Where Tudor City is now, overlooking the bluffs of the East River, was once a squalid, lawless neighborhood called Dutch Hill.
That was the home base for Corcoran’s Roost—the headquarters of a fierce gang of thieves led in the mid-1800s by Irish immigrant and notorious thug Jimmy Corcoran.
That wasn’t the only roost in 19th century New York. Another was Bandit’s Roost, a grubby alley at 591/2 Mulberry Street.
Journalist and social reformer Jacob Riis took this photo of a group of men hanging out in Bandit’s Roost. They’re a menacing-looking lot.
Bandit’s Roost must have been bad. Responding to a 1911 article about a notorious Paris slum, a New York Times letter writer states, “The nearest approach in this city to that foul quarter in Paris was the Bandit’s Roost, near the Five Points, and that was wiped out nearly 20 years ago.”
Tags: Bandit's Roost, Corcoran's Roost, Dutch Hill, Five Points slums, gangs in 19th century New York City, Jimmy Corcoran, notorious slums of New York City, Tudor City
Ephemeral New York 
October 2, 2010 at 1:34 pm |
Martin Scorsese staged this photo in one of the scenes of his “Gangs of New York”. Gotta look fast.
December 15, 2011 at 5:17 am |
[…] other Baxter Street alleys, such as Bandit’s Roost and Bottle Alley, the thoroughfare was more accurately a small, unkempt courtyard behind the […]
October 20, 2013 at 1:22 pm |
mygreatgrandftherwaskingcorcoran
September 9, 2017 at 6:51 pm |
He’s my great great great grandfather too!
May 25, 2015 at 2:00 am |
[…] New York’s slums had some illustrious names: Murderers’ Alley, Bandits’ Roost, and the Dead End (an Irish district off First Avenue overlooking the East […]
January 10, 2019 at 4:22 pm |
[…] the goats and squatters in the area. By the late nineteenth century, this area was called “Corcoran’s Roost” or “Dutch Hill.” Corcoran’s Roost was a center for thievery and general […]