Elizabeth Street (Manhattan)

Elizabeth Street is a street in Manhattan, New York City, which runs north-south parallel to and west of the Bowery. The street is a popular shopping strip in Manhattan's Nolita neighborhood.[1]

The "Candle Building" on the corner of Elizabeth and Spring Streets
Street sign at Canal Street. The stretch of Elizabeth Street south of Canal Street is now co-named Pvt. Danny Chen Way.

The southern part of Elizabeth Street was constructed in 1755 and it was extended north to Bleecker Street in 1816.[2]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Elizabeth Street was filled with tenement buildings, largely populated by Italian immigrants making the street part of the once existing Little Italy of lower Manhattan.[3][4] However, by the late 20th century, many Chinese immigrants flooded this street and transforming a large portion of it into becoming part of today's Manhattan's Chinatown south of Kenmare Street while the northern portion has now become overwhelmingly populated by high income young professionals, which that portion is known as Soho and Nolita. [5][6][7]

Notable buildings

Elizabeth Street has several buildings of note, including the New York Chinese School which caters to both Cantonese and Mandarin speakers; the Trust in God Baptist Church; and the New York City Police Department 5th Precinct.

11 Spring Street, a former stable and carriage house at the corner of Elizabeth Street, was built in 1888. It was once a noted magnet for graffiti artists, who covered the exterior of the building with their artwork. When the building was bought for conversion into condominiums, the developers, in collaboration with the Wooster Collective, mounted a show inside the building, inviting well-known graffitists – many of whom had work on the outside – to cover the entire five floors of the building's interior. The show opened in December 2006 for a few days, before work on the conversion began and the artwork was covered over or destroyed. Prior to its days as a canvas for graffiti, the stable had been the home of IBM employee John Simpson for 30 years. Simpson had filled it with Rube Goldberg-like mechanisms, and put burnt candles, surplus from the 1964 New York World's Fair, in the windows, giving the building its nickname at the time, the "Candle Building".[8][9]

Manhattan's Chinatown Notable Business Staples

Chinatown's Largest Cantonese Dim Sum Restaurant

On Elizabeth Street right in the area of NYPD's 5th Precinct, there is a very long time famous restaurant staple as well as it has been the largest restaurant in all of Manhattan's Chinatown named Jing Fong located at 20 Elizabeth Street selling various Cantonese dim sum dishes and often very popularly and attractively used for banquets, cultural events, and parties. In addition to serving Chinese customers, it has also attracted many non-Asian customers. [10] [11] However, in the beginning of the year 2020, the Covid-19 concerns caused the restaurant to suffer financially as many consumers became discouraged from coming to the restaurants in Manhattan's Chinatown due to bias stereotypical fears on the possibility of the Chinese people in the neighborhood may have visited China and returned back into the country with the virus as the Covid-19 epidemic had originally started in China back in late 2019 before eventually becoming a global pandemic starting in March 2020. The restaurant decided to close and halt business just before the Covid-19 pandemic spread abruptly and overwhelmingly came into New York City as well as just before New York State's government officially ordered all restaurants in New York State to ban all indoor dining services during the Covid-19 pandemic emergency. [12] In July 2020 during the ongoing pandemic, the restaurant had reopened for takeout and delivery and now for outdoor during the summer of 2020 dining under the New York State's official phase by phase reopening approval.

Elizabeth Center

Also right next to the NYPD 5th Precinct, there is also a small Cantonese shopping center called Elizabeth Center at 13 Elizabeth Street with many different Cantonese owned storefronts, though sometimes there are a few other mainland Chinese opening storefronts here as well. It often attracts many Chinese youngsters as well as tourists and visitors. However, because of the increasing property values and rent prices due to the neighborhood gentrification since the 2000s, it is becoming more difficult for shop owners to run businesses, which has led to some storefronts to now be empty. [13][14][15][16]

Cantonese Food Markets

Elizabeth Street is also home to three Chinese Cantonese food markets selling many varieties of food products, which each of them have their own unique styles and products. Hong Kong Supermarket is the largest Chinese Cantonese supermarket in the whole Chinatown neighborhood containing two floors, though the official entrance is on Hester Street, however their space also stretches to the corner of Elizabeth Street and like any regular large supermarkets, they sell many varieties of dried food products, refrigerated items, fresh seafood and meat, vegetables and fruits are also available, kitchen supplies, and etc. Deluxe Food Market is a long, but narrow width food market stretching from their official entrance on Elizabeth Street going towards their alternate back entrance at Mott Street also sells many varieties of food products almost like Hong Kong Supermarket, though the space is much smaller and it is more a meat and seafood market based business, however dried food items and refrigerated items are available in limited quantities, but Deluxe Food Market has a bakery stand selling pastries and drinks and a stand selling cooked food and meals that Hong Kong Supermarket lacks. Deluxe Food Market in some aspects similarly resembles a Wet market, even though it is actually just a regular small supermarket. Po Wing Hong Market is also available on this street, which is more of a regular grocery store selling only dried food products and refrigerated items, however it has a large stand of selling traditional Chinese herbal medicinal products.[17][18]

In literature

In 2009, Laurie Fabiano published the novel Elizabeth Street, which presented a fictionalized account of a 1909 kidnapping in the Little Italy neighborhood.[19]

gollark: I feel like planning stuff beyond about a decade out is apioformic.
gollark: music, yes, from youtube.
gollark: very good.
gollark: Oh, idea, I should name all my homework tasks stuff like "Project UNCONSCIONABLE DUCKS".
gollark: You should extensionate them `.æ™`, for distinguishability.

References

Notes

  1. Silverman, John (2008). Frommer's Portable New York City 2009. John Wiley & Sons. p. 164. ISBN 9780470289686.
  2. Presa, Donald G. (24 June 2003). NoHo East Historic District Designation Report (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  3. Homberger, Eric (2004). Mrs Astor's New York: Money And Social Power In A Gilded Age. Yale University Press. pp. 29–30. ISBN 9780300105155.
  4. Dickie, John (2004). Cosa Nostra: A History Of The Sicilian Mafia. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 163–164. ISBN 9781403966964.
  5. https://forgotten-ny.com/2013/09/elizabeth-street-chinatown%E2%80%93soho/
  6. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/fashion/30CRITIC.html
  7. http://www.nychinatown.org/storefronts/elizabeth.html
  8. Kennedy, Randy. [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/arts/design/14graf.html?_r=0 "Last Hurrah for Street Art, as Canvas Goes Condo" The New York Times (December 14, 2006)
  9. "Spring Street" on New YUork City Songlines
  10. https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/lobel17/2017/05/16/the-jing-fong-restaurant/
  11. http://jingfongny.com/
  12. https://ny.eater.com/2020/7/1/21308235/jing-fong-nyc-dim-sum-reopens-delivery-coronavirus
  13. http://www.christinaofchinatown.com/blog/shopping/elizabeth-center-ec-for-short
  14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmhmYxX3cLY
  15. https://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/brooks10/shopping/index.html
  16. https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/pawprint/?p=1688
  17. https://www.timeout.com/newyork/shopping/deluxe-food-market
  18. https://nyulocal.com/shop-right-in-chinatown-at-hong-kong-supermarket-3d8171800d46
  19. Roberts, Sam (9 July 2009). "When Albany Got Things Done". New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2012.



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