40°42′52″N73°59′53″W / 40.714354°N 73.998102°W /40.714354; -73.998102
Doyers Street is a 200-foot-long (61 m) street in theChinatown neighborhood ofManhattan inNew York City. It is one block long with a sharp bend in the middle. The street runs south and then southeast from a terminus atPell Street to the intersection ofBowery,Chatham Square, andDivision Street. Doyers Street contains several restaurants, barber shops, and hair stylists, as well as the Chinatown branch of theUnited States Postal Service. TheNom Wah Tea Parlor opened at 13 Doyers Street in 1920, and is still in operation. Longstanding business Ting's Gift Shop at 18 Doyers opened in 1957 and finally closed in mid-2024.[1]
The street is named for Hendrik Doyers, an 18th-century Dutch immigrant who bought the property facing theBowery in 1791.[2] He operated a distillery at 6 Doyers Street and thePlough and Harrow tavern near the corner with Bowery.[3][4]
Doyers Street follows the old route of a stream.[5] From 1893 to 1911, 5–7 Doyers Street was the site of the first Chinese-language theater in New York City. The theater was converted into a rescue mission for the homeless. In 1903, the theater was the site of a fundraiser by the Chinese community for Jewish victims of a massacre inKishinev.[6]
Nom Wah Tea Parlor, opened in 1920, is the oldest continuously running restaurant in Chinatown.[7] The restaurant first opened at 15 Doyers Street and moved to 13 Doyers in 1968.[8]
Doyers Street, along with Pell Street, contains numerous barber shops and beauty salons.[9][10] The barber shops attract customers, many of whom are Chinese, from as far away as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.[10] Doyers Street is also home to manyspeakeasies including Apotheke and Peachy's.[11][12]
Early in the century, the bend in the street became known as the "Bloody Angle" or "Murder Alley"[13][14] because of numerous killings among theTong Gangs of Chinatown that lasted into the 1930s.[15]Hatchets were frequently used, giving rise to the expression "hatchet man."[15] In 1994, law enforcement officials said that more people had died violently at the "Bloody Angle" than at any other intersection in the United States.[16] One shooting at the Chinese Theater in 1905 claimed the lives of three people, when members of theHip Sing Tong fired on members of theOn Leong Tong. The shooting took place at a time when the theater was packed with 400 people.[17] In one 1909 incident, two members of the On Leong Tong were shot, one fatally, by members of the rival Four Brothers’ Society, or See Sing Tong. The shooting came after three members of the Hip Sing Tong were executed in Boston for the murder of a member of the On Leong Tong.[18]
A number of oldtenement houses are on Doyers Street, and these were sometimes subjected to fires. In 1910, four tenants died and five were injured when fire swept through the building at 15–17 Doyers.[19] In 1939, a fire at the same building, described byThe New York Times as "an old rabbit warren," killed seven persons and injured sixteen. Fighting the fire was made difficult because of the narrowness of the street, and MayorFiorello La Guardia said at the scene of the fire that someday Chinatown would have to be torn down and replaced.[20] Chuck Connors, aTammany Hall operative and the political boss of Chinatown in the early part of the century, had his headquarters at the Chatham Club at 6 Doyers,[21] whereIrving Berlin reportedly entertained.[22]
Writing inH. L. Mencken'sAmerican Mercury in 1926,Herbert Asbury pointed out that the street serves no logical purpose, because it is a link between Chatham Square, the Bowery, and Pell Street, which also connects to the Bowery a few feet from Doyers. He called it "a crazy street, and there has never been any excuse for it." He described Doyers Street as the "nerve center" of Chinatown because of the Chinese theater and Bloody Angle.[23] As Doyers and Pell Streets are accessible only from southbound Bowery and traffic from both Bowery and Doyers Street can continue only to southbound Chatham Square, Doyers Street is very lightly used.[24]
By 2011, the street was lined with barbershops, restaurants, a United States Post Office at 6 Doyers Street, and an employment agency at 15-17 Doyers Street that serves recent immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds.[25] As part of a September 2017 pilot program, the Chinatown Partnership converted Doyers Street to apedestrian-only street during the daytime for one month. If the test is successful, the program would be expanded.[26] The 100 feet (30 m) of the street between Bowery and the Post Office would be available for commercial access.[27] The pavement of Doyers Street was painted in 2021 withRice Terraces, a 4,800-square-foot (450 m2) mural byDasic Fernández.[28][29][30] In September 2021, Chinatown Mural Project created a new tribute mural that honored the memory of beloved photographerCorky Lee on Doyers Street.[31] During the same month, yellow and green lanterns were hung up along Doyers Street as part of the Light Up Chinatown initiative.
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