The Tombs of Paradise
The story of the Five Points Neighborhood in New York City.
Today Foley Square in lower Manhattan is home to criminal courts, government offices and a prison. Lawyers share the streets with hardened criminals being shuffled to courtrooms and prison cells. The detention center is still called, the Tombs by local law enforcement, a sign that history and legends outlive their physical manifestations. Long before the prison, there was Paradise Square, a small triangular park surrounded by the remnants of colonial New York. Locals referred to this notorious intersection as ‘The Five Points’. It has become known more recently as the setting for Martin Scorsese's, 'Gangs of New York' and the BBC's mini-series, ‘Copper’. But before all of this, there was a pond.
The Five Points was originally a spring-fed, fresh water source known as the Collect Pond. It shows up on a British map of Manhattan around the time of the American Revolution. The Collect Pond was a bucolic scene and a key source of drinking water in colonial-era New York. As lower Manhattan grew, breweries and tanneries set up shop near the pond. Coulter’s Brewery would eventually become known as ‘The Old Brewery’, perhaps the Five Point’s most infamous tenement. The breweries and tanneries no doubt benefited greatly from their proximity to fresh water but it was not a mutually beneficial relationship. The pond became heavily polluted and the city made plans to fill it in. The Canal that once ran along today’s Canal Street was built, in part, to drain the Collect and the surrounding marsh. In the early 1800's, the City back-filled the pond with garbage and debris and buildings went up in its place. Poorly filled and fed by an underground spring, the ground remained soggy and mosquito infested. More tenements were built and began to settle and lean almost as soon as they went up. Little Water Street which had once been the footpath to Cow Bay was now a dangerous, crime-infested alley. A building at the end of the street was called ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ because of it’s rotting, broken and misaligned front steps.
Eventually only the poorest of the poor lived in the area including freed black slaves and immigrants arriving from Europe. The Potato Famine hit Ireland in the 1840s prompting a huge exodus. Some of the Irish ended up in the Five Points. As many as a thousand may have lived in “The Old Brewery” which had been broken up into tiny, one-room “dwellings”.
With so many scrambling to scratch out an existence, crime was a big problem. The area was home to numerous gangs including the “Dead Rabbits” featured in Scorsese’s movie. Alleys like Bandit’s Roost and Bottle Alley became gang hangouts. In 1838, the prison nicknamed the ‘Tombs’ was built in the Egyptian Revival style in the hopes its ominous appearance would be a deterrent against crime. Some local gang members ended up there. Ironically, the prison was built over the site of the Collect Pond and suffered the same fate as the surrounding tenements. It sank into the soggy ground eventually forcing the city to tear it down. The Tombs was twice replaced by newer buildings but for some, it will always be known as the Tombs.
It is in the nature of cities to reinvent themselves. If the pristine water of the Collect Pond had not become polluted, there would not have been the cheap land to build on. If the ground had been stable, it might not have become a crime infested slum. If crime wasn’t such a problem, perhaps the Tombs and courtrooms would not have been built. No Pond, no Paradise, no Tombs. Despite its seedy history, some good did come out of The Five Points. There were a number of dance halls including one named Almack’s. Irish and African Americans frequented the hall and began mixing dance traditions. What we now know as tap dance is believed to have emerged from this early creative mashup.
