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After living in the Five Points area for many years, in 1847 James McCune Smith moved to North Moore Street in St. John's Park. This neighborhood had once been home to the city's white elite before their move farther north above Bleecker Street. Read More

Close to the East River, Catharine Market began as an informal trading place until it was licensed and a building erected in 1800. The market sold fish, vegetables, and many others kinds of products. It was a place that brought together sailors… Read More

Thomas Downing's oyster house was located on Broad Street a few blocks west of this intersection heading towards Broadway. Read More

In addition to the Five Points, black New Yorkers settled in and around Greenwich Street from the 1820s on. Much like the Five Points, the area was overcrowded and highly unsanitary. In the 1850s, Peter Guignon could be found on Greenwich Street… Read More

Frankfort Street ended at Chatham Street, a couple of blocks west of Philip White's drugstore, so Philip would have been quite familiar with this street.

In the 1850s, southerner William Bobo visited the city and remarked that although Chatham… Read More