The Germans had Kleindeutschland in the East Village. The Chinese had Mott Street. Eastern European Jews settled on the Lower East Side.
And from the 1870s to 1890s, approximately 20,000 French immigrants lived and worked in today’s Soho, roughly between Washington Square South and Grand Street and West Broadway and Greene Street.
Bakeries, butchers, cafes, shops, and “innumerable basement restaurants, where dinner, vin compris, may be had for the veriest trifle” occupied the short buildings and tenements of this expat enclave.
An 1879 article in Scribner’s Monthly took readers on a wildly descriptive sojourn through the Quartier Francais, as the writer calls it.
It’s not always so flattering. “The Commune has its emissaries and exiles here. There are swarthy faces which have gladdened in mad grimace over the flames of the Hotel de Ville and become the hue of copper bronze under the sun of New Caledonia.”
The writer of the article walked readers past tenements, with young girls fabricating fake flowers inside, to cafes where patrons drink absinthe.
A shop run by an old woman features this sign: “sabots et galoches chaussons de Strasbourg.” A restaurant called the Grand Vatel (right) “has some queer patrons.”
On Greene Street is the Tavene Alsacienne (left), with its “impoverished bar” and worn billiards table, and groups of coatless men absorbed in their games.
Table d’Hote restaurants abound. “In the French Quarter in the vicinity of Bleecker Street, and elsewhere downtown, are several unique and low-priced establishments of this character,” according to King’s Handbook of New York, published in 1892.
Like so many ethnic neighborhoods, this French Quarter didn’t last. By the turn of the century, the city’s small French colony relocated to West Chelsea.
“Twenty-sixth Street west of Sixth Avenue begins to take on the air of the old French Quarter,” reported The Sun in 1894.
“It has several French restaurants, three or four French shoemakers . . . a French grocer or two, and several French bushelling tailors.”
[Top image: NYPL Buttolph Collection of menus; sketches from Scribner’s Monthly, November 1879]
Tags: Bleecker Street French Quarter, French Colony New York, French immigration NYC, French in New York City, French Quarter New York, Soho French Quarter
Ephemeral New York 
November 16, 2015 at 12:55 pm |
Winded it’s way?!
November 16, 2015 at 6:36 pm |
Hmm, that does sound weird. I fixed.
November 16, 2015 at 2:23 pm |
I was pleased to see that your piece accurately points out that by the turn of the century the French Quarter had largely relocated to North East Chelsea. I would point out that the first manifestation of this trend was the Louis inspired cast iron trellis balconies of what is now known as “The Chelsea Hotel,” on 23rd St. that was originally one of New York’s earliest experiments in cooperative living. That coop was bankrupted by the economic disruption of the ‘Sugar Panic’ of 1893. The other major manifestation was the St. Vincent de Paul Church built from 1844-69 on 23rd Street, as the only French speaking liturgical institution in the City. Sadly, the church closed its doors in 2003, and unless the current luxury bubble bursts, will likely be replaced by a tower at a ridiculous price per square oligarch.
Another vestige, much overlooked, is the neighborhood liquor store, “Philippe Wine & Liquor” that was owned by a druggist of that name who was French and speculated in some local real estate enterprises. Across the street from it at that time, was the Jay Gould and Jim Fisk owned Grand Opera – their nose thumb to the 100 and the Met.
February 6, 2021 at 11:28 pm |
wait, you’re saying there’s a direct connection to the french presence in the area? how old is this place? there’s no historic info on their website.
November 16, 2015 at 6:38 pm |
Thank you, and I’m so glad you mentioned St. Vincent de Paul Church. I was sad to see it close. We’re losing many churches that for decades offered services in a language other than English or Spanish.
November 17, 2015 at 12:31 am |
Reblogged this on wack60585.
November 17, 2015 at 7:29 pm |
I should have mentioned that while Jay Gould and Jim Fisk owned the Grand Opera, they did not build it. Fisk bought it to please his mistress, a showgirl.
It was originally built by Samuel M. Pike, a successful wine-importer and immigrant from Germany who came to New York City via Cincinnati.
Another sidebar- Philippe’s Wine and Liquor and the adjacent Petland were the location of Philippe’s “London Pharmacy” which was likely named after the recently built London Terrace. It was the location where “Mad Dog Coll” formerly of Dutch Schultz’s gang was gunned down while occupying a phone booth at the pharmacy on February 8, 1932.
It was no accident that with the lifting of prohibition in 1933 the property went into the licensed liquor business. Many pharmacies thrived during the Volstead epoch on prescription alcohol.
Vincent Coll had made a series of bad decisions probably starting with the kidnapping of Owney Madden’s business partner, Big Frenchy La Mange, but reaching its apogee with the accidental slaying of a little boy innocent bystander in a much publicized trial of the day that won him the tabloid moniker of “Mad Dog.”
The D.A. used a witness to nail down its case in the Coll trial who fell prey to Coll’s defense lawyer, the formidable Sam Leibowitz (who also defended Capone, and the Scottsboro Boys among others). To the shock and dismay of all, except Coll and his fiance, Leibowitz won Coll’s acquittal. The tommy gun shooting of Cole at the London Pharmacy was viewed as street justice by the tabloids. Coll was staying at the Cornish Arms across the street. The Grand Opera burned in a (suspicious) five alarm fire in 1960 that rounded the corner to the Cornish Arms and was so hot that it cracked the windows facing it on the south side of 23rd Street. Today this spot is taken by 315 W. 23rd Street, The Broadmoor. The remnants of the Green Room of the old Pike’s Grand Opera House are to be found in that building’s basement.
March 24, 2017 at 3:49 pm |
Hi John – what is your source for the info about the Opera House’s green room being located in the basement of the Broadmoor? (with remnants still in existence)
November 20, 2015 at 2:01 pm |
[…] you know that there also used to be a “Little France” in Soho? According to a recent post by Ephemeral New York, from the 1870s until the 1890s, Soho, specifically in the area between Washington Square South and […]
January 15, 2021 at 6:23 pm |
I would love to see a follow-up article on all the myriad of French theaters and entertainment that dotted the area climaxing on Fourteeth Street, which shared it’s locations with Irish, Italian, German, Yiddish, and other forms of entertainment! Thanks.
March 18, 2021 at 3:46 pm |
[…] From the 1870s to the 1890s, approximately 20,000 French immigrants lived and worked in this area, according to the blog Ephemeral New York. “Bakeries, butchers, cafés, shops, and ‘innumerable basement restaurants,’ occupied the short… […]
July 7, 2021 at 5:04 pm |
[…] the European country. There was a historical “little France” or “quartier Francais” in SoHo from the 1870s to 1890s (though a bit west of the area today), and on Centre St. there was once a hill (“Bayard […]
November 20, 2023 at 1:50 am |
[…] For a century and a quarter, the congregation continued (above, in 1940), though it wasn’t as robust as it was in the early 20th century. At that time, Chelsea from 23rd Street to 30th Street was something of a French Quarter, anchored by the French Hospital, the Jeanne D’Arc residence, and the Church of St. Vincent de Paul. In the late 19th century, the French section of Manhattan centered around today’s Soho. […]