View source for Hester Street (Manhattan)

{{short description|Street in Manhattan, New York}}
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'''Hester Street''' is a street in the [[Lower East Side, Manhattan|Lower East Side]] of the [[New York City]] [[borough (New York City)|borough]] of [[Manhattan]]. It stretches from [[Essex Street (Manhattan)|Essex Street]] to [[Centre Street (Manhattan)|Centre Street]], with a discontinuity between [[Chrystie Street (Manhattan)|Chrystie Street]] and [[Forsyth Street (Manhattan)|Forsyth Street]] for [[Sara Delano Roosevelt Park]]. There is also a discontinuity at [[Allen Street]], which was created in 2009 with the rebuilding of the [[Allen Street|Allen Street Mall]].<ref>[http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/allenpike.pdf Allen & Pike Streets]</ref> At Centre Street, Hester Street shifts about {{convert|100|ft}} to the north and is called Howard Street to its far western terminus at Mercer Street. 

Historically a center for [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi Jewish]] [[Immigration to the United States|immigrant]] culture, more recently it has been absorbed by [[Chinatown, Manhattan|Chinatown]], although some [[kosher]] and Jewish-owned stores remain. 
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==History==
[[File:Norfolk and Hester Street around 1898.jpg|thumb|left|Looking west from Norfolk Street around 1898]]
[[File:NewYorkCityHesterStreet1903.jpg|thumb|Hester Street around 1903]]
[[File:WLA brooklynmuseum Street Scene by George Benjamin Luks.jpg|thumb|Street Scene by George Benjamin Luks, 1905 [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]
Hester Street was named after [[Hester Leisler]], the daughter of Elsje Tymens and the insurrectionist [[Jacob Leisler]], who was burned at the stake. Through her mother she was related to prominent Dutch families of the Hudson Valley, including the Bayards and the Van Cortlandts. She married [[Barent Rynders, Jr]], a New York merchant, in 1696.<ref>Purple, Edwin R.  Contributions to the history of ancient families of New Amsterdam and New York New York : Privately printed, 1881.Electronic reproduction. New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries, 2008. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Master copy stored locally on [3] DVD#: ldpd_6499396_000 01, 02, 03. Columbia University Libraries Electronic Books. 2006.</ref><ref name="NYHS">{{cite web |title=Mrs. Barent Rynders, Jr. (1673-1762) |url=https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/mrs-barent-rynders-jr-1673-1762 |website=New York Historical Society Museums Collection |publisher=New York Historical Society |access-date=6 August 2021}}</ref> She was the great-great-grandmother of [[Gouverneur Morris]], a [[Founding Father of the United States]].<ref>Wright, Robert K, and Morris J. MacGregor. Soldier-statesmen of the Constitution. Washington, D.C: Center of Military History, United States Army, 2007. Pp. 112-114. Print.</ref>

In November 1851, the assistant board of aldermen of New York City voted in favor of removing a [[liberty pole]] at the junction of Hester Street and [[Division Street (Manhattan)|Division Street]].<ref>New York City, ''[[New York Daily Times]]'', 1851-11-13, p. 1.</ref> The Franklin Building Association held its second regular monthly meeting at Washington Hall, on December 3, 1851. The building was located at the corner of [[Bowery]].<ref>Special Notices, ''New York Daily Times'', 1851-11-29.</ref> On April 15, 1912, an investigator reported that a parlor house on Hester Street had three ''inmates'' (prostitutes) who were waiting to entertain customers.<ref>''Commercialized Prostitution in New York City'', George Jackson Kneeland, New ed., rev. to date, New York, 1914, p. 16.</ref>

70 Hester Street was home to the [[First Roumanian-American Congregation|First Roumanian-American Synagogue]] from 1881 to 1902, after which it moved a short distance to Rivington Street, where it remained until a 2006 fire.<ref name=70HesterStreet>See [[#refEpstein2007|Epstein (2007)]], p.&nbsp;182, [[#refDunlap2004|Dunlap (2004)]], p.&nbsp;78, [[#refVitullo-Martin2006|Vitullo-Martin (2006)]], and the [[#refAJYearBookV1|''American Jewish Year Book'', Vol. 1]], p.&nbsp;203. [[#refDunlap2004|Dunlap (2004)]], p.&nbsp;78, says the 70 Hester Street building was constructed in 1882. The ''American Jewish Year Book'' lists the rabbi in 1899 as Abram Zolish.
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As part of an experiment, in 1948, Hester Street was converted to a one-way eastbound street during the afternoon rush hour; it carried one-way westbound traffic at other times.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1948-12-16|title=New Traffic Rules for Canal St. Zone; One-Way Crosstown Arteries to Be Set Up Saturday for 60-Day Test Period|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/12/16/archives/new-traffic-rules-for-canal-st-zone-oneway-crosstown-arteries-to-be.html|access-date=2024-01-15|work=The New York Times|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
[[File:Hester-Street-Fair-Packed.jpg|thumb|The Hester Street Fair on a typical weekend afternoon]]
At the east end of Hester Street, an open-air market called the Hester Street Fair currently runs on weekends from April through October.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nymag.com/listings/stores/hester-street-fair/ |title=Hester Street Fair |first=Jessica |last=Chou |work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |date=2011-06-10 |access-date=2018-02-02 |archive-date=2018-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119012030/http://nymag.com/listings/stores/hester-street-fair/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The market is on a parcel of land owned by Seward Park Co-op and is run by [[MTV News]] Correspondent [[SuChin Pak]], her brother Suhyun Pak, Adam Zeller, and Ron Castellano.

==In popular culture==
Hester Street is featured in [[Abraham Cahan#Cahan as novelist|Abraham Cahan's]] 1896 novel ''[[Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto]]'', and is the title of the 1974 period film ''[[Hester Street (film)|Hester Street]]'', adapted from Cahan's novel.<ref name="Tinkler-Villani2005">{{cite book|author=Valeria Tinkler-Villani|title=Babylon Or New Jerusalem?: Perceptions of the City in Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3uf8QSB4MkgC&pg=PA214|year=2005|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=90-420-1873-9|page=214}}</ref><ref name="Shapiro1995">{{cite book|author=Edward S. Shapiro|title=A Time for Healing: American Jewry Since World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f6clJqe_Ak0C&pg=PA151|date=May 1995|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-5124-7|page=151}}</ref> 

The street is mentioned in the first stanza of [[Lola Ridge|Lola Ridge's]] 1918 poem, "The Ghetto":

<blockquote>Cool, inaccessible air''<br>''Is floating in velvety blackness shot with steel-blue lights,''<br>''But no breath stirs the heat''<br>''Leaning its ponderous bulk upon the Ghetto''<br>''And most on Hester street...</blockquote><ref>Ridge, Lola. "The Ghetto." ''The Ghetto: And Other Poems''. New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1918. Print.</ref>

The first chapter of the 1925 novel ''[[Bread Givers]]'' by Jewish-American author [[Anzia Yezierska]] is called “Hester Street”. The novel tells the story of a young girl growing up in an immigrant Jewish household in the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1920s.

[[Al Stewart]] references Hester Street as part of the immigrant experience in his song "Murmansk Run/Ellis Island" on his 1980 album ''[[24 Carrots]]'', in part as follows:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://alstewart.com/publicfiles/LYRICS_murmanskrun.htm|title=murmansk run /ellis island lyrics|website=alstewart.com|access-date=2018-11-28|archive-date=2018-08-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809020509/http://alstewart.com/publicfiles/LYRICS_murmanskrun.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><blockquote>''Well you wake up in the morning on Hester Street and run to the factory, You can't afford to be late''<br>''Working every morning, every evening, every day for your money, Yet there's nothing to save''</blockquote>

==Notable people==
The sculptor [[Jacob Epstein]] was raised at 102 Hester Street. 

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Hester Street (Manhattan)}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070712141744/http://radio.weblogs.com/0100669/images/2002/03/17/HesterSt.jpg picture of Hester Street near Essex]
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pan.6a12044 Panorama of Hester St. c1902]
* [http://www.nychinatown.org/storefronts/hester.html Hester Street Storefronts] - photographs of buildings and stores along Hester St from the Lower East Side through Chinatown and Little Italy.

{{Streets of Manhattan|state=collapsed}}
{{Chinatown, Manhattan}}
{{Lower East Side}}

[[Category:Chinatown, Manhattan]]
[[Category:Lower East Side]]
[[Category:Streets in Manhattan]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in Manhattan]]