Leonard Street to Five Points

Last week after lunching at the Square Diner, I walked on Leonard to it's end in Hudson, and then headed East to its beginning at the famous (or infamous) Five Points. Along the way, I passed the nearly-complete new facility for the New York Law School, apartments, and real estate offices. Past Lafayette, the street gave way to a series of state government offices and courts.



The massive intersection of five points was bulldozed many years ago and replaced with Columbus Park. The morning I was there, the park was being used for recess at a nearby grade school. Other streets in the intersection were Mulberry and Worth. Five Points was the featured geography for the Scorsese film Gangs of New York. For years it was an emblem of the urban squalor created by the waves of new immigrants gaining a toehold in New York City.