133rd Street (New York City)

West-east street in New York City the former elevated station 133rd Street (IRT Third Avenue Line) May 2025 November 2014 133rd Street Power substa Locust 133 jeh.jpg The electric substation on 133rd Street in the Bronx West Riverside Drive (Manhattan)Bruckner Boulevard and St. Ann's Place (Bronx) Broadway, Seventh Avenue East Lenox Avenue/Malcolm X Boulevard (Manhattan)Locust Avenue (Bronx) Manhattan and the Bronx 133rd Street is a street in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City. In Harlem, Manhattan, it begins at Riverside Drive on its western side and crosses Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and ends at Convent Avenue, before resuming on the eastern side, crossing Seventh Avenue, and ending at Lenox Avenue. In Port Morris in the Bronx, it runs from Bruckner Boulevard/St. Ann's Place to Locust Avenue.https://maps.google.com December 6, 2013 The block between Seventh Avenue and Lenox Avenues was once a thriving night spot, known as "Swing Street", with numerous cabarets, jazz clubs, and speakeasies. The street is described in modern times as "a quiet stretch of brownstones and tenement-style apartment houses, the kind of block that typifies this section of central Harlem". History The street has historical significance during the Prohibition era when there were many speakeasies operating on the street and it was known as "Swing Street".D. Theda Palmer Saxton Ph. Saxton Theda Palmer Heirs to Dirty Linen and Harlem Ghosts: Whitewashing Prohibition with Black Soap https://books.google.com/books?id=whtoY-cXLMwC&pg=PR7 May 2013 Balboa Press 978-1-4525-7377-9 7 The street also gained a reputation as "Jungle Alley" because of "inter-racial mingling" on the street.Freeland David Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan's Lost Places of Leisure https://archive.org/details/automatstaxidanc00davi registration 2009 NYU Press 978-0-8147-2763-8 155https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX05_owF5js https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/XX05_owF5js 2021-12-20 live Saxman Finds Place For Jazz History December 18, 2008 New York City News Service December 6, 2013 thumb|An incident during the Harlem Riot of 1964 at the corner of 133rd Street and Seventh Avenue During the Jazz Age there were at least 20 jazz clubs on the street, mainly concentrated between Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard) and Seventh Avenue, and a young Billie Holiday performed here and was discovered here at the age of 17.Frommer's AARP New York City 2012 https://books.google.com/books?id=H6-XOPiCcmgC&pg=PA417 May 22, 2012 John Wiley & Sons 978-1-118-26854-4 417 Holiday has cited 133rd Street as the original Swing Street, playing a major role in the development of African-American entertainment in Harlem and jazz. The Nest Club opened in 1923 when Melville Frazier and John Carey leased the building at 169 West 133rd Street and established the Barbecue Club on the main floor and The Nest on the downstairs floor, which opened on October 18, 1923. Jazz historian Frank Driggs described the club as having a "Chicago gangland atmosphere". Nightclubs of note include Tillie's Chicken Shack, known for torch singer Elmira, Bank's Club, Harry Hansberry's Clam House at 146 W. 133rd St., one of New York City's most notorious LGBT speakeasies established in 1928,http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/blues/garber.html A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem Garber, Eric University of Virginia November 13, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20110417002354/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/blues/garber.html April 17, 2011 dead featuring Gladys Bentley in a tuxedo singing "her own risque lyrics to popular songs", and Catagonia Club, better known as Pod's and Jerry's,Stewart Rex Boy Meets Horn https://books.google.com/books?id=R2hr1sMeV0MC&pg=PA82 November 27, 1995 Continuum 978-1-4411-0789-3 82 which featured jazz pianist and composer Willie "The Lion" Smith.Sampson Henry T. Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows https://books.google.com/books?id=DVsKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA586 October 30, 2013 Scarecrow Press 978-0-8108-8351-2 586 The street began to lose its attraction following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, and the Harlem Riot of 1935 effectively killed the reputation of the street as a racial safe haven and most of the interracial clubs were forced to close.Freeland David Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan's Lost Places of Leisure https://archive.org/details/automatstaxidanc00davi registration August 1, 2009 NYU Press 978-0-8147-2789-8 269–272 One of the last clubs to stay open was Pod's and Jerry's, which was renamed "The Log Cabin" in 1933, and stayed open until about 1948-9, long after 52nd Street had replaced 133rd Street as the "Swing street". Further racial violence broke out at 133rd Street and Seventh Avenue during the Harlem Riot of 1964. Landmarks thumb|The New York Post printing building Numerous mills sprang up along the street on the eastern side but many of the former derelict buildings have been razed to the ground and new buildings erected. The New York Post has a printing centre here. On the western side is the Terence D. Tolbert Educational Complex and Roberto Clemente School, KIPP Infinity Charter School and the Manhattanville Bus Depot. The New York Structural Biology Center is situated in the Park Building at 89 Convent Avenue opposite the street.Dingley Andrew J. Pascal Steven M. Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy https://books.google.com/books?id=sTk4q2zzwZQC&pg=PA162 January 1, 2011 IOS Press 978-1-60750-694-2 162 On the eastern side is Bethlehem Moriah Baptist Church and Bill's Place, a jazz club established in 2006 by tenor saxophonist Bill Saxton in a building which was the former speakeasy Tillie's Chicken Shack. Bishop R.C. Lawson once had a Bible book store on 133rd Street.Williams Lloyd A. Rivers Voza Forever Harlem: Celebrating America's Most Diverse Community https://books.google.com/books?id=QnSCqLGRYnoC&pg=PA247 2006 Sports Publishing LLC 978-1-59670-206-6 247 See also List of numbered streets in Manhattan References External links Flickr image with history 40 48 50 N 73 56 41 W title Category:1920s in New York City Category:Harlem Category:History of jazz Category:History of Manhattan Category:Prohibition in New York City 133 Category:Streets in the Bronx