Mulberry Street (Manhattan)
Encyclopedia
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The street was listed on maps of the area since at least 1755. The "Bend" in Mulberry in which the street changes direction from southwest to northeast to a northerly direction was to avoid the wetlands surrounding the Collect Pond. Mulberry street, during the period of the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, was usually referred to as "Slaughter-house street named for the slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
of Nicholas Bayard on what is now the southwest corner of Mulberry and Bayard Streets until the summer of 1784, when it was ordered to be removed to Corlaer's Hook,
Mulberry Bend formed by Mulberry Street on the east and Orange Street on the West was historically part of the core of the infamous Five Points
Five Points, Manhattan
Five Points was a neighborhood in central lower Manhattan in New York City. The neighborhood was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street in the west, The Bowery in the east, Canal Street in the north and Park Row in the south...
with the southwest corner of Mulberry bend formed part of the Five Points intersection for which the neighborhood was named.
Location
Mulberry is between Baxter and Mott Streets. It runs north to south through the old center of Little ItalyLittle Italy, Manhattan
Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians. Today the neighborhood of Little Italy consists of Italian stores and restaurants.-Historical area:...
. At the southern end of Mulberry, the street merges into New York's Chinatown
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
, here the street is lined with Chinese green grocers, butcher stores and fish mongers.
Further south past Bayard Street, on the west side of the street, lies Columbus Park that was created 1897. The east side of the street is now lined with Chinatown's funeral home
Funeral home
A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....
s.
Mulberry Bend
The street was named after the mulberry trees that once lined Mulberry Bend, the slight bend in Mulberry Street. "Mulberry BendMulberry Bend
Mulberry Bend was an area in the notorious Five Points neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. It was bound by Bayard Street in the north, Cross Street in the south, Orange Street on the west and Mulberry Street on the east. The "Bend" in the street layout was due to the original topography of the area...
is a narrow bend in Mulberry Street, a tortuous ravine of tall tenement-houses... so full of people that the throngs going and coming spread off the sidewalk nearly to the middle of the street... The crowds are in the street because much of the sidewalk and all of the gutter is taken up with vendors' stands." For the urban reformer Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis
Jacob August Riis was a Danish American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific...
, Mulberry Bend epitomized the worst of the city's slums: "A Mulberry Bend Alley" contrasted with "Mulberry Bend becomes a park" were two of the photographs illustrating Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis
Jacob August Riis was a Danish American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific...
's call for renewal, The Battle with the Slum (1902).
Feast of San Gennaro
During the Italian AmericanItalian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
festival of the Feast of San Gennaro
Feast of San Gennaro
The Feast of San Gennaro, originally a one-day religious commemoration, began in September 1926 when newly arrived immigrants from Naples congregated along Mulberry Street in the Little Italy section of New York City, to continue the tradition they had followed in Italy to celebrate San Gennaro as...
each September, the entire street is blocked off to vehicular traffic
Traffic
Traffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
to make way for the street fair.
Notable buildings
The Puck BuildingPuck Building
__notoc__The Puck Building occupies the block bounded by Lafayette, Houston, Mulberry and Jersey Streets in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, United States. An example of the German Rundbogenstil style of Romanesque Revival architecture , the building was designed by Albert Wagner, and was...
stands near the north end of the street on the southwest corner of Houston Street. Further south is Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral
St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, New York
The Basilica of Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral, or Old St. Patrick's, is located at 260-264 Mulberry Street between Prince and Houston Streets in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, with the primary entrance currently located on Mott Street...
, standing in its churchyard. Below Prince Street (no, 247) is the former Ravenite Social Club
Ravenite Social Club
The Ravenite Social Club was a club in New York City that was frequented and at some point used as headquarters of the Gambino crime family. It was located at 247 Mulberry St. in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. It is now a shoe store. The Ravenite was frequented by John Gotti and the rest of...
, where wire taps acquired evidence that sent John Gotti
John Gotti
John Joseph Gotti, Jr was an American mobster who became the Boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Gotti grew up in poverty. He and his brothers turned to a life of crime at an early age...
to prison.
Media
Mulberry Street has been the subject of books, films and music. Billy JoelBilly Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
's song "Big Man on Mulberry Street
Big Man on Mulberry Street
"Big Man on Mulberry Street" is a jazz influenced song by Billy Joel from the 1986 album The Bridge .An extended version of the song was used on a season three episode of Moonlighting. The episode was titled "Big Man On Mulberry Street". In a dream sequence, Maddie Hayes envisions David Addison...
" is a jazz influenced song from his 1986 album The Bridge
The Bridge (Billy Joel album)
The Bridge is Billy Joel's 10th studio album released by Columbia Records in 1986 and was his final album to be produced by Phil Ramone...
(1986). In 2006 a horror film took the name Mulberry Street
Mulberry Street (film)
Mulberry Street is a 2007 horror film that was released by After Dark Films as a part of their 8 Films to Die For 2007. It was released on DVD in the United States on March 18, 2008...
.
The street named in Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
' And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is a book written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss and Robert Carington, first published in 1937. It was Seuss's first children's book, originally titled "A Story That No One Can Beat," the manuscript was rejected by over 43 publishing companies but was...
refers to a Mulberry Street
Mulberry Street (Springfield, Massachusetts)
Mulberry Street is the name of an historic street and tourist destination in Springfield, Massachusetts, made famous by Dr. Seuss' first childrens' book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street! Less than one mile from Springfield's Metro Center neighborhood, the Springfield Armory, and The...
in Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
, the author's birthplace.
The street is also quoted in the song Io tengo n'appartamento by the Italian singer Renato Carosone
Renato Carosone
Renato Carosone , born Renato Carusone, was among the greatest figures of Italian music scene in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a modern performer of the so-called canzone napoletana, Naples' song tradition.-Beginnings:Carosone was born in Naples...
: an old story of a rich singer in Little Italy missing his hometown Napoli.
External links
- New York Songlines: Mulberry Street, a virtual walking tour
- Mulberry Street Storefronts - photographs of buildings and stores along Mulberry St from Chinatown through Little Italy
- Current View of 80 Mulberry St. (Google Maps, Street View) - Same view today, as circa 1900 photo
- "The bend" of Mulberry Street as depicted in How the Other Half LivesHow the Other Half LivesHow the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s...