287px, Doyers Street depicted in an 1898 postcard
287px, The city's first Chinese Opera House was on Doyers Street
Doyers Street is a street in the
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
neighborhood 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 ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It is one block long with a sharp bend in the middle. The street runs south and then southeast from
Pell Street
Manhattan's Chinatown () is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center to its south, and Tribeca to its west. With an estimated population of 90,000 to 100, ...
to the intersection of
Bowery
The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "B ...
,
Chatham Square
Chatham Square is a major intersection in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City. The square lies at the confluence of eight streets: the Bowery, Doyers Street, East Broadway, St. James Place, Mott Street, Oliver Street, Worth Street and Park R ...
, and
Division Street. Doyers Street contains several restaurants, barber shops, and hair stylists, as well as the Chinatown branch of the
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
. The
Nom Wah Tea Parlor
Nom Wah Tea Parlor ( zh, c=南華茶室, l=South China Tea House), opened in 1920, is the oldest continuously running restaurant in the Chinatown of Manhattan in New York City. The restaurant serves Hong Kong style dim-sum and is currently locate ...
opened at 13 Doyers Street in 1920, and is still in operation; other longstanding business include Ting's Gift Shop at 18 Doyers which opened in 1957.
Etymology
The street is named for Hendrik Doyers, an 18th-century Dutch immigrant who bought the property facing the
Bowery
The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "B ...
in 1791. He operated a distillery at 6 Doyers Street and the ''Plough and Harrow'' tavern near the corner with Bowery.
Notable sites
![Doyers Street Chinatown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Doyers_Street_Chinatown.jpg)
Doyers Street follows the old route of a stream. 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 in
Kishinev.
Nom Wah Tea Parlor
Nom Wah Tea Parlor ( zh, c=南華茶室, l=South China Tea House), opened in 1920, is the oldest continuously running restaurant in the Chinatown of Manhattan in New York City. The restaurant serves Hong Kong style dim-sum and is currently locate ...
, opened in 1920, is the oldest continuously running restaurant in Chinatown. The restaurant first opened at 15 Doyers Street and moved to 13 Doyers in 1968.
Doyers Street, along with Pell Street, contains numerous barber shops and beauty salons.
The barber shops attract customers, many of whom are Chinese, from as far away as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Doyers Street is also home to many
speakeasies
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies.
Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States d ...
including Apotheke and Peachy's.
Crimes and shootings
Early in the century, the bend in the street became known as the "Bloody Angle" or "Murder Alley" because of numerous killings among the
Tong Gangs of Chinatown that lasted into the 1930s.
Hatchet
A hatchet (from the Old French , a diminutive form of ''hache'', 'axe' of Germanic origin) is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side. Hatchets may also be use ...
s were frequently used, leading to the creation of the expression, "hatchet man".
In 1994, law enforcement officials said that more people died violently at the "Bloody Angle" than at any other street intersection in the United States. One shooting at the Chinese Theater in 1905 claimed the lives of three people, when members of the
Hip Sing Tong
The Hip Sing Association or HSA (), formerly known as the Hip Sing Tong (), is a Chinese-American criminal organization/gang formed as a labor organization in New York City's Chinatown during the early 20th century (perhaps c. 1904). The Canton ...
fired on members of the
On Leong Tong
The On Leong Chinese Merchants Association () or simply Chinese Merchants Association, formerly known as the On Leong Tong (), is a tong society operating out of its territory in Mott Street in New York's Chinatown. Established in November 1893 ...
. The shooting took place at a time when the theater was packed with 400 people. 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.
A number of old
tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
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. In 1939, a fire at the same building, described by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 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 Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
said at the scene of the fire that someday Chinatown would have to be torn down and replaced. Chuck Connors, a
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
operative and the political boss of Chinatown in the early part of the century, had his headquarters at the Chatham Club at 6 Doyers, where
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook.
Born in Imperial Russi ...
reportedly entertained.
Usage
Writing in
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
's ''
American Mercury
''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...
'' in 1926,
Herbert Asbury
Herbert Asbury (September 1, 1891 – February 24, 1963) was an American journalist and writer best known for his books detailing crime during the 19th and early-20th centuries, such as ''Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago U ...
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. As Doyers and Pell Streets are only accessible from southbound Bowery and traffic from both Bowery and Doyers Street can only continue to southbound Chatham Square, Doyers Street is very lightly used.
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. As part of a September 2017 pilot program, the Chinatown Partnership converted Doyers Street to a
pedestrian-only street during the daytime for one month. If the test is successful, the program would be expanded. The of the street between Bowery and the Post Office would be available for commercial access. The pavement of Doyers Street was painted in 2021 with ''Rice Terraces'', a mural by
Dasic Fernández.
In September 2021, Chinatown Mural Project created a new tribute mural that honored the memory of beloved photographer
Corky Lee
Young Kwok Lee (September 5, 1947 – January 27, 2021) was a Chinese-American activist, community organizer, photographer, journalist and the unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate. He called himself an "ABC from NYC...yielding a camera ...
on Doyers Street.
During the same month, yellow and green lanterns were hung up along Doyers Street as part of the Light Up Chinatown initiative.
References
Notes
Further reading
"Manhattan's Chinatown,"by Daniel Ostrow, Mary Sham, Arcadia Publishing: 2008
External links
Chinatown’s “Bloody Angle” – A Trip Down Doyers StreetDoyers Street Slideshow
{{Streets of Manhattan, state=collapsed
Streets in Manhattan
Chinatown, Manhattan