Between the courthouses of Foley Square and Chinatown lay Five Points, the neighborhood that the 19th-century press turned into a byword for misery, crime and gangs. Dickens and Lincoln visited it, Jacob Riis photographed it and Scorsese put it on screen. Thirteen stops between the African burial ground rediscovered in 1991, the square named for a Tammany boss, the pond the city swallowed, the Egyptian prison called the Tombs, the corner of the five points, the missions of Paradise Square, the street of the 1857 battle, Mulberry Bend, the alley of the tong wars, Boss Tweed's courthouse, City Hall, Newspaper Row and the bridge that changed the skyline. Approximate audio duration: 23 minutes.
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Five Points: el barrio más temido de la Nueva York del siglo XIX
Entre los tribunales de Foley Square y Chinatown estuvo Five Points, el barrio que la prensa del siglo XIX convirtió en sinónimo de miseria, crimen y bandas. Lo visitaron Dickens y Lincoln, lo fotografió Jacob Riis y Scorsese lo llevó al cine. Trece paradas entre el cementerio africano redescubierto en 1991, la plaza del jefe de Tammany, la laguna que se tragó la ciudad, la prisión egipcia de las Tumbas, la esquina de los cinco puntos, las misiones de Paradise Square, la calle de la batalla de 1857, la curva de Mulberry, el callejón de las guerras de los tong, el tribunal del jefe Tweed, el Ayuntamiento, la calle de los diarios y el puente que cambió el horizonte. Duración aproximada de audio: 23 minutos.
Tour stops
13 stops · ~23 min of audio · 2.44 km on foot (~35 min walking) · about 1 h in total
You are at the corner of Duane Street and Elk Street, facing a memorial of dark stone surrounded by federal offices. It looks like a quiet corner. Beneath your feet lies one of New York's most silenced stories.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, this was outside the city. Here the enslaved and free Africans of New York buried their dead, since they were not allowed to use the church cemeteries. Some fifteen thousand burials are estimated.
Over time the land was filled, divided into lots and built over. The cemetery vanished from the maps and from memory.
In 1991, while digging for a federal bu…
2
The Square Named for a Tammany Boss
You are in Foley Square. Around you rise columns and grand staircases: the hexagonal New York County Courthouse and the Thurgood Marshall federal courthouse with its tower. This is New York's district of justice.
The irony is that many of these buildings went up in the 20th century over what had been the poorest blocks in the city. Justice literally took over the ground of Five Points.
The square's name has its own irony. It was given in 1926 in honor of Thomas Foley, a saloon owner and district leader of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party machine that ran New York for decades.
Tammany live…
3
The Pond the City Swallowed
You are in Collect Pond Park, a modest plaza with a reflecting pool and a wooden walkway. That bit of water is a memory. There was a real pond here, deep and fed by springs.
The Dutch called it Kalck Hoek and the English turned the name into Collect. During the 18th century it was Manhattan's main source of fresh water. New Yorkers skated on it in winter.
In 1796 the inventor John Fitch tested one of the earliest steamboats on this pond. But by then the water was already sick. Tanneries, slaughterhouses and breweries dumped their waste into it.
The city decided to fill it in. By around 1811…
4
The Tombs, an Egyptian Prison on Mud
Look at the large criminal courts building at 100 Centre Street and the detention towers beside it. New Yorkers still call the jail here by a 19th-century nickname: The Tombs.
The name comes from the first prison built on this block in 1838. Its official name was the Halls of Justice and House of Detention. But its columns and walls were inspired by an Egyptian temple, and people soon called it the Tombs.
It was built right on top of the old pond's landfill. Before long the building began to sink and the cells filled with damp. It was one of the unhealthiest jails in the city.
Charles Dicke…
5
The Corner of the Five Points
You are at the junction of Worth Street and Baxter Street, at the southern corner of Columbus Park. Roughly here was the exact spot that gave the neighborhood its name.
In the 19th century three streets met here: Anthony, Orange and Cross. Coming together at angles, they formed five corners, five points. Hence Five Points. Today those streets have other names and the layout has changed.
From the 1820s the press began to paint this place as a den of vice. With the Great Irish Famine in the 1840s, thousands of immigrants arrived and crowded into wooden houses and cellars. They lived alongside …
6
Dickens, Lincoln and the Missions of Paradise Square
You are at the southern edge of the park, on Worth Street. Here lay Paradise Square, the little triangular plaza at the heart of Five Points. The name, paradise, was almost a joke.
In 1842 Charles Dickens arrived, escorted by two policemen. In his book American Notes he described filthy lanes, cellars where whole families slept and pigs roaming loose. He also entered one of the neighborhood's dance halls and was dazzled by a young Black dancer, probably William Henry Lane, known as Master Juba.
Facing the square stood the Old Brewery, a former brewery turned into a tenement. It was said that…
7
Dead Rabbits Versus Bowery Boys
You are on Bayard Street, at the northern edge of Columbus Park. To the east, a few blocks away, runs the Bowery. In the 19th century this street was the border between two worlds that hated each other.
On one side, the gangs of Five Points, mostly Irish and Catholic. On the other, the Bowery Boys, American-born young workingmen, many of them hostile to immigrants. Street fights mixed politics, religion and neighborhood pride.
On 4 and 5 July 1857 the most famous battle broke out. Newspapers called one side the Dead Rabbits. There were barricades, bricks hurled from rooftops and gunfire. At …
8
Mulberry Bend and Jacob Riis's Camera
You are on Mulberry Street, on the eastern side of Columbus Park. Notice how the street makes a slight curve. That curve was Mulberry Bend, and in the late 19th century it was the most infamous block in New York.
By then the Irish had been moving away and the neighborhood had filled with Italian immigrants, mostly from the south. They lived in dark tenements, with back yards crammed with makeshift buildings and dead-end alleys.
Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant working as a police reporter, explored these alleys with a camera and magnesium powder for his flash. He photographed what no one wante…
9
The Bloody Angle of Doyers Street
You are on Doyers Street, a short street that turns abruptly in a tight elbow. Notice how you cannot see one end from the other. That bend has a nickname: the Bloody Angle.
The street is named after Anthony Doyer, an 18th-century distiller who had his business here. In the late 19th century Chinese immigrants settled on these blocks, right next to what had been Five Points. That is how Chinatown was born.
The Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese laborers from entering the country, and there were very few women in the community. In that isolation the tongs grew, associations that offered prot…
10
The Courthouse That Made Boss Tweed Rich
You are facing the white marble building on Chambers Street, behind City Hall. Corinthian columns, a grand staircase, an interior rotunda. This is the old county courthouse, though everyone knows it as the Tweed Courthouse.
William Magear Tweed was the most powerful boss of Tammany Hall. He and his circle ran the city in the 1860s and 1870s. The votes of neighborhoods like Five Points were the base of their power.
Construction began in 1861 on a modest budget. It ended in 1881, with costs exceeding twelve million dollars of the day. For comparison, the United States paid Russia 7.2 million f…
11
City Hall and the War of the Two Police Forces
You are facing New York City Hall, the white domed building in the middle of the park. It was completed in 1812 and is still the mayor's seat. It is one of the oldest city halls in the United States still serving its original purpose.
It was designed by Joseph François Mangin, a French architect, and John McComb. When it was built, this was the northern edge of the city. The back facade was made of cheaper stone, because it was assumed nobody would look at it from that side.
In June 1857 this building saw an incredible scene. The state had created a new Metropolitan Police to strip control f…
12
Park Row, the Street of Newspapers
You are on Park Row, facing the little plaza where a statue of Benjamin Franklin holds a newspaper. This corner was called Printing House Square. Franklin, a printer himself, was the ideal patron.
In the second half of the 19th century, New York's great newspapers clustered along this street. The Times, Horace Greeley's Tribune, the Sun and later Joseph Pulitzer's World. People called it Newspaper Row.
In 1890 Pulitzer opened the New York World Building here, crowned with a gilded dome. For a time it was the tallest building in the city. It was demolished in 1955 to widen the approach to the…
13
The Bridge That Looked Toward Another City
You are at the pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, on the Manhattan side. Ahead of you is the wooden ramp rising toward the granite towers and steel cables.
The bridge opened on 24 May 1883. It was designed by John Augustus Roebling, who died before construction began. His son Washington carried it on, falling ill from working in the chambers beneath the river, and his wife, Emily Warren Roebling, played a key role in directing the work.
Six days after the opening, on 30 May, a rumor spread that the bridge was about to collapse. A stampede broke out on a staircase and twelve people d…
How long does the "Five Points: the Most Feared Neighborhood of 19th-Century New York" audio tour take?
It has about 23 minutes of audio across 13 stops and a 2.44 km walking route (~35 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Cemetery That Reappeared in 1991" (coordinates 40.71457, -74.00428). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open New York and pick "Five Points: the Most Feared Neighborhood of 19th-Century New York". No account required to start.
