This mysterious address, chiseled into the corner of a red-brick tenement, doesn’t sound like it’s in Manhattan.
But it is; today we know it as Park Avenue and 128th Street. So what’s with the Fourth Avenue moniker?
Fourth was the original 1811 street grid name for the avenue. In the 1860s, a section of Fourth between 32nd and 42nd Streets was renamed the more pleasant-sounding Park.
By 1888, the city demapped Fourth in favor of Park from 32nd to the Harlem River. In 1959, with Park Avenue’s cache in full swing, Fourth Avenue from 32nd to 17th Streets was renamed Park Avenue South.
Let’s hope that what remains of chopped-up Fourth Avenue, from Union Square to the Bowery, doesn’t also fall victim to the Park Avenue moniker makeover.
More out-of-date Fourth Avenue signage still exists on the street today—like these examples here.
Tags: addresses carved into corners, Fourth Avenue NYC, Harlem history, Harlem Street, New York tenement, old street names New York City, Park Avenue history
October 3, 2011 at 4:15 am |
Cleveland went the opposite way, from actual names to numbers. As in your example, there are still vestiges of the old names. For example, Erie Street was renamed E. 9th Street, but you can still visit the very interesting Erie Street Cemetery.
–Road to Parnassus