West Broadway is a north-south street in the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle A ...
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 ...
, separated into two parts by Tribeca Park. The northern part begins at Tribeca Park, near the intersection of
Avenue of the Americas
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
(Sixth Avenue), Walker Street and Beach Street in
Tribeca
Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stree ...
. It runs northbound as a one-way street past
Canal Street and becomes two-way at the intersection with
Grand Street one block farther north. West Broadway then operates as a main north-south thoroughfare through
SoHo
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
until its northern end at
Houston Street
Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River i ...
, on the border between SoHo and
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
. North of
Houston Street
Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River i ...
, it is designated as LaGuardia Place, which continues until
Washington Square South.
The southern part of West Broadway runs southbound from Tribeca Park
[Although the neighborhood is "TriBeCa", the park is called by the city's Parks Department "Tribeca Park". Se]
"Tribeca Park"
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...
through the
TriBeCa
Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stree ...
neighborhood, ending at Park Place. Prior to the
September 11, 2001 attacks, West Broadway continued southward into the
World Trade Center site
The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...
, ending at
Vesey Street
Vesey Street ( ) is a street in New York City that runs east-west in Lower Manhattan. The street is named after Rev. William Vesey (1674-1746), the first rector of nearby Trinity Church.
History
The intersection of Vesey and West Streets wa ...
. It was once considered "Rotten Row".
History
West Broadway was once two streets: Chapel Street below Canal Street, and Laurens Street above it.
In the early 1750s,
Trinity Church laid down a street grid on its property, known as King's Farm, between the Hudson River and Broadway in lower Manhattan. About the same time, Trinity founded King's College, now
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, and donated a plot of land bordered by Barclay, Murray, and
Church Streets for its campus, to which the school moved in 1760. According to a 1755 map, "Chappel Street" was part of this grid, running from Barkly (Barclay) to just past Warrens (Warren) Street and ending at the palisade which protected the north end of the city. In the 1760s, Trinity Church ceded its streets between Fulton and Reade Streets to the city and Anthony Rutgers' heirs, owners of the land north of Reade Street, mapped their property into streets and lots. In the 1790s, Chapel Street was graded and paved from Murray to Reade Streets and extended to Leonard Street.
In 1831, the
New York City Common Council renamed the two blocks of Chapel Street between Barclay and Murray Streets "College Place". A decade later Chapel Street was renamed "West Broadway" with the same purpose as that behind the renaming of East Broadway, to reduce the traffic congestion on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
itself, but both names were used for over twenty more years. An 1835 map calls Chapel Street "West Broadway" but an 1850 map calls it "Chapel Street".
[Similarly, an 1837 advertisement refers to "West Broadway" () and an 1857 news story refers to "Chapel Street" ().] Around 1850, the two blocks from Murray to Chambers Street were renamed to be part of College Place.
![West Bayard Farm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/West_Bayard_Farm.jpg)
Laurens Street belonged to a different grid. In 1788, the Bayard family, dividing their farm into blocks and lots for sale, laid down eight streets parallel to Broadway, numbered from east to west, plus seven cross streets. A few years later, the numbered streets were named, and by the turn of the century they were renamed again for
Revolutionary War officers, including
Henry Laurens
Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...
(see
map
A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes.
Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...
). By the 1830s, the neighborhood was a
red-light district nicknamed "Rotten Row", and by the 1860s it was beset by poverty, filth, and violent crime. An 1860 proposal to widen Laurens Street and extend it north one block to
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...
was carried out in 1869 and 1870. In addition, a roadway was built to connect West Broadway to Fifth Avenue, introducing carriage traffic into Washington Square Park, and Laurens Street was officially renamed South Fifth Avenue in an attempt to improve its image.
The 1860 proposal to widen Laurens Street had accompanied a proposal to widen College Place and extend it southward to Greenwich Street.
[A similar proposal had been made ten years earlier. ()] It was finally carried out in 1895, when Laurens Street and South Fifth Avenue were both made part of West Broadway.
LaGuardia Place
In 1967 the section of the street north of Houston Street was renamed "LaGuardia Place", after former 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 ...
. It features LaGuardia Gardens, between West 3rd and
Bleecker Streets, which includes a commissioned statue of the "Little Flower", as La Guardia was nicknamed. Sculpted by Neil Estern, with a pedestal designed by architect Ruth Shapiro, the bronze statue was dedicated in 1994, and was commissioned and donated to the city by the Friends of LaGuardia Place. The sculpture was commissioned as part of a project to beautify and revitalize that section of the street, whose buildings had been torn down many years before by
Robert Moses to be part of the Fifth Avenue South connector to his never-built
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 Tunne ...
.
Transportation
Current
The southbound
M20 bus of the
New York City Bus
MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...
system runs on West Broadway from the five-way intersection with
Varick Street
__NOTOC__
Varick Street runs north–south primarily in the Hudson Square district of Lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. Varick Street's northern terminus is in the West Village, where it is a continuation of Seventh Avenue South ...
and Leonard Street south to
Chambers Street. The
Franklin Street and
Chambers Street stations of the
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
The IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line (also known as the IRT Seventh Avenue Line or the IRT West Side Line) is a New York City Subway line. It is one of several lines that serves the A Division, stretching from South Ferry in Lower Manhatta ...
() are located on West Broadway.
Former
The
Sixth Avenue Elevated, formally the Metropolitan Elevated Railway, opened on June 5, 1878. It ran above College Place, West Broadway, and South Fifth Avenue from Murray Street, where it turned from Church Street, to Amity (West 3rd) Street, where it turned to Sixth Avenue. The Sixth Avenue El was abandoned on December 4, 1938 and razed in 1939, being replaced by the underground
IND Eighth Avenue Line
The IND Eighth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line in New York City, United States, and is part of the B Division of the New York City Subway. Opened in 1932, it was the first line of the Independent Subway System (IND), and the ''Eighth Avenu ...
.
References
Informational notes
Citations
External links
New York Songlines: West Broadway a virtual walking tour
*
*
{{Streets of Manhattan, state=collapsed
Streets in Manhattan
SoHo, Manhattan