History Tenderloin, Manhattan

the rev. thomas de witt talmage called new york city modern gomorrah allowing tenderloin exist.

early in 19th century, major vice district had been located in soho, called @ time hells hundred acres , city grew steadily northward, theater district along broadway , bowery moved uptown well, did legitimate , illegitimate businesses connected show business. time, city s rialto centered on union square , 14th street, fifth avenue hotel broke new ground when opened @ 23rd street , fifth avenue in 1859, beginning expansion of union square rialto 23rd street , madison square. 1870s, fifth avenue hotel had many competitors in area, , hotels were, prostitutes followed.

by 1880s, tenderloin encompassed largest number of nightclubs, saloons, bordellos, gambling casinos, dance halls, , clip joints in new york city, extent 1 estimate made in 1885 half of buildings in district connected vice. reformers referred area satan s circus , , 1 anti-vice crusading minister, rev. thomas de witt talmage, denounced entire city of new york modern gomorrah allowing exist.

the clientele of these establishments not working-class: 1 set of 7 sisters ran side-by-side brothels in residential neighborhood on west 25th street, inviting upper class customers engraved invitations. on nights gentlemen in formal evening dress allowed attend, , girls of these houses socially adept sexually; on christmas eve profits given charity.

other well-known venues in tenderloin included koster , bial s music hall @ sixth avenue , 23rd street, concert saloon inebriated customers watch can-can being performed; haymarket, dance hall on sixth below 30th street, rich clients dance prostitutes, not closely, although take them curtained-off galleries have discreet sex, , sex exhibitions on display in balconies; west 29th street, featured uninterrupted row of brothels; , many gambling dens run john daly or madison square club of richard a. canfield on west 26th street.

the cover of sheet music popular 1897 song shows police billy club , uses clubber williams nickname: czar of tenderloin



anthony comstock, anti-vice crusader

the main street of district broadway between 23rd , 42nd streets, known line . in mid-1890s, after advent of electric lighting, stretch of broadway 23rd street 34th street came called great white way because of numerous illuminated advertising signs there. moniker transferred times square when theater district moved uptown.

crime

crime major aspect of tenderloin, considered worst crime-ridden area of thought crime-ridden city of united states. extent, police corruption kept crime under control regularized financial relationship between police , criminals, area large, , pickings easy, street crime managed completely. in 1906, william mcadoo, city s police commissioner in 1904 , 1905, wrote tenderloin [police] precinct, every 1 knows, important precinct in new york, if not in united states, or in world, amount of police business done there , character of neighborhood.

occasionally there organized attempts clean tenderloin, , reformist mayors, such william russell grace , abram s. hewitt authorize raids on saloons , brothels, under protection of clubber williams, effects temporary: prostitutes decamp outlying areas, , return when latest crusade over. net effect of these shake-ups or shake-downs drive cost of protection afterwards, making williams richer – retired millionaire – , putting more money pockets of tammany hall, entwined in graft , corruption connected district.

frustration @ state of affairs led anthony comstock s anti-vice crusade, operated federal authority post office , support of new york chamber of commerce , leading citizens such j. p. morgan. comstock s crusade knew no boundaries – target smut in public libraries sex-for-hire in tenderloin – along rev. talmage, able state legislation passed banning pool halls, though continued operate openly.

aside commercial activities, tenderloin home neighborhood large part of manhattan s african american population, in downtown , western portion of district: seventh avenue within tenderloin, in fact, became known african broadway . neighborhood of blacks middle class aspirations.

race riot

in august 1900, undercover police officer accused black woman of soliciting. woman’s husband intervened , officer struck husband club. husband retaliated penknife, fatally wounding officer. @ officer’s funeral, police , white gangs attacked african-americans, , burned property while other police officers looked on. in defense, black citizens armed , formed citizens’ protective league. appeals justice mayor robert a. van wyck went unanswered, , state , police boards did nothing.

by 1914, middle-class blacks area started moving harlem, had been white.

eventually, processes created tenderloin served dismantle it. once again, theaters , hotels began moving uptown, , brothels , dance halls , on followed after them. 1906, mcadoo noted northern boundary of district had moved 62nd street, , new tenderloin , called it, bounded 42nd street on south. movement, said, rapidly depleting ranks of sporting vicious element in old tenderloin .