Mott Street

A busy scene on upper Mott Street

Mott Street at Chatham Square

Typical American fire escapes on Mott street

Mott Street is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north-south direction in the New York City borough of Manhattan, United States. It is best known as Chinatown's unofficial "Main Street". Mott Street runs from Chatham Square in the south to Bleecker Street in the north.

History

Mott Street existed in its current configuration by the mid-1700s. At that time, Mott Street passed just to the east of the Collect Pond. Like many streets that predated Manhattan's grid, Mott Street meandered around natural features of the landscape rather than running through or over them. It was the need to avoid the now long since paved over Collect Pond that gave Mott Street its characteristic "bend" to the northeast at Pell Street.

Having been previously known as Old Street, as well as Winne Street (also spelled Wynne) for the section between Pell and Bleecker, Mott Street was renamed in the late 1700s to honor the prominent local family of the same name, likely in particular businessman Joseph Mott, a butcher and tavern owner who provided support to the rebel forces in the American Revolution^[1].

During the first half of the 19th Century lower portion of Mott Street was part of the Five Points, a notorious slum neighborhood in New York City. In 1872 Wo Kee, a Chinese merchant opened a general store on Mott Street near Pell Street. In the years to follow, Chinese immigrants would eke out an enclave around the intersection of Mott and Pell. Manhattan's Chinatown has grown into the largest Chinatown in the United States, encompassing a large swath of the Lower East Side. But the historic heart of Chinatown, as well as the primary destination for tourists is still Mott Street between Canal Street and Chatham Square.

Mott Street Today

Today this stretch of Mott Street is lined with souvenir shops, tea houses and restaurants, all catering largely to tourists. In 2003, the 32 Mott Street General Store closed due to the effects of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Chinatown economy. The proximity of the attack along with street closures in lower Manhattan (especially the ongoing closure of Park Row under One Police Plaza) had cut off much business to Chinatown. 32 Mott had been the longest continuously operating store in Chinatown, established in 1891.

Mott Street north of Canal Street was historically part of Little Italy. Today it is predominantly Chinese. This section of Mott Street between roughly Canal and Broome Streets has a number of Chinese owned fish and vegetable markets. The commercial establishments here cater more to the day to day needs of Chinatown residents than tourists.

Mott street is also home to the famous Wo Hop restaurant at 17 Mott Street and 15 Mott Street

Though the boundary is fuzzy, north of about Broome Street, the character of Mott Street changes significantly. Crossing Broome Street you leave Chinatown behind and enter "NoLIta" or "North of Little Italy". Fashionable boutiques and restaurants and cafes cater mostly to high income young people. There are still a few remnants of the old Italian neighborhood, most notably Lombardi's Pizzeria, purportedly the first Pizzeria established in the United States. Also in this area is Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, the first Catholic Cathedral built in New York (consecrated 1815). The high walls surrounding the church along Mott Street attest to the tension between Protestants and Catholics in New York during the 19th Century.

Mott Street terminates at Bleecker Street in Manhattan's NoHo (North of Houston Street) neighborhood.

Mott Street in popular culture

• In a series of short stories by pulp-writer Arthur J. Burks (All Detective Magazine, 1933-34), undercover detective Dorus Noel maintains an apartment near the intersection of Pell and Mott Streets. Burks' Chinatown is riddled with underground passages (which he describes as "rabbit warrens"), and populated by sinister villains and an inexhaustible supply of self-sacrificing Chinese hatchetmen.
• In an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, a BTK-esque killer hid a clue on top of a pay phone on the corners of Mott Street and Grand Street.
• Revy, one of the main characters of the manga/anime Black Lagoon, is implied to have grown up on Mott Street.
• In Garth Ennis' initial run on The Punisher, Frank Castle's apartment is located off of Mott Street.
• In The Godfather Part II' the Genco Olive Oil company was located on Mott Street.
• Mott Street is in the lyrics of Rodgers and Hart's "Manhattan" - "And tell me what street compares with Mott Street in July?"
• In David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, Susan Ricci lives at 110 Mott Street, "above the Sunshine Bakery."
• The Beastie Boys' "Three MCs and One DJ" music video was shot in a Mott St building, which, it is said in the commentary on the Beastie Boys Video Anthology DVD, was also home to Sonic Youth in the past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wo_Hop

References

1. ^ "The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan's Street Names and Their Origins", Henry Moscow, 1990

External links

• Mott Street storefronts (photos of stores and properties on Mott Street)
• New York Songlines: Mott Street, a virtual walking tour