ThoughtGallery.org > Obscura Society NY: From Sunshine to Shadow

Obscura Society NY: From Sunshine to Shadow

“Visitors to New York in the 1840s asked to see two sights first: the mansions of Washington Square and the hovels of the Five Points.” – Broadway Moves Uptown

Around that same time, the wealthiest enclave in New York was Astor Place, home of the Astors, Delanos and Morgans. The Parthenon-like edifice was physically situated on the top of a dome of high ground in the city, where Cooper Union is today. From there, an easy 15-20 minute walk downhill was the Five Points, the city’s most notorious, riotous slum, made famous first by Charles Dickens on his visit in 1842, then by Martin Scorsese in The Gangs of New York.

Contemporaries, Astor Place and the Five Points were the “Sunshine and Shadow” of their day, and in between them, when Fifth Avenue was still farmland, the early city pulsed with shops, theaters, hotels, museums and fine residential homes along today’s Broadway, now Noho and Soho. This tour recreates one of the most-requested walking tours of the 1840s, seeking out what’s left from that early world class city, when women wore the big hoop skirts and we communicated by Morse code. What happened to it, what replaced it, and where it went will be another layer to the tour as we make our way down to discover what remains of the old Five Points neighborhood.

Tickets $25.











When: Sun., Jul. 17, 2016 at 11:00 am - 1:30 pm

“Visitors to New York in the 1840s asked to see two sights first: the mansions of Washington Square and the hovels of the Five Points.” – Broadway Moves Uptown

Around that same time, the wealthiest enclave in New York was Astor Place, home of the Astors, Delanos and Morgans. The Parthenon-like edifice was physically situated on the top of a dome of high ground in the city, where Cooper Union is today. From there, an easy 15-20 minute walk downhill was the Five Points, the city’s most notorious, riotous slum, made famous first by Charles Dickens on his visit in 1842, then by Martin Scorsese in The Gangs of New York.

Contemporaries, Astor Place and the Five Points were the “Sunshine and Shadow” of their day, and in between them, when Fifth Avenue was still farmland, the early city pulsed with shops, theaters, hotels, museums and fine residential homes along today’s Broadway, now Noho and Soho. This tour recreates one of the most-requested walking tours of the 1840s, seeking out what’s left from that early world class city, when women wore the big hoop skirts and we communicated by Morse code. What happened to it, what replaced it, and where it went will be another layer to the tour as we make our way down to discover what remains of the old Five Points neighborhood.

Tickets $25.

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