From about 1860 through 1910, this area was also the Broadway theatre, vaudeville, and entertainment district, which attracted numerous businessmen, tourists, sailors, soldiers, prostitutes, and criminals. For a bribe, many patrolmen would happily look the other way.
John Sloan painted The Haymarket in 1906, showing a troupe of colorful ladies-of-the-night entering. Disguising itself occasionally as a theatre or a dancehall helped The Haymarket to remain open, affording prostitutes a popular place to pick up customers. Located at 66 West 30th Street, on Sixth Avenue, this busy nightspot was prized as sin’s shopping mall. The building was razed in 1911 --- --- and the address no longer exists.
“This was a dying street when I first moved to this block in the early 1970s,” said Mike Lee, who is known as “the Mayor of West 30th,” and who is getting acquainted with his newest next-door neighbor, the Eventi Hotel. “Forty years ago many Jewish people owned the fur factories, and the skilled workforce on this street was mostly Greek or Italian. West 30th has evolved from a tight-knit group of furriers then, to importers and exporters of handbags at the present time.”
There’s a great deal to be said about West 30th Street. So come back and visit often.
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