An In-Depth History of One Block of Greene Street in SoHo, NYC

August 6, 2015 6:09 AM

The entirety of Greene Street in SoHo is pretty short, as New York City streets go -- just five blocks long. Walk along it today between Houston and Prince Streets and you’ll pass an Apple Store, a Ralph Lauren store, and a variety of other high-end retailers. A hundred and forty years ago, you’d be walking by brothels. A new website, The Greene Street Project: A Long History of a Short Block, covers more than four hundred years of that one block section -- just 486 feet long -- illustrated with photographs, maps, newspaper clippings, survey data, and charts.

More
* City Lab: The Economics Lessons in a Single New York City Block: How Greene Street went from a red-light district to hosting some of the highest property values in the world.
* Wired: From Brothels to Luxury, Mapping 400 Years on One NYC Block
* Greene Street is also home to New York City's most unusual subway map.

posted by zarq (4 comments total)

Reminds me of the BBC doc series The Secret History of our Streets
posted by clorox at 6:44 AM on August 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love this kind of thing; I wish they'd do it for every street in every major city in the world!
posted by languagehat at 7:57 AM on August 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

You can order a 1940's era photo of just about every building in NYC here. I have one for my home in Tribeca, and it's full of little period details. The exposures were pretty long, so a woman walking by is just a smear with a single crisply-imaged very high heeled shoe firmly planted on the sidewalk.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:07 AM on August 6, 2015 [5 favorites]

/obligatory rant about how Manhattan is nothing but a rich playground now
posted by Melismata at 8:33 AM on August 6, 2015 [1 favorite]