B.P.O.E. Lodge 944
Ashland Oregon

"The Most Notorious Thoroughfare"

contemporary image of prostitutes & clients

"All visitors to New York wanted to see Greene Street by night, for it was the most notorious thoroughfare in the United States. Two blocks west of Broadway, extending from Canal Street northward to Clinton place, later Eighth Street, by daylight it had the look of a decaying residential quarter lined with red-brick, low-stooped houses now grown shabby--a quiet, deserted street. Greene Street only came alive after dark. Along its whole length, on both sides, nearly every house was a brothel. Over the front doors, gas lamps blazed in bowls of tinted glass, usually red but of other colors also. On these lamps the names of the proprietor, or of the establishment, were etched in white: 'Flora,' 'Lizzie,' 'The Gem,' 'The Forget-Me-Not,' "Sinbad the Sailor,' 'The Black Crook.'

The houses at the lower end of Greene Street, near Canal, catered to the crews of ships docked along the Hudson River. At that end of the street, also, were the celebrated 'ball-rooms.' These were large, low-ceilinged halls, with a platform at one end for the musicians and opposite this a long bar. ...As you went northward along Greene Street, the quality of the brothels improved and their charges mounted. There were establishments catering to clerks and small tradesmen; up near Clinton Place were the houses for the more prosperous members of the middle class. All along Greene Street the shutters were tightly closed, but here or there you could see a light peeping through from a parlor or upper room. Every house had its pianist, who entertained in the parlor where liquor was sold, and the whole street echoed with the popular music of the day."
(Morris, 46)

Back to the Corks' Environs

Last updated on 3/29/03