any sacrifice" for her or one that she loves. Meanwhile, Darnay agrees to reveal his true surname to Dr. Manette on the morning of his marriage to Lucie.
In Paris, Monsieur and Madame Defarge foment Jacobin sympathies. Madame Defarge takes the long view, as opposed to her husband, who is impatient to bring on the revolution. They learn, from an informant within the police, that a spy is to be quartered in Saint Antoine. He is John Barsad, one of those who had given false testimony against Darnay. The following morning, Barsad enters the Defarges' wine shop, but Madame Defarge recognizes him from the description she had been given. Barsad acts as an agent provocateur and tries to lead her into discussing the impending execution of the unfortunate Gaspard. In the course of the conversation, he mentions that Darnay is to be married to Lucie Manette.
On the morning of the marriage, Darnay, at Dr. Manette's request, reveals who his family is, a detail which Dr. Manette had asked him to withhold until then. Unfortunately, this unhinges Dr. Manette, who reverts to his obsessive shoemaking. His sanity is restored before Lucie returns from her honeymoon; to prevent a further relapse, Lorry destroys the shoemaking bench which Dr. Manette had brought with him from France.
Later, in mid-July 1789, Jarvis Lorry visits the Darnays and tells them of the uneasiness in Paris. The scene cuts to the Saint Antoine fauborg for the storming of the Bastille, with the Defarges in the lead. With the hated prison in revolutionary hands, Defarge enters Dr. Manette's former cell. He uncovers a manuscript which the inmate had written during his confinement, hidden by that same inmate on the inside of a chimney, condemning the Evrémondes, pere et fils (father and son), for his wrongful imprisonment and the destruction of his family.
In the summer of 1792, a letter is delivered to Tellson's bank, addressed to the heir of the Marquis of Evrémonde. The letter recounts the news of the imprisonment of one of the Marquis' retainers, Gabelle, and beseeches the new Marquis to come to his aid. By chance, though the bank is unaware of his identity, Darnay receives the letter. He makes plans to travel to Paris, where the Reign of Terror is running its bloody course, blithely indifferent to the danger. Lorry is sent on ahead with a (cryptic) message to the imprisoned Gabelle that he is on his way.
Book the Third: The Track of a Storm
In Beauvais, erstwhile home of Dr. Manette, Darnay is denounced by the revolutionaries as an emigrant, an aristocrat, and a traitor. His military escort takes him to Paris, where he is imprisoned. Dr. Manette and Lucie along with Miss Pross, Jerry Cruncher, and the daughter of Charles and Lucie Darnay, "Little Lucie", leave London for Paris and meet with Mr. Lorry. Dr. Manette tries to use his influence as a well-known former prisoner of the Bastille to have his son-in-law freed. He manages to protect Darnay on the night that mobs kill thousands of less-fortunate prisoners. After a year and three months, Dr. Manette successfully defends Darnay at his trial. However, that evening, Darnay is put on trial again, under new charges brought by the Defarges and one unnamed other.
While Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher are on their way to the market, they stop at a tavern to buy wine. There, Miss Pross finds her long-lost brother, Solomon Pross, now a revolutionary official. Neither is happy with the meeting. Jerry Cruncher then recognizes him as John Barsad. Sydney Carton, to their surprise, joins the party and confirms this. He then blackmails Solomon Pross, telling him that he knows that he is a spy, as he had overheard his conversation inside the tavern, and a double agent, working for both the French and British governments at different times. Pross reluctantly gives in to Carton's demands.
When Darnay is brought back before the revolutionary tribunal, he is confronted by Defarge, who identifies Darnay as the Marquis St. Evremonde and reads from the paper found in Dr. Manette's cell. The document describes how he had been locked away in the Bastille by the deceased Marquis Evrémonde and his twin brother for trying to report their horrific crimes against a peasant family. The younger brother had become infatuated with a girl. He had kidnapped and raped her and killed her husband, brother, and father. Prior to his death, the brother had hidden the last member of the family, his younger sister, "somewhere safe." The paper concludes by condemning the Evrémondes and all of their descendants, therefore adding Dr. Manette's condemnation to those of the Defarges. Darnay is consigned to the La Force Prison and is sentenced to be guillotined within twenty-four hours.
Carton, while wandering the streets at night, stops at the Defarge wine shop, where he overhears Madame Defarge talking about her plans to have Darnay's entire family condemned. Carton discovers that she was the survivor of the ill-fated family mentioned in Dr. Manette's letter. He quickly informs Mr. Lorry and urges him and the others to leave France as soon as possible.
On the day of his execution, Darnay is visited by Carton, who, because of his love for Lucie and friendship with Darnay, offers to trade places with him. As Darnay is unwilling, Carton drugs him and has him carried out to a waiting carriage. The spy, Barsad, tells Carton to remain true to their agreement. Darnay, Dr. Manette, Mr. Lorry, Lucie, and her child flee France. Darnay uses Carton's papers to cross the border and presumably escape to England.
Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher, who had not left with the others, prepare to depart. Meanwhile, Madame Defarge goes to the residence of Lucie and her family, believing that if she can catch them in the act of mourning for Darnay, that they could be held accountable for sympathizing with an enemy of the Republic. Miss Pross sends Mr. Cruncher out to fetch a carriage. While he is away, she is confronted by Madame Defarge. Knowing that if Madame Defarge realizes that her would-be victims have already departed, she might be able to have them stopped and brought back to Paris, Miss Pross pretends they are in another room by closing the door and placing herself in front of it. Madame Defarge figures out the fact that nobody is in the room and realizes they had already left. She fakes ignorance and orders Miss Pross to move away, but she refuses. Madame Defarge makes a break for the front door. They struggle and Madame Defarge is shot and killed by her own pistol; the noise of the shot permanently deafens Miss Pross. Miss Pross and Cruncher then quickly leave.
The novel concludes with the death of Sydney Carton. If he had any chance to express his thoughts, they would be full of prophecy: Monsieur Defarge himself be sent to the guillotine, and a future child of Charles and Lucie Darnay named after Carton.
“ It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. ”
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Masterpiece theater
FIVE POINTS DISTRICT:
Five Points (or The Five Points) was a notorious slum centered on the intersection of Worth St. (originally Anthony St.), Baxter St. (originally Orange St.) and a now demolished stretch of Mosco St. (formerly Park St.) on Manhattan island, New York City, New York, in the United States. The name Five Points derived from the five corners at this intersection.
The neighborhood is the subject of the book The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury, published in 1928. The book later inspired director Martin Scorsese to make the 2002 film Gangs of New York.
The neighborhood took form by about 1820 next to the site of the former Collect Pond, which had been drained due to a severe pollution problem. The landfill job on the Collect was a poor one, and surface seepage to the southeast created swampy, insect-ridden conditions resulting in a precipitous drop in land value. Most middle and upper-middle class inhabitants fled, leaving the neighborhood open to the influx of poor immigrants that started in the early 1820s and reached a torrent in the 1840s due to the Irish Potato Famine.
At Five Points' height, only certain areas of London's East End vied with it in sheer population density, disease, infant and child mortality, unemployment, violent crime, and other classic ills of the destitute. It was the original melting pot, at first consisting primarily of newly emancipated African Americans (gradual emancipation ended in New York in 1822), and newly arrived Irish. The confluence of African, Irish, Anglo and, later, Jewish and Italian culture, seen first in Five Points, would be an important leavening in the growth of the United States.
The rough and tumble local politics of "the old Sixth ward", while not free of corruption, set important precedents for the election of non-Anglo-Saxons to key offices. Although the tensions between the African Americans and the Irish were legendary, their cohabitation in Five Points was the first large-scale example of grassroots racial integration in American history, and arguably the first in world history (where both parties came to it of their own volition). In the end, the Five Points African American community moved to Manhattan's West Side and to the then undeveloped north of the island, but the years spent pursuing daily life alongside the Irish in Five Points and, later, alongside Jews and Italians in the same neighborhood, helped create a sense of common purpose among these minorities.
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THE TOMBS PRISON:
The Tombs was the central prison in New York City, built in 1839, and designed by John Haviland after an engraving by John A. Stevens of an Egyptian mausoleum. It occupied the block in Lower Manhattan surrounded by Centre, Franklin, Elm, and Leonard Streets, and accommodated about 300 prisoners. As it housed the city's courts, police and detention facilities, its more formal title was the New York Halls of Justice and House of Detention. Haviland's building was regarded as a notable example of the style of Egyptian Revival architecture.
The prison was well known for its corruption and went through numerous scandals and successful prison escapes throughout its early history and, by 1850, many were calling for its destruction.
By the early 1900s, reforms began to be made as the first prison school for younger inmates in an American adult correction facility was established by the Public Schools Association in 1900.
The original building was replaced in 1902, connected by a "Bridge of Sighs" with the Criminal Courts Building on the Franklin Street side. That building was replaced in 1941 by one at 125 White Street, officially named the Manhattan House of Detention, though still popularly referred to as "The Tombs."
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GANGS OF NEWYORK:
(most dangerous ChinaTown of the 19thCentury)
Gangs of New York is a 2002 film set in the middle 19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan. The film is loosely inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 book The Gangs of New York. It was distributed by Miramax Films.
Gangs of New York is about the conflict between the "native" (mostly Protestant) criminal underworld associated with the Know Nothings and the immigrant, (mostly Catholic) gangs aligned with Tammany Hall. Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) is a young Irish American who gains the trust of William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (Day-Lewis), leader of the Nativist gangs. The character of Cutting is based on Bill 'The Butcher' Poole, a real-life leader of the Bowery Boys gang who is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
The film begins in 1846 and quickly jumps to the early 1860s. The two principal issues of the era in New York were Irish immigration to the city and the northern federal government's execution of the American Civil War. The story follows the Bill Cutting in his roles as crime boss and political kingmaker under the helm of Boss Tweed (Broadbent). It culminates in a confrontation between Cutting and his mob against Amsterdam and his immigrants, coinciding with the New York Draft Riots of 1863.
....It is 1846. In the Lower Manhattan "Five Points" district, a territorial war raging for years between the gangs of the "Nativist" faction (comprising those born in America) and the predominantly Irish immigrants is about to come to a head in Paradise Square.
The Nativists are led by William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting, a WASP, with an open hatred of immigrants. The leader of the immigrant Irish, the "Dead Rabbits," is Priest Vallon, who has a young son, Amsterdam. Cutting and Vallon meet with their respective gangs in a battle, horrific and bloody, concluding when Bill kills Priest Vallon. Amsterdam is a witness. Cutting declares that the Dead Rabbits outlawed and orderes Vallon's body buried with honor. Amsterdam seizes the knife used to kill his father, races off and buries it. He is found and taken to the orphanage at Hellgate. Sixteen years later, Amsterdam leaves Hellgate a grown man. Arriving in Five Points, he reunites with an old friend, Johnny. Johnny introduces Amsterdam to Bill, for whom the group steals.
Amsterdam meets Jenny Everdeane, an pickpocket and grifter, who preys upon Manhattan's upper class by impersonating a maid. Amsterdam is attracted to Jenny, but it is dampened when Amsterdam discovers that Jenny was once the Butcher's ward and still enjoys Bill's affections. Amsterdam gains Bill's confidence as Bill becomes his mentor. They involved in the semi-criminal empire of Boss Tweed, a corrupt politician who heads Tammany Hall, the local political machine. Tweed's influence is spread throughout Lower Manhattan from boxing matches to sanitation services and fire control. As Tammany Hall and its opponents fight for control of the city, the political climate is boiling. Immigrants, mostly Irish, are drafted into the Union Army as they depart the boats. $300 can buy one's way out of service.
Each year, on the anniversary of the Five Points battle (February 16), Bill leads the city in saluting the victory over the Dead Rabbits. Amsterdam plans to kill the Butcher during this ceremony, in front of the entire Five Points community, in order to exact public revenge.
During a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin Amsterdam thwarts an assassination attempt that leaves the Butcher wounded. Amsterdam is tormented by the realization that he acted more out of honest devotion to Bill than from his own plan of revenge. Both retire to a brothel, where Jenny nurses Bill. Amsterdam confronts Jenny over Bill, and the two have a furious argument which dissolves into passionate lovemaking. Late that night, Amsterdam wakes to find Bill sitting by his bed in a rocking chair, draped in a tattered American flag. Bill speaks of the downfall of civilization and how he has maintained his power over the years through violence and the "spectacle of fearsome acts." He says that Priest Vallon was the last enemy he ever fought that was worthy of real respect, and that the Priest once beat Bill soundly and then let him live in shame rather than kill him. Bill credits this with giving him strength of will and character to return and fight for his own authority. Bill implicitly admits that he has come to look upon Amsterdam as the son he never had.
The evening of the ceremony arrives. Johnny, who was attracted to Jenny and envious of Amsterdam's position as Bill's right-hand man, saw Amsterdam and Jenny in the throes of passion. Before the ceremony, he tells Bill who Amsterdam is and his plot to kill him. Bill baits Amsterdam with a knife-throwing act involving Jenny, where he targets her and superficially cuts her throat. As Bill makes the customary toast, Amsterdam throws a knife at Bill. Forewarned, Bill blocks the shot and counters with a throw of his own, hitting Amsterdam in the abdomen. Bill beats him, as the crowd cheers him on, marks his cheek with a hot blade, and casts him out into the streets, proclaiming that for Amsterdam to live in shame is a worse fate than death.
For three months, Jenny nurses Amsterdam while in hiding. She implores him to join her in an escape to San Francisco. The two are visited by Monk McGinn, who gives Amsterdam the straight razor that belonged to his father. Amsterdam announces his return by placing a dead rabbit on a fence in Paradise Square. The rabbit finds its way to Bill, who sends policeman Happy Jack, a former member of Priest Vallon's Dead Rabbits, to find out who sent the message. Jack tracks down Amsterdam and chases him through the catacombs into the local church where Amsterdam kills him. He hangs his body in Paradise Square. In retaliation, Bill has Johnny beaten and hung over a stake in the square. Suffering, Johnny pleads for Amsterdam to kill him. Jenny hands Amsterdam a gun and he fires.
The native Americans march to the Catholic church as the Irish, along with the Archbishop, stand on the steps in defense. A torch is thrown at their feet. Bill promises to return when they are ready. The incident garners newspaper coverage. Boss Tweed approaches Amsterdam with a plan to defeat Bill and his influence, hoping to cash in on the publicity. Tweed will back the candidacy of Monk McGinn for sheriff in return for the support of the Irish vote, the first step towards defeating Bill. The election is rigged and Monk wins on a platform of working for the people. Bill visits Monk at his shop and refuses Monk's offer to negotiate. He hacks him in the back with a meat cleaver then kills Monk with his own shillelagh. During the funeral procession, Amsterdam pauses to issue a battle challenge to Bill. The two sides agree to the terms of the battle and Amsterdam's gang resurrects the name of the Dead Rabbits. Battle will take place in Paradise Square.
The Draft Riots break out just as the gangs are preparing to fight. Many people of the city are attacked by those protesting the drafts. Union Army soldiers march through the city streets trying to control the rioters.
The Final shot, including the the World Trade Center.The rival gangs meet in Paradise Square. As they approach each other, the Union Navy fire their cannons into the city, directly into Paradise Square. Many are killed as an enormous cloud of dust and debris covers the area. The destruction is followed by a wave of Union soldiers, who wipe out many of the gang members with massed rifle fire. Abandoning their gangs, Amsterdam and Bill exchange blows in the haze, then are thrown to the ground by another cannon blast. When the smoke clears, Bill discovers he has been impaled by a large piece of shrapnel. Looking at the devastation, he declares, "Thank God I die a true American," and allows Amsterdam to stab him, dying with his hand locked in Amsterdam's.
In the final scenes, the dead are collected for burial. Bill's body is buried in view of the Manhattan skyline, next to Priest Vallon. Jenny and Amsterdam both visit the grave as Amsterdam buries his father's razor there. The frame shifts several times to reflect the intervening growth of the city between 1864 and the present day. The final shot includes the World Trade Center towers.
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(Herbert Asbury (September 1, 1889 — February 24, 1963) was an American journalist and writer who is best known for his true crime books detailing crime during the 19th and early 20th century such as Gem of the Prairie, Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld and The Gangs of New York. The Gangs of New York was later adapted for film as Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002). However, the film adaptation of Gangs of New York was so loose that Gangs was nominated for "Best Original Screenplay" rather than as a screenplay adapted from another work.
In earlier decades, Asbury was known for his self-described "informal histories", which included descriptions of various cities, focusing on violence, crime, prostitution and lurid events.
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