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) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

. It runs nearly the full width of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

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 in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway ...

. The street is interrupted in a number of places by parks, buildings, and Allen Street's median. The street was named after

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

-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 ...

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 An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

and

lieutenant governor of New York The lieutenant governor of New York is a 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 governor is elected on a ticket wit ...

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 more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

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.Gunther Building. The

Our Lady of Vilnius Church Our Lady of Vilnius Church was a Roman Catholic parish church located at 568–570 Broome Street, in Hudson Square, Manhattan, New York City, east of the entrance to the Holland Tunnel but predating it. It was built in 1910 as the national parish ...

stood in the street between 1910 and 2015. 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 Tunnel ...

, 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. Despite never being elected to any office, Moses is regarded ...

. 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 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 Cities ...

gained enough momentum to stop the project from going forward.

References

Notes

External links

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