Roosevelt Street

Coordinates: 40°42′29″N 73°59′56″W / 40.708°N 73.999°W

The Roosevelt Family owned real estate on Roosevelt Street (map c.1833)

Roosevelt Street, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, was a street which existed from the colonial period to the early 1950s, running from Pearl Street at Park Row southeast to South Street.^[1] It ran parallel to James Street.^[2] The western end of Roosevelt Street is now used by a rerouted Pearl Street, which is currently closed to most vehicular traffic.

The street is historically significant as the place where the New York City draft riots, a violent protest against conscription for the American Civil War, began.^[3]

The Roosevelt Street Ferry was displaced by the construction of the New York (north) tower of the Brooklyn Bridge and the street itself was eliminated by the construction of the Alfred E. Smith Houses, a public housing project.

The street was named after a Roosevelt who owned property in the area from the time of Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. It was not named after either president of the United States with that name, Teddy Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt.^[1]

References

1. "The Street Necrology of Lower Manhattan".
2. ""Story of the Brooklyn Bridge"".
3. "Reign of the Rabble".