Allen Street: The Street Where The Sun Never Shines

Robert Brenner’s (guide for this tour) mother grew up on the Lower East Side, when it was still a Jewish ghetto. Whenever anyone mentioned Allen Street, she would make a face and change the subject. Now he knows why—Allen Street was the center of the Jewish red light district. As Judge Johan J. Goldstein once said, “If a woman hailed you as you walked down Allen Street, you knew she wasn’t calling you to a minyan.” But how did Allen Street get that way, and what became of it? What roles did anti-Semitism, sexism, capitalism, mass transit, urban renewal, and xenophobia play? On this historical walking tour, we will explore the rise and fall and rise again of one of the most notorious thoroughfares in New York City history. Along the way we will meet:

Discussed on Tour:

• The detective who went undercover to bust the Jewish vice racket.
• The anarchist who prostituted herself to support her radical lover.
• The serial killer who stalked the working girls of Allen Street.
• The muckraker who launched the “white slave trade” panic.
• The police commissioner who blamed half of all crime in New York City on the Jews.
• The mobster who was rubbed out with the complicity of the NYPD.
• The Methodist who lead a violent Jewish street gang.
• The dedicated doctor who tried to get working girls off the streets.
• And two long-lived and industrious prostitutes who turned a prodigious 50,000 tricks.

As Robert’s mother would say, “it’s a shonda!”

Schedule:

Sunday, December 16 at 11:00am (ends 12:30pm)

Fee:

$20pp

Meet:

NW corner of  Division and Allen Streets. Here is a Google map: https://goo.gl/maps/ZWbNRMSjT8C2

Your Guide:

Robert Brenner is a licensed New York City tour guide, a certified member of the Guides Association of New York City, and a docent for the Municipal Art Society of New York. He has led walking tours for MAS, the Van Alen Institute, Untapped Cities, Google, the Times Square Alliance, the New York Public Library, Urban Sustaintability, the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, the Museum of Sex, and many other organizations. A survivor of the 1970s, he has witnessed many of the city’s vicissitudes firsthand. He specializes in the offbeat and the unusual—in both history and food. He lives in Chelsea with his wife and teaches at CUNY in Downtown Brooklyn.

Book this tour:

You can book now (below) and pay in cash on the day of the tour.

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