- Allen Street (Manhattan)
*Allen Street is a street which runs north-south through the
Lower Manhattan neighborhood of Chinatown, and the Lower East Side, and is continued north ofHouston Street as First Avenue. The street's namesake was CaptainWilliam Henry Allen , the youngest person to command a Navy ship in theWar of 1812 . He died in action at the age of 29. His exploits included the capture of the British ship HMS Macedonian [Moscow, Henry:"The Street Book"; Fordham University Press 1978. P. 22.] .History
*Prior to 1799, this street in lower Manhattan was laid out and named Chester Street". After the building of the New York Orphan Asylum on this street around May 1806 [A New-Yorker, 1853 "Historical Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Metropolitan City of America" [http://books.google.com/books?id=Oxd8CVOBpFkC&pg=PA249&lpg=PA249&dq=%22new+york+orphan+asylum%22+history&source=web&ots=ZLriDcSrJV&sig=Vx0sfKtEHe_FT-0kBnVVTMhCU6M#PPA3,M1] ] "Chester Street" was renamed "Asylum Street". In 1833, "Asylum Street" was quietly renamed Third Street, and finally to "Allen Street" [I. N. Phelps Stokes, 1918 "The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909, vol. III", p. 993]
References
External links
* [http://www.nychinatown.org/storefronts/allen.html Allen Street Storefronts] (A Journey through Chinatown)
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