In the late 19th century, the Tenderloin district—from Madison Square to the West 40s along Broadway—was the city’s boozy, sleazy, party area, kind of like Times Square in the 1970s.
Incredible New York, by Lloyd Morris, describes it this way:
“Here were located the most noted gambling resorts and brothels, the garish saloons, restaurants and dance halls where prostitutes solicited customers, the shady hotels and lodging houses where couples without luggage could hire rooms by the hour or the night.”
But no place in the Tenderloin was as sinful as the Haymarket, here painted by John Sloan in 1907.
“The Haymarket—which combined the attractions of a restaurant, dance hall, and variety show—saw to it that you did not lack feminine companionship,” wrote Morris. “The fun, like the females, was loud and lurid.”
Tags: bad neighborhoods New York, gambling and prostitution in New York City, Incredible New York, John Sloan, John Sloan's Haymarket, Lloyd Morris, New York in 1890, tenderloin district New York, The Haymarket New York City
June 25, 2010 at 4:53 am |
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June 25, 2010 at 11:22 am |
A young boy with a hoop running past and a young girl walking by has me thinking how evil was the area anyway…?
June 25, 2010 at 1:56 pm |
Maybe the neighborhood was on the upswing by 1907, kind of like Times Square 10 years ago. Or reformers’ efforts to clean it up started paying off?
December 29, 2012 at 7:35 am |
[...] other brothels on nearby blocks. This was the city’s post–Civil War neighborhood of vice, called the Tenderloin, a stretch of 23rd to 42nd Streets between Sixth and Eighth [...]