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Hamilton Street ran roughly parallel to the present Monroe Street, beginning at Catherine Street and bending northerly to meet Market Street near its intersection with Monroe. Prior to 1827, it was called Cheapside Street.
Hamilton Street was the location of several establishments patronized by the seamen who arrived on the nearby waterfront. In January, 1854, the street gained some notoriety as the scene of a vicious murder when a young man named George Field was stabbed in the chest while relaxing by the fire at a boarding house barroom. The murderer, a man calling himself Murphy, acted without apparent provocation or cause. Field died of his wounds after several days.
The street was closed in 1933 to make way for Knickerbocker Village, the first federally funded public housing project in the country. Knickerbocker Village earned some notoriety itself as the home of Ethel and Julius Rosenburg, who were executed for espionage in 1953.
Hamilton Street is named for Alexander Hamilton, a founding father and the first Treasury Secretary.
References
“The Hamilton-Street Murder”, New York Times, February 2, 1854, p. 3
New York City. NYCityMap [map]. 2011. Accessed June 14, 2011.
Wikipedia. 2011. “Knickerbocker Village” accessed June 14, 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knickerbocker_Village
