Industrial Alphabet City, 1891

Based on 1891 G. W. Bromley map

For well over a century, the Lower East Side's waterfront hosted Manhattan's primary industrial district. Among dozens of factories and horse stables was one of the largest concentrations of coal, lumber and iron yards in the city. This map illustrates some of the larger companies operating by 1891, in the neighborhood referred to now by many as "Alphabet City."

By WWII most of these industries died out or relocated to the outer boroughs and the entire district was redeveloped during a post-war public housing initiative. Today "Alphabet City" is overwhelmingly residential.

Rare photos of the legendary Steve Brodie

Outside 114 Bowery c. 1897 (left), scan of Brodie's 1896 liquor license (right)

These are some rare images relating to Steve Brodie, a man whose claim to fame was just that, a claim, that in 1886 he jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge and survived.

The following an excerpt from The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur:

Brodie, a native Lower East Sider, was an outgoing, blusterous youth who earned the nicknames “Napoleon of Newsboys” and “George Washington of Blackbooters” because of the influence he had over other boys in the rowdy Fourth Ward. (Think Christian Bale in the 1992 movie-musical Newsies.) In one 1879 interview, sixteen-year-old Steve Brodie bragged about how he and other local “newsies” would band together to chase new competition out of their territory and complained about how Italians were taking all the bootblacking jobs.

A professional gambler as a young adult, Brodie fell into debt when he took on a dare to jump off the New York City landmark for $200—just months after daredevil Robert Odlum was killed while attempting the same stunt. As Brodie began to take full advantage of the publicity around his planned jump, a liquor dealer named Moritz Herzber offered to finance a saloon in Brodie’s name—if he survived.

On the morning of July 23, 1886, Brodie stood on the railing of the bridge while a couple of friends tested the waters below in a rowboat and news reporters gathered on a pier nearby. At 10:00 a.m., Brodie’s team called off the jump, claiming the tide was too strong. Brodie came down from the structure only to return about 2:00 p.m. that day,, when it is claimed he rode in the back of a wagon until he got about one hundred yards over the bridge, at which point he took off his hat and shoes and plunged over the railing into the East River.

Despite several “eyewitnesses” and lengthy news reports, most historians believe the jump was a hoax, theorizing that a friend threw a life-size dummy from the wagon that people mistook for Brodie amidst all the excitement. Brodie was arrested after being “rescued” from the water, but charges were dropped and he became an instant celebrity. Herzber made good on his promise, and Brodie’s saloon was opened at 114 Bowery. It also doubled as a museum dedicated to the stunt.

The public could not get enough of Steve Brodie, who went on to tour the country in vaudeville musicals Mad Money and On the Bowery, re-creating his famous leap for clamoring fans. Eventually, Brodie settled in Buffalo, New York, where he died from diabetes in 1901 at the young age of thirty-nine.

Steve Brodie’s stunt inspired a slew of pop culture references, including the 1933 Hollywood film The Bowery, in which fellow Lower East Sider George Raft portrayed Brodie in the lead role; and a 1949 Looney Tunes cartoon named Bowery Bugs, which re-imagines Bugs Bunny being the motivation for Brodie’s jump. The urban legend also inspired a popular saying: “pulling a Brodie.”

210 E. 5th Street , Then & Now

210 E. 5th Street in 1892 (left), and today (right)

For close to half a century, this address hosted one of the city's most important union halls, Beethoven Hall. Between the late 1880s and late 1930s, several prominent organizations held meetings here: From the ILGWU and Federation of Labor, to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Jewish Socialist League of America.

Many high profile union leaders and politicos made rousing speeches here: from Emma Goldman and Johan Most to William Randolph Hearst.

Beethoven Hall played an important role in the Women's Suffrage movement and most citywide strikes of the era, as meetings here helped lead to sweeping changes in labor laws and Women's Rights. It also played a prominent role in the community during the General Slocum and Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire disasters.

Today, 210 E. 5th Street is a quiet residential building.

1897 Saloon Locations in the "Jewish Quarter"

Here is a crude map of bar locations in the LES "Jewish Quarter" in 1897. There was one bar for every 208 people living the the neighborhood.

Lord & Taylor on the Lower East Side

Did you know that Lord & Taylor got its start on the LES? The flagship store was at 63 Catharine Street (pictured left), its next on the corner of Grand and Chrystie Streets (pictured, right).

Brooks Brothers First Store on the Lower East Side

Did you know that Brooks Brothers, America's oldest mens retail store, got its start on the Lower East Side? These images are from its original store on the corner of Catharine and Cherry Street -- which opened in 1818! It moved from this location to Broadway and Grand Street in the late 1850s.

19-23 St. Marks Place, Then & Now

19-23 St. Marks Place then & now: Rare photo of Arion Society/Arlington Hall, 1890s (left) and St. Marks Market, c.2010 (right)

341 Bowery , Then & Now

341 Bowery (corner of E. 3rd St) then & now... Dry Dock Savings Bank c. 1890 (left) and Bowery Hotel c. 2010 (right)

Steinway & Sons on the Lower East Side

Did you know that Steinway & Sons was once located on the Lower East Side?

Though German immigrant Heinrich Steinway founded in the iconic company 1853 out of a small shop at 75 Varick Street, his sons opened an upscale showroom at 107-109 E. 14th Street in 1864.

In 1866, they opened Steinway Hall in the rear of the showrooms, which quickly became the center of New York City's cultural elite. The concert hall hosted the New York Philharmonic for a quarter of a century, until they moved to the newer Carnegie Hall in 1891.

(Images: left, Steinway ad from 1907; right, a photo of 107-109 E. 14th Street from 1892).

Lower Manhattan During the Revolutionary War

Here is a map of major forts and artillery batteries in Lower Manhattan during the Revolutionary War.

In the Summer of 1776, George Washington's 10,000-strong Continental Army fortified Manhattan Island, concentrating five Brigades below Houston Street.

The only major road into the city at the time, the Bowery, was heavily barricaded and used to maneuver thousands and thousands of troops and supplies in and out of the largest Army encampment on Manhattan Island.

"Bunker Hill" was a heptagonal fort built atop a 100-foot elevation on the Bayard estate -- today the heart of Chinatown. This fort was fitted with six mortars and twelve cannons and provided a 360-degree view of Lower Manhattan.

Iconic martyr Captain Nathan Hale was stationed at Bunker Hill, before being captured by the British and hanged.

Learn more about the Lower East Side during the Revolution: "The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur" http://www.amazon.com/Bowery-History-Grit-Graft-Grandeur/dp/1609491785/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314821141&sr=1-1

2 Doyers Street, Then & Now

Chinese Tuxedo Restaurant at 2 Doyers Street (at Bowery) c. 1910 (left), and 2010 (right)

Here is a chapter about the restaurant (with great images) from "Manhattan's Chinatown": http://books.google.com/books?id=uY9njnuRejcC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Housing Crisis of 1920

The Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, Iowa), April 19, 1920

In the spring of 1920, thousands of families were ordered to vacate their homes during one of the worst housing crises in New York City history.

The combination of a severe housing shortage and immense population boom at the end of WWI led to waves of mass evictions for much of the city's working-class and working-poor population.

Motivated by a post-war interest in Manhattan real estate, unscrupulous landlords used loopholes in the housing laws in what surmounted to nothing less than class warfare; tenants were essentially extorted into paying over 25% more in rent or face eviction. Tens of thousands who could not pay were forced into homelessness.

The abandoned apartments were then rented for over four times the market value to "pleasure seekers" and people with "abundant war profits or earnings," according to a April 19, 1920 Telegraph-Herald (photo).

Over 73,000 families were registered as homeless by the Spring of 1920, many living in parks throughout the city in tents provided by the U.S. Army.