September 7, 2000 (original) May 2, 2006 (increase)[4]
TheLower East Side, sometimes abbreviated asLES, is an historicneighborhood in the southeastern part ofManhattan inNew York City. It is located roughly between theBowery and theEast River fromCanal toHouston streets. Historically, it was understood to encompass a much larger area, fromBroadway to the East River and fromEast 14th Street toFulton and Franklin Streets.
The Lower East Side is roughly bounded byEast 14th Street on the north, by theEast River to the east, byFulton and Franklin Streets to the south, and byPearl Street andBroadway to the west. This more extensive definition of the neighborhood includesChinatown, theEast Village, andLittle Italy.[7] A less extensive definition would have the neighborhood bordered to the south and west byChinatown, – which extends north to roughly Grand Street – to the west byNolita and to the north by theEast Village.[8][9]
As was true of all of Manhattan Island, the area now known as the Lower East Side was occupied by members of theLenape tribe, who were organized in bands that moved from place to place according to the seasons, fishing on the rivers in the summer, and moving inland in the fall and winter to gather crops and hunt for food. Their main trail took approximately the route ofBroadway. One encampment on the Lower East Side nearCorlears Hook was called Rechtauck or Naghtogack.[17]
Corlears Hook (red arrow) is Crown Point in thisBritish map of 1776; "Delaney's [sic] New Square" (blue square northwest of Corlears Hook) was never built
The population of the Dutch colony ofNew Amsterdam was located primarily below the currentFulton Street, while north of it were a number of small plantations and large farms called "bouwerij" ("bowery", equivalent to "boerderij" in present-day Dutch). Around these farms were a number of enclaves of free or "half-free" Africans, which served as a buffer between the Dutch and the Native Americans. One of the largest of these was located along the modernBowery between Prince Street andAstor Place, as well as the "only separate enclave" of this type within Manhattan.[18] These black farmers were some of the earliest settlers of the area.[19]
Gradually, during the 17th century, there was an overall consolidation of the boweries and farms into larger parcels, and much of the Lower East Side was then part of the Delancey farm.[19]
James Delancey's pre-Revolutionary farm east ofpost road leading from the city (Bowery) survives in the namesDelancey Street andOrchard Street. On the modern map of Manhattan, the Delancey farm[20] is represented in the grid of streets from Division Street north to Houston Street.[21] In response to the pressures of a growing city, Delancey began to survey streets in the southern part of the "West Farm"[22] in the 1760s. A spacious projectedDelancey Square—intended to cover the area within today's Eldridge, Essex, Hester and Broome Streets—was eliminated when theloyalist Delancey family's property was confiscated after theAmerican Revolution. The city Commissioners of Forfeiture eliminated the aristocratic planned square for a grid, effacing Delancey's vision of a New York laid out like theWest End of London.
The point of land on the East River now calledCorlears Hook was also calledCorlaers Hook under Dutch and British rule and brieflyCrown Point during British occupation in the Revolution. It was named after the schoolmaster Jacobus van Corlaer, who settled on this "plantation" that in 1638 was called by a Europeanized version of itsLenape name,Nechtans[23] orNechtanc.[24] Corlaer sold the plantation toWilhelmus Hendrickse Beekman (1623–1707), founder of theBeekman family of New York; his sonGerardus Beekman was christened at the plantation on August 17, 1653.
On February 25, 1643, as part ofKieft's War, volunteers from theNew Amsterdam colony killed fortyWiechquaesgecks at their encampment in theMassacre at Corlears Hook,[25] in retaliation for ongoing conflicts between the colonists and the natives of the area, including the natives' unwillingness to pay tribute and their refusal to turn over the accused killer of a colonist.[26]
The projection into the East River that retained Corlaer's name was an important landmark for navigators for 300 years. On older maps and documents, it is usually spelledCorlaers Hook, but since the early 19th century, the spelling has been anglicized toCorlears. The rough unplanned settlement that developed at Corlaer's Hook under the British occupation of New York during the Revolution was separated from the densely populated city by rugged hills of glacial till: "this region lay beyond the city proper, from which it was separated by high, uncultivated, and rough hills", observers recalled in 1843.[27]
As early as 1816, Corlears Hook was notorious forstreetwalkers, "a resort for the lewd and abandoned of both sexes", and in 1821 its "streets abounding every night with preconcerted groups of thieves and prostitutes" were noted byThe Christian Herald.[28] In the course of the 19th century, they came to be calledhookers.[29] In the 1832 summer of New York City'scholera epidemic, a two-story wooden workshop in the neighborhood was commandeered to serve as a makeshift cholera hospital; between July 18 and September 15, when the hospital was closed as the epidemic wound down, 281 patients were admitted, both black and white, of whom 93 died.[30]
In 1833, Corlear's Hook was the location of some of the firsttenements built in New York City.[19]
Corlears Hook is mentioned on the first page of Chapter 1 ofHerman Melville'sMoby Dick, first published in 1851: "Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook toCoenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see? ..." and again in Chapter 99—The Doubloon.
The original location of Corlears Hook is now obscured by shoreline landfill.[31] It was near the east end of the present pedestrian bridge over theFDR Drive nearCherry Street. The name is preserved inCorlears Hook Park at the intersection of Jackson andCherry Streets along the East River Drive.[32]
The Lower East Side in the early 1900sThe Lower East Side andLower Manhattan skyline photographed usingAgfacolor in 1938.
The bulk of immigrants who came to New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to the Lower East Side, moving into crowdedtenements there.[33] By the 1840s, large numbers of German immigrants settled in the area, and a large part of it became known as "Little Germany" or "Kleindeutschland".[19][34] This was followed by groups of Italians and Eastern European Jews, as well as Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Slovaks and Ukrainians, each of whom settled in relatively homogeneous enclaves. By 1920, the Jewish neighborhood was one of the largest of these ethnic groupings, with 400,000 people, pushcart vendors and storefronts prominent onOrchard andGrand Streets, and numerousYiddish theatres alongSecond Avenue betweenHouston and14th Streets.[19]
Living conditions in these "slum" areas were far from ideal, although some improvement came from a change in the zoning laws, which required"new law" tenements to be built with air shafts between them so that fresh air and some light could reach each apartment. Still, reform movements, such as the one started byJacob Riis's bookHow the Other Half Lives continued to attempt to alleviate the problems of the area throughsettlement houses, such as theHenry Street Settlement, and other welfare and service agencies. The city itself moved to address the problem when it builtFirst Houses, the first suchpublic housing project in the United States, in 1935–1936. The development, located on the south side ofEast 3rd Street betweenFirst Avenue andAvenue A, and on the west side of Avenue A betweenEast 2nd and East 3rd Streets, is now considered to be located within the East Village.[19]
By the turn of the twentieth century, the neighborhood had become closely associated with radical politics, such asanarchism,socialism, andcommunism. It was also known as a place where many popular performers had grown up, such asEddie Cantor,Al Jolson,George andIra Gershwin,Jimmy Durante, andIrving Berlin. Later, more radical artists such as theBeat poets and writers were drawn to the neighborhood – especially the parts which later became the East Village – by the inexpensive housing and cheap food.[19]
The German populationdecreased in the early twentieth century as a result of theGeneral Slocum disaster and due to anti-German sentiment prompted byWorld War I. AfterWorld War II, the Lower East Side became New York City's first racially integrated neighborhood with the influx ofAfrican Americans andPuerto Ricans. Areas where Spanish speaking was predominant began to be calledLoisaida.[19]
By the 1960s, the influence of the Jewish and Eastern European groups declined as many of these residents had left the area, while other ethnic groups had coalesced into separate neighborhoods, such asLittle Italy. The Lower East Side then experienced a period of "persistent poverty, crime, drugs, and abandoned housing".[19] A substantial portion of the neighborhood was slated for demolition under the Cooper Square Urban Renewal Plan of 1956, which was to redevelop the area from Ninth toDelancey Streets from the Bowery/Third Avenue toChrystie Street/Second Avenue with new privately ownedcooperative housing.[33]: 38 [35] TheUnited Housing Foundation was selected as the sponsor for the project, which faced great opposition from the community.[36] Neither the original large-scale development nor a 1961 revised proposal was implemented,[33]: 39 and it was not until 1991 that an agreement was made to redevelop a small portion of the proposed renewal site.[37]
TheEast Village was once considered the Lower East Side's northwest corner. However, in the 1960s, the demographics of the area aboveHouston Street began to change as it became abohemia for writers, poets, musicians, and artists.[38] Newcomers and real estate brokers popularized the East Village name, and the term was adopted by the popular media by the early-1960s.[38] As the East Village developed a culture separate from the rest of the Lower East Side, the two areas came to be seen as two separate neighborhoods rather than the former being part of the latter.[39][40]
In the early 2000s, the gentrification of the East Village spread to the Lower East Side proper, making it one of the trendiest neighborhoods in Manhattan.Orchard Street, despite its "Bargain District" moniker, is now lined with upscale boutiques. Similarly, trendy restaurants, includingClinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant, are found on a stretch of tree-lined Clinton Street thatNew York Magazine described as the "hippest restaurant row" on the Lower East Side.[41][42]
In November 2007, theBlue Condominium, a 32-unit, 16-story luxury condominium tower, was completed at 105 Norfolk Street just north of Delancey Street. The pixellated, faceted blue design starkly contrasts with the surrounding neighborhood.[43] Following the construction of the Hotel on Rivington one block away, several luxury condominiums around Houston, and theNew Museum onBowery, this new wave of construction is another sign that the gentrification cycle is entering a high-luxury phase similar to inSoHo andNolita in the previous decade.
More recently, the gentrification that was previously confined to the north of Delancey Street continued south. Several restaurants, bars, and galleries opened below Delancey Street after 2005, especially around the intersection of Broome and Orchard Streets. The neighborhood's second boutique hotel, Blue Moon Hotel, opened on Orchard Street just south of Delancey Street in early 2006. However, unlike The Hotel on Rivington, the Blue Moon used an existing tenement building, and its exterior is almost identical to neighboring buildings. In September 2013, it was announced that theEssex Crossing redevelopment project was to be built in the area, centered around the intersection of Essex and Delancey Streets, but mostly utilizing land south of Delancey Street.[44]
The census tabulation area for the Lower East Side is bounded to the north byHouston Street and to the west by theBowery,Essex Street, and Montgomery Street. According to the2020 United States Census, the population of Lower East Side was 49,149, an increase of 1,725 (3.6%) from the 47,424 counted in2010. Covering an area of 373.8 acres (151.3 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 131.5 inhabitants per acre (84,200/sq mi; 32,500/km2).[2] The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 28.6% (13,578)White, 9.2% (3,890)African American, 25.0% (13,009)Asian, 1.0% (467) fromother races, and 3.1% (1,500) from two or more races.Hispanic orLatino residents of any race were 33.6% (15,930) of the population.[2]
The racial composition of the Lower East Side changed moderately from 2000 to 2010, with the most significant changes being the White population's increase by 18% (2,514), the Asian population's increase by 10% (1,673), and the Hispanic / Latino population's decrease by 10% (3,219). The minority Black population experienced a slight increase by 1% (41), while the very small population of all other races decreased by 17% (310).[45]
The Lower East Side lies inManhattan Community District 3, which encompasses the Lower East Side, theEast Village andChinatown. Community District 3 had 171,103 inhabitants as ofNYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 82.2 years.[46]: 2, 20 This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods.[47]: 53 (PDF p. 84) Most inhabitants are adults: a plurality (35%) are between the ages of 25–44, while 25% are between 45–64, and 16% are 65 or older. The ratio of youth and college-aged residents was lower, at 13% and 11%, respectively.[46]: 2
As of 2017, the medianhousehold income in Community District 3 was $39,584,[48] though the median income on the Lower East Side individually was $51,649.[3] In 2018, an estimated 18% of Community District 3 residents lived in poverty, compared to 14% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. One in twelve residents (8%) were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 48% in Community District 3, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51%, respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018[update], Community District 3 was considered to begentrifying: according to the Community Health Profile, the district was low-income in 1990 and has seen above-median rent growth up to 2010.[46]: 7
"Cliff Dwellers" by Bellows, depicting the Lower East Side as it was in the early 20th centuryKatz's Delicatessen, a symbol of the neighborhood's Jewish cultural history
One of the oldest neighborhoods of the city, the Lower East Side has long been a lower-classworker neighborhood and often a poor and ethnically diverse section of New York. As well asIrish,Italians,Poles,Ukrainians,Romanians and other ethnic groups, it once had a sizeableGerman population and was known asLittle Germany (Kleindeutschland). Today it is a predominantlyPuerto Rican andDominican community, and in the process ofgentrification (as documented by the portraits of its residents in the Clinton+Rivington chapter of The Corners Project.)[49]
Since the immigration waves from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Lower East Side became known as having been a center ofJewish immigrant culture. In her 2000 bookLower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America,Hasia Diner explains that the Lower East Side is especially remembered as a place of Jewish beginnings for Ashkenazi American Jewish culture.[50] Vestiges of the area's Jewish heritage exist in shops onHester andEssex Streets, and onGrand Street near Allen Street. An Orthodox Jewish community is based in the area, operatingyeshiva day schools and amikvah. A fewJudaica shops can be found along Essex Street, as are a fewJewish scribes and variety stores. Some kosher delis and bakeries, as well as a few "kosher style" delis, including the famousKatz's Deli, are located in the neighborhood. Second Avenue on the Lower East Side was home to manyYiddish theatre productions in theYiddish Theater District during the early part of the 20th century, and Second Avenue came to be known as “Yiddish Broadway”, even though most of the theaters are now gone. SongwriterIrving Berlin, actorJohn Garfield, and singerEddie Cantor grew up here.
Since the mid-20th century, the area has been settled primarily by immigrants, primarily fromLatin America, especially Central America and Puerto Rico. They have established their own groceries and shops, marketing goods from their culture and cuisine.Bodegas have replaced Jewish shops, and there are mostlyRoman Catholics.
In what is now theEast Village, earlier populations of Poles and Ukrainians have moved on and been largely supplanted by newer immigrants. The immigration of numerous 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 ofBangladeshis and other immigrants fromMuslim countries, many of whom are congregants of the small Madina Masjid, amosque onFirst Avenue and 11th Street.
Chinese residents have also been moving into Lower East Side, and since the late 20th century, they have comprised a large immigrant group in the area. The part of the neighborhood south ofDelancey Street and west ofAllen Street has, in large measure, become part ofChinatown.Grand Street is one of the major business and shopping streets of Chinatown. Also contained within the neighborhood are strips oflighting and restaurant supply shops on the Bowery.
While the Lower East Side has been a place of successive immigrant populations, many American Jews relate to the neighborhood in a strong manner, andChinatown holds a special place in the imagination of Chinese Americans,[54][55] just asAstoria in Queens holds a place in the hearts ofGreek Americans. It was a hub for ancestors of many people in the metropolitan area, and much depicted in fiction and films.
In the late 20th century, Jewish communities have worked to preserve a number of buildings historically associated with the Jewish immigrant community.[57][58][59] Notable sites include:
Bialystoker Synagogue – 7–11 Willet Street, originally built in theGreek Revival style for the Willett Street Methodist Episcopal Church in 1826, and acquired in 1905 for the Orthodox Jewish congregation.[65][66]
Little Fuzhou (Chinese:小福州;pinyin:Xiǎo Fúzhōu;Foochow Romanized: Siēu-hók-ciŭ), orFuzhou Town (Chinese:福州埠;pinyin:Fúzhōu Bù;Foochow Romanized: Hók-ciŭ-pú) is a neighborhood within the eastern sliver ofChinatown, in theTwo Bridges and Lower East Side areas of Manhattan. Starting in the 1980s and by the 1990s, the neighborhood became a prime destination forimmigrants fromFuzhou, Fujian, China. Manhattan's Little Fuzhou is centered onEast Broadway. However, since the 2000s,Chinatown, Brooklyn became New York City's new primary destination for Fuzhou immigrants, resulting in a second Little Fuzhou that has far surpassed the original as the Fuzhou cultural center of theNew York metropolitan area, and is still rapidly growing in contrast to Manhattan's Little Fuzhou that is shrinking undergentrification.
Since the 2010s, the Fuzhou immigrant population and businesses have been declining throughout the whole eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown due to gentrification. There is a rapidly increasing influx of high-income, often non-Chinese,professionals moving into this area, including high-endhipster-owned businesses.[67][68]
The neighborhood has become home to numerouscontemporary art galleries. One of the first wasABC No Rio.[69] Begun by a group ofColabno wave artists (some living onLudlow Street), ABC No Rio opened an outsider gallery space that invited community participation and encouraged the widespread production of art. Taking an activist approach to art that grew out of The Real Estate Show (the take over of an abandoned building by artists to open an outsider gallery only to have it chained closed by the police) ABC No Rio kept its sense ofactivism, community, and outsiderness. The product of this open, expansive approach to art was a space for creating new works that did not have links to the art market place and that were able to explore new artistic possibilities.
Other outsider galleries sprung up throughout the Lower East Side and East Village—some 200 at the height of the scene in the 1980s, including the124 Ridge Street Gallery among others. In December 2007, theNew Museum relocated to a brand-new, critically acclaimed building on Bowery at Prince. A growing number of galleries are opening in the Bowery neighborhood to be in close proximity to the museum. TheMuseum of Reclaimed Urban Space, which opened in 2012, exhibits photography featuring the neighborhood in addition to chronicling its history of activism.
As the neighborhood has gentrified and become safer at night, it has transformed into a popular late-night destination. Orchard,Ludlow and Essex between Rivington Street andStanton Street have become especially packed at night, and the resulting noise is a cause of tension between bar owners and longtime residents.[70][71]
LES is a nightlife hub, with one of the densest concentrations of bars in Manhattan, and a four block area bounded by Allen Street, Houston Street, Delancey Street and Essex Street has been nicknamed "Hell Square" due to the late night crowds, party energy, and rowdy noise.[72]
Furthermore, as gentrification continues, many established landmarks and venues have been lost.[73]
The Lower East Side is the location ofthe Slipper Room, a burlesque, variety and vaudeville theatre on Orchard and Stanton.Lady Gaga,Leonard Cohen andU2 have all appeared there, while popular downtown performers—including Dirty Martini, Murray Hill, and Matt Fraser—often appear. Variety shows are regularly hosted by comedians James Habacker,Bradford Scobie, Matthew Holtzclaw, andMatt Roper, under the guise of various characters. The Lower East Side has also been mentioned in several songs, such as "Les" by Childish Gambino and "L.E.S Artistes" by Santigold.
TheNYPD 7th Precinct (top) andFDNY Engine Co. 15/Ladder Co. 18/Battalion 4 (bottom) are housed in the same building
The Lower East Side is patrolled by the 7th Precinct of theNYPD, located at19+1⁄2 Pitt Street.[75] The 7th Precinct, along with the neighboring 5th Precinct, ranked 48th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010.[76] As of 2018[update], with a non-fatal assault rate of 42 per 100,000 people, the Lower East Side and East Village's rate ofviolent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 449 per 100,000 people is higher than that of the city as a whole.[46]: 8
The 7th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 64.8% between 1990 and 2019. The precinct reported 0 murders, 7 rapes, 149 robberies, 187 felony assaults, 94 burglaries, 507 grand larcenies, and 18 grand larcenies auto in 2019.[77]
As of 2018[update],preterm births and births to teenage mothers are less common on the Lower East Side than in other places citywide. On the Lower East Side, there were 82 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 10.1 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide).[46]: 11 The Lower East Side and East Village have a low population of residents who areuninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 11%, slightly less than the citywide rate of 12%.[46]: 14
The concentration offine particulate matter, the deadliest type ofair pollutant, on the Lower East Side is 0.0089 milligrams per cubic metre (8.9×10−9 oz/cu ft), more than the city average.[46]: 9 Twenty percent of Lower East Side and East Village residents aresmokers, which is more than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers.[46]: 13 On the Lower East Side, 10% of residents areobese, 11% arediabetic, and 22% havehigh blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively.[46]: 16 In addition, 16% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.[46]: 12
Eighty-eight percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is about the same as the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 70% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", less than the city's average of 78%.[46]: 13 For every supermarket on the Lower East Side, there are 18bodegas.[46]: 10
The Lower East Side and East Village generally have a higher rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city as of 2018[update]. A plurality of residents age 25 and older (48%) have a college education or higher, while 24% have less than a high school education and 28% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 64% of Manhattan residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher.[46]: 6 The percentage of Lower East Side and East Village students excelling in math rose from 61% in 2000 to 80% in 2011, and reading achievement increased from 66% to 68% during the same time period.[87]
The Lower East Side and East Village's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is lower than the rest of New York City. On the Lower East Side, 16% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days perschool year, less than the citywide average of 20%.[47]: 24 (PDF p. 55) [46]: 6 Additionally, 77% of high school students on the Lower East Side graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.[46]: 6
TheNew York City Department of Education operates public schools on the Lower East Side as part of Community School District 1.[88] District 1 does not contain any zoned schools, which means that students living in District 1 can apply to any school in the district, includingthose in the East Village.[89][90]
The following public elementary schools are located on the Lower East Side, serving grades PK-5 unless otherwise indicated:[88]
PS 188 The Island School[102] – Due to the large number of homeless students (which make up nearly half of the student population), the rosters often change and students are often absent.[103]
University Neighborhood Middle School (grades 5–8)[107]
University Neighborhood High School (grades 9-12)[108]
The Lower East Side Preparatory High School (LESPH) and Emma Lazarus High School (ELHS) aresecond-chance schools that enable students, aged 17–21, to obtain theirhigh school diplomas. LESPH is abilingualChinese-English school with a high proportion of Asian students. ELHS' instructional model is English-immersion with an ethnically diverse student body.
TheSeward Park Campus comprises five schools with an average graduation rate of about 80%. The original school in the building was opened 1929 and closed 2006.[109]
TheNew York Public Library (NYPL) operates two branches on the Lower East Side. The Seward Park branch is located at 4192 East Broadway. It was founded by the Aguilar Free Library Society in 1886, and the current three-storyCarnegie library building was opened in 1909 and renovated in 2004.[110] The Hamilton Fish Park branch is located at 415 East Houston Street. It was originally built as a Carnegie library in 1909, but was torn down when Houston Street was expanded; the current one-story structure was completed in 1960.[111]
The Lower East Side is home to private parks, such asLa Plaza Cultural.[112] There are also several public parks in the area, includingSara D. Roosevelt Park between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets from Houston to Canal Streets,[113] as well asSeward Park on Essex Street between Hester Street and East Broadway.[114]
The East River shorefront contains theJohn V. Lindsay East River Park, a public park running between East 12th Street in the East Village and Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side.[115] Planned for the waterfront isPier 42, the first section of which is scheduled to open in 2021.[116]
As of 2018[update], thirty-seven percent of roads on the Lower East Side havebike lanes.[46]: 10 Bike lanes are present onAllen, Chrystie, Clinton, Delancey, Grand, Houston, Montgomery, Madison,Rivington,Stanton, and Suffolk Streets; Bowery, East Broadway, and FDR Drive; the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges; and theEast River Greenway.[120]
The Lower East Side is served byNYC Ferry's South Brooklyn route, which stops at Corlears Hook in theEast River Park.[121] Service to the ferry landing started operating on August 29, 2018.[122][123]
^The division between the "West Farm" and the "East farm" ran approximately along today's Clinton Street, according to Eric Homberger,The Historical Atlas of New York City: a visual celebration of nearly 400 years 2005:60–61.
^Van Winkle, Edward; Vinckeboons, Joan; van Rensselaer, Kiliaen.Manhattan, 1624–1639 1916:13; Jacob, whose name was anglicised as "van Curler", leased it to William Hendriesen and Gysbert Cornelisson in September 1640; date given as "prior to 1640":"Corlears Park". Nycgovparks.org. November 17, 2001. RetrievedMarch 16, 2010.
^Nechtanc, in K. Scott and K. Stryker-Rodda, eds.New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, vol. 1 (Baltimore) 1974 and R.S. Grumet,Native American Place-Names in New York City (New York) 1981, both noted in Eric W. Sanderson,Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City 2009:262.
^Edwin Francis Hatfield, Samuel Hanson Cox,Patient Continuance in Well-doing: a memoir of Elihu W. Baldwin, 1843:183.
^Edwin Francis Hatfield, Samuel Hanson Cox,Patient Continuance in Well-doing: a memoir of Elihu W. Baldwin, 1843:183f.
^Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms (1859): "hooker": 'A resident of the Hook, i.e. a strumpet, a sailor's trull. So called from the number of houses of ill-fame frequented by sailors at the Hook (i.e. Corlears Hook) in the city of New York" (quoted in theOnline Etymology Dictionary); thus the usage precedes the Civil War and any supposed connection to Major-GeneralJoseph Hooker.
^Samuel Akerley, MD (Dudley Atkins, ed.)Reports of Hospital Physicians: and other documents in relation to the epidemic cholera (New York: Board of Health) 1832:112–49.
^See alsoDiner, Hasia; Shandler, Jeffrey; Wenger, Beth, eds. (2000),Remembering the Lower East Side. American Jewish reflections, Bloomington: Indiana University Press,ISBN0-253-33788-7 orPohl, Jana (2006), "'Only darkness in the Goldeneh Medina?' Die Lower East Side in der US-amerikanischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur",Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte,58 (3):227–242,doi:10.1163/157007306777834546
^abSarah Waxman."The History of New York's Chinatown". Mediabridge Infosystems, Inc. RetrievedJuly 20, 2014.Manhattan's Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in the United States and the site of the largest concentration of Chinese in the Western Hemisphere, is located on the Lower East Side.
^"Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem to Celebrate 114th Anniversary",Jewish Link, February 18, 2021. Accessed January 19, 2024. "Three generations of the Feinstein family have stood at the helm of one of America’s earliest Torah institutions, founded in 1907. Located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and later expanding to Staten Island, Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem (MTJ) stands out as the model of Torah and middot for many of the institutions of Torah learning in America to follow."
^Wolfe, Gerald (1975),New York, a Guide to the Metropolis, New York: New York University Press, pp. 89–106,ISBN0-8147-9160-3
^Diner, Hasia (2000),The Lower East Side Memories: The Jewish Place in America, Princeton: Princeton University Press,ISBN0-691-00747-0
^About,Henry Street Settlement. Accessed November 30, 2017. "Founded in 1893 by social work and public health pioneer Lillian Wald and based on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Henry Street Settlement delivers a wide range of social service, arts and health care programs to more than 60,000 New Yorkers each year."
^Fabricant, Florence"Kossar's Returns With Bagels and Bialys on the Lower East Side",The New York Times, February 2, 2016. Accessed November 30, 2017. "Kossar's Bagels & Bialys In the bagel capital of the world, the bialy, the round, flattened roll with onions in the center, also gets its due. Evan Giniger and David Zablocki, who in 2013 bought the 80-year-old Kossar's Bialys on the Lower East Side, closed it in September for renovations."
^Berger, Joseph."No More Babka? There Goes the Neighborhood",The New York Times, July 2, 2007. Accessed November 30, 2017. "Gertel's, the legendary bakery on Hester Street on the Lower East Side known for its Jewish treats like rugelach, babka and marble cake, has closed its doors.... Opened in 1914, Gertel's, at 53 Hester Street near Essex Street, closed on June 22."
^"A Taste of the Old Lower East Side: Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery in New York",Slate Atlas Obscura. Accessed November 30, 2017. "As much of New York's old Lower East Side disappears with the changing times, there are still traces of the original neighborhood to be explored, and in the case of Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery, eaten and enjoyed."
^Kliment, Stephen A."When Places of the Spirit Face Concrete Realities",The New York Times, December 27, 1998. Accessed November 28, 2022. "Bialystoker Synagogue is architecturally the grandest of the synagogues earmarked for the Lower East Side trail. Built in 1826 as the Willett Street Methodist Church, it is a pedimented Greek-Revival gem of gray stone and red brick and spectacular stained glass."
^Smith, Sarah Harrison."History Meets Opportunity",The New York Times, October 21, 2012. Accessed November 28, 2022. "The Bialystoker Synagogue was built in 1826 as a Methodist church and is said to have sheltered fugitive slaves in its early days. In 1905, an Orthodox Jewish congregation from Bialystok, Poland, bought the building."
^Steinetz, Rebecca."Reviving the All-of-a-Kind Family books",The Boston Globe, December 13, 2014. Accessed November 30, 2017. "Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie may not have the name recognition of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, or Laura and Mary, but that could change, now that Lizzie Skurnick Books has reprinted four of the five All-of-a-Kind Family books, originally published between 1951 and 1978. For publisher Skurnick, whose imprint is devoted to reissuing out-of-print classic young-adult literature, reviving Sydney Taylor's saga of five Jewish immigrant sisters growing up on New York's Lower East Side at the beginning of the 20th century was a no-brainer."
^Hester Street (1975) – AFI Catalog Spotlight",American Film Institute, May 2, 2022. Accessed November 8, 2022. "It went on to receive a Best Actress Oscar® nomination for Carol Kane, and a WGA Award nomination for Silver's adaptation of the 1896 novellaYekl, a Tale of the New York Ghetto by Abraham Cahan, who founded the premier Yiddish language newspaper in America."
^Salome of the Tenements,University of Illinois Press. Accessed March 31, 2024. "Passionate and engagingly sardonic, it criticizes the concept of the American "Melting Pot" in the language of the Lower East Side and exposes the hypocrisy of the "good works" of the privileged class and their so-called dedication to the poor."
^Schoemer, Karen."Lowlife: It's a Life",The New York Times, February 21, 1993. Accessed November 30, 2017. "Luc Sante reveals the Lower East Side. As he roams the area, one of New York's oldest neighborhoods, buildings, doorways and details that would usually go unnoticed suddenly come into clear focus; a strange and vibrant life shows itself beneath the grime and residue of time. Mr. Sante's two books,Low Life andEvidence, bring this world to the page."
^Kirn, Walter."Neighborhood Watch",The New York Times, March 16, 2008. Accessed November 30, 2017. "InLush Life, Richard Price's eighth novel, the resurfacing project that caps the same old potholes (and threatens to collapse in certain areas, potentially creating immense new craters capable of swallowing small crowds) targets the tangled, once tenement-lined streets of New York City's Lower East Side. In Realtor-speak, the district is 'in transition,' which means in Police Department terms that its college-educated young renting class and bonus-gorged co-op-owning elite can still score narcotics from the old-guard locals, whose complexions are generally darker than the new folks', making them easy to spot on party nights but tricky to ID in photo lineups come the red-eyed mornings after."
^Gates, Anita."Theater Review; On a Roof, Vignettes That Get Around",The New York Times, September 21, 1998. Accessed November 30, 2017. "The three vignettes – showing a Yiddish-Sicilian theater, a dangerous turn-of-the-century tavern and a contemporary Lower East Side scene – were nicely done, with lovely period costumes by Mary Myers."
^ Welcome to Arroyo's by Kristoffer Diaz,Samuel French, Inc. Accessed November 30, 2017. "A sweet, loose-limbed shout out to Manhattan's Lower East Side…With a Greek chorus of DJs who 'mix' the play right in front of us, WELCOME shows that hip-hop can still goose mainstream theater instead of merely filling the diversity slot."
^Cutler, Aaron."The Lower East Side Is a Foreign Country: Joan Micklin Silver onHester Street",Brooklyn Magazine, September 28, 2016. Accessed November 30, 2017. "Hester Street, Joan Micklin Silver's independently financed 1975 debut feature, will screen at Film Forum Tuesday, October 4 on an archival 35mm print, with Silver in person alongside star Carol Kane. The film is set in 1896 within a Jewish community on New York's Lower East Side."
^abOur History,Bloomingdale's. Accessed September 29, 2016. "A Store Is Born: To think it all started with a 19th-century fad – the hoop skirt. That was the first item that Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale carried in their Ladies' Notions Shop in New York's Lower East Side."
^Elmaleh, Edmund.The Canary Sang But Couldn't Fly: The Fatal Fall of Abe Reles, the Mobster Who Shattered Murder, Inc.'s Code of Silence, p. 25. Accessed March 16, 2022. "The man whom famed racketbuster Thomas E. Dewey would one day call 'the worst industrial racketeer in America' began life on February 6, 1897, in a Russian-Jewish enclave on the Lower East Side. Lepke's father, Barnett Buchalter, ran a timy hardware store near the family's tenemant flat at 217 Henry Street."
^Groom, Winston."A Gangster Goes to War",The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2010. Accessed September 29, 2016. "In New York right after the turn of the 20th century, the baddest man in the whole downtown was a thug named Monk Eastman, who controlled a gang of 2,000 Jewish hoodlums on Manhattan's Lower East Side."
^Robbins, Tom."Miriam Friedlander's Good Fight",The Village Voice, October 15, 2009. Accessed March 16, 2022. "Miriam Friedlander, the spirited former councilwoman from the Lower East Side, died last week at 95, and we would count ourselves enormously lucky should her type come this way again."
^Day, Crosby."Garfield: An Actor Who Stood His Ground",Orlando Sentinel, February 7, 2003. Accessed January 19, 2024. "John Garfield's reputation since his death seems to have hardened into a list of tired clichés: tough kid from New York's Lower East Side makes good; the first angry young man; the original rebel without a cause; the first method actor; the forerunner of Brando, Clift, Dean and De Niro."
^"Actor Ben Gazzara dead at 81",The Florida Times-Union, February 3, 2012. Accessed January 19, 2024. "Born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York on Aug. 28, 1930, he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in a cold-water flat with a bathtub in the kitchen."
^Seaver, Carl."The Life of 'The Oddfather,' Vincent Gigante", History Defined, January 27, 2023. Accessed January 19, 2024. "Vincent Gigante was born in 1928 in the Lower East Side of New York. His father, Salvatore Gigante, and mother, Yolanda Gigante, were Italian immigrants."
^"Answers About the New York Mafia",The New York Times, October 8, 2008. Accessed January 19, 2024. "No one was ever charged in the murder, but as I disclosed 44 years later in my Oct. 18, 2001, column, the primary shooter of Albert Anastasia was the mobster Steven (Stevie Coogan) Grammauta. The second gunman was Arnold Wittenberg. Both men, along with the hit-team leader, Stephen Armone, were heroin dealers from the Lower East Side. Mr. Grammauta, now 91, is the only surviving member."
^Berger, Phil."Rocky Graziano, Ex-Ring Champion, Dead at 71",The New York Times, May 23, 1990. Accessed January 19, 2024. "Born Thomas Rocco Barbella, Mr. Graziano grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the son of a former boxer nicknamed Fighting Nick Bob."
^"Poem of the week: Secrecy by Samuel Greenberg",The Guardian, October 26, 2020. Accessed January 19, 2024. "Samuel Greenberg was born in Vienna in 1893. His family emigrated to the US when he was seven and he grew up on New York City’s Lower East Side."
^McFadden, Robert D."David Greenglass, the Brother Who Doomed Ethel Rosenberg, Dies at 92",The New York Times, October 14, 2014. Accessed January 19, 2024. "Mr. Greenglass, who grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in a household that believed Marxism would save humanity, was an ardent, preachy Communist when drafted by the Army in World War II, but no one in the barracks took him very seriously, much less believed him capable of spying."
^Weber, Bruce."Sally Gross, Choreographer of Minimalist Dances, Dies at 81",The New York Times, July 24, 2015. Accessed March 25, 2021. "Sarah Freiberg was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Aug. 3, 1933. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland — her father was a fruit peddler — and as a girl she spoke Yiddish at home."
^Deliso, Meredith."Luis Guzman on growing up in NYC, best Puerto Rican food",AM New York Metro, June 9, 2016. Accessed January 19, 2024. "[Q] What was it like growing up in New York? [A] I lived on the Lower East Side. I grew up on Delancey and Columbia Street.... But back then, when we moved to the Lower East Side, in the late 1960s, early 1970s, the neighborhood looked like a bomb hit it, when the Bowery was full of what we called hobos."
^Wilson, John S."E.Y. Harburg, Lyricist, Killed In Car Crash",The New York Times, March 7, 1981. Accessed March 25, 2021. "Edgar Harburg was born on New York's Lower East Side on April 8, 1896, the son of immigrants. From childhood, he was known as Yip, short for Yipsel, which he gave as his middle name although he said he acquired it as a boy on the East Side."
^Hoppe, Randolph."Jack Kirby: Superhero Creator of the Lower East Side",Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Accessed March 25, 2021. "Did you know that Captain America is from the Lower East Side? It's true. So are Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Avengers, and the X-Men. All of these characters were co-created by Lower East Side native, Jack Kirby, one of the most important and prolific storytellers of the 20th century."
^Acevedo, Carlos."LIGHTNING EXPRESS: The Quick Rise & Even Quicker Fall of Al Singer", The Cruelest Sport, December 11, 2012. Accessed July 13, 2017. "Born in New York City on September 6, 1909, Al Singer spent his early years on the Lower East Side before his father, a successful businessman, moved the family to Pelham Parkway in the Bronx."
^Gringo,American Film Institute. Accessed November 4, 2017. "In the early 1980s, John Spacely is an unemployed heroin addict living on the streets of New York City's Lower East Side, where he is known by the nickname, 'Gringo.'"
United States
New York
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