Manhattan New York City 2009 PD 20091201 226

Broome Street is an east–west street in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

. It runs nearly the full width of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

island, from Hudson Street in the west to Lewis Street in the east, near the entrance to the

Williamsburg Bridge The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge across the East River in New York City, connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Originally known as the East River Bridge, the Williamsburg Brid ...

. The street is interrupted in a number of places by parks, buildings, and

Allen Street Allen Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan which runs north-south through the Lower Manhattan neighborhood of Chinatown and the Lower East Side. It is continued north of Houston Street as First Avenue. South of Divis ...

's median. The street was named after

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

-born John Broome, who was a Colonial merchant and politician and became a Lieutenant Governor of New York State.

History

According to a map sourced from the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

collection, the area around Broome Street was developed in the first decade of the 1800s as part of the neighborhood known at that time as 'New Delaney's Square,' although this is probably a mistake for "Delancey," as the Delancey family had owned the land for many decades and had already begun planning development in the 1760s. The street is named after John Broome, an early city alderman and

lieutenant governor of New York The lieutenant governor of New York is a Constitution of New York, constitutional office in the executive branch of the Government of the State of New York. It is the second highest-ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governo ...

in 1804. The architecture along the street is distinctive for its use of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

and is strongly influenced by

Griffith Thomas Griffith Thomas (1820–1879) was an American architect. He partnered with his father, Thomas Thomas, at the architecture firm of T. Thomas and Son.

, who designed several buildings along Broome Street, including the Gunther Building. The

Our Lady of Vilnius Church Our Lady of Vilnius Church was a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic parish church located at 568–570 Broome Street (Manhattan), Broome Street, in Hudson Square, Manhattan, New York City, east of the entrance to the Holland Tunnel (New York City), ...

stood in the street between 1910 and 2015. As part of an experiment, in 1948, Broome Street west of Chrystie Street was converted to a one-way westbound street. In the 1960s, as the city was going through massive urban renewal and revitalization projects, Broome Street became the proposed route for the

Lower Manhattan Expressway Interstate 78 (I-78) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Union Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to New York City. In the US state of New York, I-78 extends . The entirety of I-78 consists of the Holland Tunne ...

, designed by

Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influentia ...

. Had the construction been carried out, the ten-lane elevated highway would have completely replaced the street, along with all of the buildings on its north side, many of which are now land-marked as part of the historic cast-iron district. However, protests opposing the project led by

Jane Jacobs Jane Isabel Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book ''The Death and Life of Great American Ci ...

gained enough momentum to stop the project from going forward. 330 Broome Street was the address of the A's art space.
Margalit Berriet, ''W.A.R.S. (Women Artists of the

Rivington School Rivington School was an art group that emerged from the East Village art scene in the 1980s in New York City. Many of the artists of the Rivington School were involved in welding and forging sculptures, performance art or street art. The group, t ...

) De Alors à Aujourd’hui'', Mémoire de l’Avenir, , pp.374–383

References

Notes

External links

* {{Streets of Manhattan Lower East Side SoHo, Manhattan Streets in Manhattan