Orchard Street is a street in Manhattan which covers the eight city blocks between Division Street in Chinatown and East Houston Street on the Lower East Side. Vehicular traffic runs north on this one-way street.
From south to north, Orchard Street starts from Division Street, intersects Hester Street, Grand Street, Broome Street, Delancey Street, Rivington Street and Stanton Street, and ends at East Houston Street.
Orchard Street is often considered the center of the Lower East Side and is lined end to end almost entirely with low-rise tenement building with the iconic brick face and fire escapes. A Jewish enclave, it was home to first generation immigrants in the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century. The street's past as the heart of the Jewish immigrant experience is captured at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and its centerpiece, the restored 97 Orchard Street tenement.
The street is known for its discount shopping. There are several lingerie shops and Orthodox Jewish-owned men's suit stores below Delancey Street, while discount clothing and luggage stores dominate the block between Delancey and Rivington Streets. Every Sunday, Orchard Street from Delancey to East Houston Street closes to vehicular traffic turning the street into a pedestrian mall with stores setting up tables and racks advertising their wares to passerbyers.
Like the rest of the Lower East Side, Orchard Street has gone through gentrification in the past decade, especially above Rivington Street, where boutiques and upscale restaurants have opened shop.
The transition has been slower on the lower end of the street, especially below Grand Street, which is part of Chinatown's industrial east end, but new restaurants, bars and art galleries have opened in this area in recent years as well.
Meanwhile, several luxury condominiums now stand or are under construction where immigrant families once shared quarters in cramped tenement buildings. Several boutique hotels have also sprouted in the area, with two on Orchard St; the Blue Moon Hotel at 100 Orchard St, and a Jason Pomeranc hotel under construction on Allen St.
Notable establishments and landmarks
- Guss' Pickles: 85-87 Orchard Street
- The Blue Moon Hotel: 100 Orchard Street
- Lower East Side Tenement Museum: 108 Orchard Street
- 130 Orchard St: 130 Orchard St
- Orchard Corset: 157 Orchard St
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Orchard Street, Manhattan |
- The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
- Urban75.org - 360-degree panorama view of Orchard Street
- Orchard Street Storefronts photographs of buildings and stores along Orchard St from Chinatown through the Lower East Side.
- New York Songlines: Orchard Street, a virtual walking tour
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