Prince Street in the 1850s was located in the heart of what is now referred to as the SoHo district of New York City, just south of New York University. Running east to west for approximately 12 city blocks between the Bowery and McDougal Street, Prince Street sat comfortably across both the 8th and 14th Wards.
Below: Prince Street runs the entire width of the 8th and 14th Wards, as seen in this 1842 Ward Map of the City of New York.
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. “A Map of the city of New York shewing the proposed alteration of the boundaries of the several wards as reported by the Committee on Laws.” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 1, 2015. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-f10c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
By analyzing the Fire Insurance Maps from the period, one can deduce that the majority of structures on Prince Street in the 1850s consisted of residential and mixed residential dwellings constructed of wood. These mixed structures were most often a small storefront at ground level with apartments on the upper floors. Looking at the first image (Fire Insurance Map Plate 24), one can quickly see that this section of Prince Street was dominated by the central location (both physically and culturally) of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Completed in 1815, the church and its surrounding grounds claimed an entire block of Prince Street between Mulberry and Mott Streets. Located on this very block and crucial to this study, is Hibernian Hall at 42 Prince St, which was the veritable command center for much of the area’s Irish political and militant organization.
Below: Fire Insurance Plate Map #24, depicting lower half of Prince Street between the Bowery and Crosby Street.
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. “[Plate 24: Map bounded by Houston Street, Bowery, Broome Street, Crosby Street.]” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 18, 2015. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-bf4d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. (1857 – 1862). [Plate 21: Map bounded by Houston Street, Crosby Street, Broome Street, Broadway, Spring street, Sullivan Street.] Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-bf4a-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
[1] Table 14 in Robert Ernst, Immigrant Life in New York City (NY: Syracuse University Press, 1994), p. 193
You can t imagine how different Mercer Street was in 1965. No businesses existed, save for Fanelli s, which was a local bar for drunks, and a bodega on Prince Street.