Nytimes chinese tuxedo1/7/2024 ![]() ![]() Today, Doyers Street is known as "Barber's Alley" because of the dozen barber shops and hair dressers here. Doyers street earned the unenviable reputation of being the murder alley of the USA with over 350 dead in one particularly bad year - an unfortunate record it held to this day. Today, walking this street, one would have no clue that this street was once a river of blood. ![]() The blind corners or "Bloody Angle" of Doyers street provided perfect cover for tongs to ambush rival gangs. The sharp bends along the narrow Doyers backstreet were the killing fields of the infamous tong wars. The main New York Chinatown tongs of the time were On Leong Tong, Hip Sing Tong and See Sing Tong. The triads were constantly involved in territorial wars and fought over personal grudges often involving women. Triads or "tongs 黨 " operated gambling dens, brothels, opium dens, and protection rackets. From the Collections of the Museum of the City of New York The opium dens where lonely men sought solace from hardship and homesickness. Affordability remains the main attraction for businesses at Doyers street today.Ĭhinese triads play a big part in everyday life in Manhattan's old Chinatown. The first immigrants chose Doyers not because it was pretty but because everywhere else was beyond their reach. ![]() Doyers Street was among the streets including Pell and Mott which can be considered the cradle of Chinese immigration in New York. The short bendy street was a service road for horse carriages loading and unloading supplies and whisky at Doyer's Distillery (hence the street is narrow).Ĭhinese immigrants first settled in New York City in the mid 1800s. Being old is not the point, it's story has more unexpected twists and surprisingly turns than Hong Kong soap operas.ĭoyers Street is named after Hendrik Doyer, an Irish immigrant who operated a distillery here in the early 1800s. It's like befriending a senior who has seen a lot during his/her time.įrom the Collections of the Museum of the City of New Yorkĭoyers Street is one of the oldest streets in Manhattan's Chinatown. Once I knew Doyers Street's story, I was captivated, actually even fell in love with it. This street has a lot more than meets the eye. Why then is Doyers Street a Must See in New York City's Chinatown when there isn't much anything to see? Many might even quicken their pace to get out of the area as soon as possible. It's the kind of dingy place where tourists would pass by without ever noticing. It looked uninteresting - there are neither heritage buildings, chic shops nor pretty, well dressed shop windows. Mainly tiny Chinese barber shops, hair dressers, small restaurants, gift shops and a US Post Office branch. Tourist guides always take their groups down this short 60 metre stretch of bendy, one-way backstreet off the main streets of Manhattan's Chinatown. Doyers Street is invariably part of the itinerary of any guided tour of New York City's Chinatown. ![]()
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