Mulberry Bend
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Mulberry Bend was an area surrounding a curve on Mulberry Street, in the Five Points neighborhood in
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,
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. It is located in what is now
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in
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 ...
.


Boundaries

It was bounded by Bayard Street to the north, Cross Street to the south (renamed Park Street in 1854), Orange Street to the west (renamed Baxter Street in 1854), and Mulberry Street to the east. The "Bend" in the street layout was due to the original
topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
of the area. Orange and Mulberry streets headed from southeast to northwest then turned north at the "Bend" to avoid
Collect Pond Collect Pond, or Fresh Water Pond,, p. 250. was a Body of water, body of fresh water in what is now Chinatown, Manhattan, Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, New York City. For the first two centuries of European settlement in Manhattan, it was the mai ...
and surrounding low-lying
wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
to the west. The present-day Columbus Park occupies the Bend.


Description

Mulberry Bend was considered one of the worst parts of the Five Points, with multiple back alleyways such as Bandit's Roost, Bottle Alley and Ragpickers Row. In 1897, due in part to the efforts of Danish photojournalist
Jacob Riis Jacob August Riis ( ; May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914) was a Danish-American social reformer, " muck-raking" journalist, and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in the United States of Ame ...
, Mulberry Bend was demolished and turned into Mulberry Bend Park, an
urban green space In land-use planning, urban green spaces are open-space areas reserved for parks and other "green spaces." These include plant life, water features also known as blue spaces and other kinds of natural environments. Most urban open spaces a ...
designed by
Calvert Vaux Calvert Vaux Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, FAIA (; December 20, 1824 – November 19, 1895) was an English-American architect and landscape architect, landscape designer. He and his protégé Frederick Law Olmsted designed park ...
. In 1911 it was renamed Columbus Park. A few tenement buildings on the east side of Mulberry Street dating from the era before the park was built are still there, including 48-50 Mulberry Street, mentioned in Riis' book ''
How the Other Half Lives ''How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York'' (1890) is an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. The photographs served as a basis ...
''. Cross Street was renamed "Mosco Street" in 1982 after
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...
community activist Frank Mosco. The section of Cross Street between Mulberry and Baxter streets was demapped and added to Columbus Park along with the triangular plaza between Cross and Worth streets. Worth Street, originally laid out in 1859, has since become the southern boundary of Columbus Park. The following is from
Jacob Riis Jacob August Riis ( ; May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914) was a Danish-American social reformer, " muck-raking" journalist, and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in the United States of Ame ...
's ''How The Other Half Lives'':
Where Mulberry Street crooks like an elbow within hail of the old depravity of the Five Points, is "the Bend", foul core of New York’s slums. Long years ago the cows coming home from the pasture trod a path over this hill. Echoes of tinkling bells linger there still, but they do not call up memories of green meadows and summer fields; they proclaim the home-coming of the rag-picker’s cart. In the memory of man the old cow-path has never been other than a vast human pig-sty. There is but one "Bend" in the world, and it is enough. The city authorities, moved by the angry protests of ten years of sanitary reform effort, have decided that it is too much and must come down. Another Paradise Park will take its place and let in sunlight and air to work such transformation as at the Five Points, around the corner of the next block. Never was change more urgently needed. Around "the Bend" cluster the bulk of the tenements that are stamped as altogether bad, even by the optimists of the Health Department. Incessant raids cannot keep down the crowds that make them their home. In the scores of back alleys, of stable lanes and hidden byways, of which the rent collector alone can keep track, they share such shelter as the ramshackle structures afford with every kind of abomination rifled from the dumps and ash-barrels of the city. Here, too, shunning the light, skulks the unclean beast of dishonest idleness. "The Bend" is the home of the tramp as well as the rag-picker.


Locations in the Bend

*21 Baxter Street: The Baxter Street Dudes were a New York teenage street gang, mostly of former
newsboys Newsboys (sometimes stylised as newsboys) are a Christian rock band that has existed in various permutations since its founding in 1985 in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia, by Peter Furler and George Perdikis. Now based in Nashville, Tenness ...
and bootblacks, who ran a makeshift theater with stolen and salvaged equipment, props and costumes in the basement of a
dive bar A dive bar is typically a small, unglamorous, eclectic, old-style drinking establishment with inexpensive drinks; it may feature dim lighting, shabby or dated decor, neon beer signs, packaged beer sales, cash-only service, and local clientele. ...
at 21 Baxter Street during the 1870s. They called their enterprise the ''Grand Duke's Theatre'', where they wrote and performed plays,
musicals Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...
and
variety shows Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compè ...
which were enjoyed by other street toughs and slummers throughout the city. They were eventually closed down for failure to pay the "amusement tax" levied by the city. *59 Mulberry Street: The location of the alleyway known as "Bandit's Roost" immortalized in a photograph by Jacob Riis. *67 Orange Street: Almack's Dance Hall located at 67 Orange Street, owned by African American Pete Williams. It was at Almack's, also known as Pete Williams's Place, that Master Juba, a young African-American dancer, performed in the early 1840s. Juba was influential in the development of such American dance styles as tap and step dancing. In 1842 English author
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
visited Almack's on his tour of the Five Points. Watching Juba dance was the only redeeming aspect he found to Five Points.Maxile, Horace J., Jr. "Lane, William Henry (Master Juba) (1825–1853)". In Price, Emmett G. III, et al., eds. (2011)
''Encyclopedia of African American Music''
p. 541. ABC-CLIO.


References

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