Gay Street (Manhattan)
Location | Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City |
---|---|
Postal code | 10014 |
Coordinates | 40°44′01″N 74°00′01″W / 40.73362°N 74.0004°W |
North end | Christopher Street |
South end | Waverly Place |
Gay Street is a short, angled
This street, originally a stable alley, was probably named for an early landowner, not for the sexuality of any denizens, who coincidentally reside in Greenwich Village, a predominantly homosexual community. Nor is it likely, as is sometimes claimed,[3] that its namesake was Sidney Howard Gay, editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard;[4] he would have been 19 when the street was christened in 1833. The mistaken association with an abolitionist is probably because the street's residents were mainly black, many of them servants of the wealthy white families on Washington Square. Later it became noted as an address for black musicians, giving the street a bohemian reputation.[5]
Since it was once too narrow to be a full-fledged street, the City of New York widened it in 1833. As a result,
The street extends from
The 1942 movie
As part of the Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 celebration, which marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, ten ornamental street signs honoring the LGBT community were installed on Gay Street. The signs, carrying labels such as "Lesbian St" and "Bisexual Street", were arranged in the colors of a pride flag.[7] Several 19th-century houses on the west side of Gay Street were demolished starting in 2022.[8]
See also
- Doyers Street, another historically short and crooked street in Manhattan
References
Notes
- ^ "Mistresses and misnomers: the story of Gay Street". The Bowery Boys: New York City History. June 25, 2009.
- ISBN 9780823212750– via Google Books.
- ^ "GAY STREET, NOS. 14-16". Museum of the City of New York (New York City). October 16, 1937, Archived August 16, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ National Anti-Slavery Standard Archived September 5, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "New York Songlines". Home.roadrunner.com. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
- ^ Joyce Gold, From Trout Stream to Bohemia: A Walking Guide to Greenwich Village History (1988:86f); Gold notes that though it is the second shortest street in Greenwich Village, one cannot see its full length because of the angle at the center.
- ^ Bellafante, Ginia (September 27, 2019). "Who Owns Gay Street?". The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
- ^ Green, Penelope (December 22, 2022). "On Gay Street, Another Piece of NYC's History Is Coming Down". The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
Bibliography
- Moscow, Henry (1978). The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan's Street Names and Their Origins. New York: ISBN 978-0-8232-1275-0.
External links
- Media related to Gay Street (Manhattan) at Wikimedia Commons