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GROW YOUR OWN APPLE TOURS |
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So maybe you don't have time or patience for the grand old tours. We are not insulted! Here are a couple of great options that focus on specific neighborhoods and periods of New York City history. |
Five Points: Gangs of New York Tour |
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The Five Points was one of New York Cities worst 19th Century slums. It was mostly comprised of the Irish although African Americans and Jews also lived in the Five Points area. In the 1840's thousands of Irish immigrants fled their homeland to escape the potato blight that decimated potato crops throughout Ireland. For the poor in Ireland potatoes were their major source of nutrition and for farmers their income. Little did many of them know when boarding ships to New York City that the future that awaited them was not the paradise they expected.
The Five Points was built upon the site of an old pond the Dutch called the Collect. By 1811 the Collect Pond was polluted from local tanners and slaughterhouses in the area and it became a neighborhood health hazard. It was drained, and so poorly land filled that the houses built upon it began to sink, tilt, and the dampness of the area was a breeding ground for disease. Because no one wanted to live there, the rent came fairly cheap, and only the poorest of New York's citizens would reside there. This was the beginning of what would become one of New York's worst gang and vice ridden neighborhoods.
Recently portrayed in Martin Scorsese, "Gangs of New York," the Five Points is one of New York's most fascinating forgotten stories. Even though not much remains of The Five Points, the stories will transport you back in time to a dangerous but oh so colorful time in New York's history. Sites include: Site of Collect Pond, The Old Brewery, Paradise Square, The Bowery Boy's Headquarters, Tom Fatty Walsh's home, The Tweed Courthouse, The Mulberry Bend, Church of the Transfiguration, City Hall Park, and more. |
