The Old Brewery was the name given to Coulthard's Brewery (built in 1792, in lower central Manhattan, on land that was then on the outskirts of New York City) after which it was consolidated within the city limits as the neighborhood of the Five Points becoming a tenement rookery following the economic depression of the Panic of 1837.
The brewery was built by Isaac Coulthard in 1792 [1] southeast of a body of freshwater known as the Collect Pond. The brewery was subsequently involved in a legal case which went to the U.S. Supreme Court in Dewhurst v. Coulthard ; the court refused to hear the case, stating that it had not advanced to that level under the normal process of law, establishing firmly the precedent that the court would hear only such cases (3 U.S. 409).
After a century of being gradually polluted by industries located on its shores, the Collect Pond was filled in, the project being completed around 1811–1812.
Afterwards, existing streets were extended and new streets laid out on the reclaimed land. Immediately in front of the brewery passed Cross Street in a northeast to southwest direction. Orange Street intersected Cross just north of the brewery. From this intersection, Anthony Street originated and ran northwest, creating a plot of land which ended in a point. This became the infamous Five Points intersection. To the west of this point ran a short street named Little Water Street, which created a triangular plot known as Paradise Park (also known as Paradise Square); the Brewery was across the street from Paradise Park on the south side of Cross Street.
Isaac Coulthard died in 1812 and his son William (also a brewer) died in 1822. [2] Afterward, others ran the brewery, including Joseph Barnes in 1827. [3]
After the financial crisis known as the Panic of 1837, Coulthard's Brewery was converted into residential use and became known as "The Old Brewery". Five Points became a slum within a decade after the filling-in of the Collect Pond, and the Old Brewery became a lawless, overcrowded, filthy and disease-ridden building.
The common descriptions are that around the building extended an alley three feet wide, which led to a room called the "Den of Thieves". Seventy-five men, women and children, black and white, made their homes there without furniture or other amenities. Many women were prostitutes and conducted their business there. On the opposite side the passageway was known as Murderers Alley and was all that the name implied. The cellars of the Old Brewery were divided into twenty rooms which had previously been used for storage of machinery and there were about seventy-five other chambers above ground. During its greatest period the building housed over 1,000 men, women and children. According to historian Herbert Asbury, demolition crews found human bones in the cellars and within the walls. [4]
The Old Brewery was purchased in 1852 by the Methodist Ladies of the Mission; it was demolished in December 1852 and a new building called the New Mission House at the Five Points was erected. Over forty years later, this mission house would itself be replaced by a newer, even bigger one. [5] [6]
The Old Brewery is depicted in the Martin Scorsese 2002 film Gangs of New York as the Five Points Christian Mission, tenement building, and pauper playhouse. The 2012 video game Assassin's Creed III has the "Boston Brawlers Tournament" in Boston, Massachusetts, within an old brewery modeled after the former Five Points building.
Five Points was a 19th-century neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The neighborhood, partly built on low lying land that had filled in the freshwater lake known as the Collect Pond, was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row to the south. The Five Points gained international notoriety as a densely populated, disease-ridden, crime-infested slum that existed for over 70 years.
Collect Pond, or Fresh Water Pond, was a body of fresh water in what is now Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, New York City. For the first two centuries of European settlement in Manhattan, it was the main New York City water supply system for the growing city. The location of the former pond later became the site of a jail, and is now memorialized by Collect Pond Park, which includes a reflecting pool to acknowledge the historic importance of this body of water.
Canal Street is a major east–west street of over 1 mile (1.6 km) in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States, running from East Broadway between Essex and Jefferson Streets in the east, to West Street between Watts and Spring Streets in the west. It runs through the neighborhood of Chinatown, and forms the southern boundaries of SoHo and Little Italy as well as the northern boundary of Tribeca. The street acts as a major connector between Jersey City, New Jersey, via the Holland Tunnel (I-78), and Brooklyn in New York City via the Manhattan Bridge. It is a two-way street for most of its length, with two unidirectional stretches between Forsyth Street and the Manhattan Bridge.
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Mulberry Street is a principal thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. It is historically associated with Italian-American culture and history, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the heart of Manhattan's Little Italy.
The history of New York City (1784–1854) started with the creation of the city as the capital of the United States under the Congress of the Confederation from January 11, 1785, to Autumn 1788, and then under the United States Constitution from its ratification in 1789 until moving to Philadelphia in 1790. The city grew as an economic center with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825; the growth of its railroads added to its dominance. Tammany Hall began to grow in influence with the support of many Irish immigrants, culminating in the election of the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1854. The city had become the nation's most important port and financial center and competed with Boston as the center of high culture.
The Five Points Gang was a criminal street gang of primarily Irish-American origins, based in the Five Points of Lower Manhattan, New York City, during the late 19th and early 20th century.
Centre Street is a north–south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, running through the Civic Center, Chinatown (曼哈頓華埠), and Little Italy neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan. It connects Park Row to the south with Spring Street to the north, where it merges with Lafayette Street. Centre Street carries northbound traffic north of Reade Street and two-way traffic between Reade Street and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Worth Street is a two-way street running roughly northwest-southeast in Manhattan, New York City. It runs from Hudson Street, TriBeCa, in the west to Chatham Square in Chinatown in the east. Past Chatham Square, the roadway continues as Oliver Street, a north-south street running one-way northbound. Between West Broadway and Church Street, Worth Street is also known as Justice John M. Harlan Way in honor of the Supreme Court justice and alumnus of the nearby New York Law School. Between Centre and Baxter Streets, Worth Street is also known as the "Avenue of the Strongest", "New York's Strongest" being a nickname for the city's Department of Sanitation.
The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, London, on 17 October 1814. It took place when one of the 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vats of fermenting porter burst. The escaping liquid dislodged the valve of another vessel and destroyed several large barrels: between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons of beer were released in total.
The Baxter Street Dudes was a New York City teenage street gang, consisting of former newsboys and bootblacks, who ran the Grand Duke's Theatre from the basement of a dive bar on Baxter Street in Manhattan during the 1870s. Led by founder Baby-Face Willie, gang members operated the Grand Duke's Theatre and established the venue as their headquarters. Members of the Baxter Street Dudes wrote and performed plays, musicals and variety shows which were enjoyed by other street toughs and slummers throughout the city. The theater house eventually became a popular underworld hangout, from which the gang found financial success.
The Dead Rabbits riot was a two-day civil disturbance in New York City evolving from what was originally a small-scale street fight between members of the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys into a citywide gang war, which occurred July 4–5, 1857. Taking advantage of the disorganized state of the city's police force—brought about by the conflict between the Municipal and Metropolitan police—the fighting spiraled into widespread looting and damage of property by gangsters and other criminals from all parts of the city. It is estimated that between 800 and 1,000 gang members took part in the riots, along with several hundred others who used the disturbance to loot the Bowery area. It was the largest disturbance since the Astor Place Riot in 1849 and the biggest scene of gang violence until the New York Draft Riots of 1863. Order was restored by the New York State Militia, supported by detachments of city police, under Major-General Charles W. Sandford.
Jack Mahaney (1844-?) was an American criminal, sneak thief, confidence man and gang leader in New York City during the late-19th century. He was also one of the most notorious prisoner escapees of his time, popularly referred to as the "American Jack Sheppard", successfully escaping from virtually every major prison in the eastern United States including The Tombs and Sing Sing. Mahaney also escaped from custody which included well-publicized incidents where he jumped from a train without injury.
Reverend Louis or Lewis Morris Pease was an American Methodist clergyman, educator and prominent reformer during the mid-to late 19th century. He founded the Five Points Mission and later the Five Points House of Industry, established in New York City's infamous Five Points district, which provided religious teaching and work for the area's predominantly working-class Irish Catholics.
Mulberry Bend was an area surrounding a curve on Mulberry Street, in the Five Points neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is located in what is now Chinatown in Manhattan.
Minetta Creek was one of the largest natural watercourses in Manhattan, New York City, United States. Minetta Creek was fed from two tributaries, one originating at Fifth Avenue and 21st Street, and the other originating at Sixth Avenue and 16th Street. They joined near Fifth Avenue and 11th Street then took a southwesterly course. Minetta Creek's name is thought to have originated from either the Native American term "Manette", meaning "Devil's Water", or the Dutch word "Minnetje", meaning "the little one".
Baxter Street is a narrow thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the borough of Manhattan in New York City in the United States in North America. It lies between Mulberry Street and Centre Street. It runs through Little Italy and the edge of Chinatown. Today, it runs one-way southbound from Grand Street to Hogan Place, and one-way northbound for its southernmost block from Worth Street to Hogan Place.
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