The intersection known as The Five Points was the heart of mid-nineteenth century New York’s worst neighborhood, the Sixth Ward. At the confluence of Mulberry, Cross, Orange, Baxter and Little Water Streets, sat a squalid tenement known as the Old Brewery. Gangs, including the real Whyo gang, held sway over the area, which was built on top of the old Collect Pond, which had been polluted to the point of toxicity in the prior century and filled in. The landfill was inadequate, however, and, by the early nineteenth century, the area was damp, swampy and plagued with mosquitoes. The ground water was tainted. The unhealthful condition of the area gave rise to cheap rents, the influx of the urban poor, and high crime rates.
The Old Brewery was demolished in slum-clearance efforts in 1852,
but the neighborhood remained troubled until the intersection of the Five Points was destroyed by relaying the streets (Little Water Street no longer exists). |
Children at the Five Points House of Industry mission
on Worth Street. Photograph by Jacob Riis. |