Among Manhattan Streets Honoring Men, a Few Named for Women
By FUPress
21st August 2017
Repost from The New York Times | August 14, 2017
N.Y. / Region F.Y.I. A column of questions and answers about New York City
By TAMMY La GORCE AUG. 14, 2017
Women have long gotten short shrift in the street-naming department, but a few heroines have broken through.
Q. Many streets in Manhattan are named after men. Surely there are some named after women, aren’t there?
A. If you look closely enough, you’ll find plenty of streets in Manhattan named after women. Some of those streets were named after the wives of important men, but many others honor women who made their own mark.
The bible of the history of New York City’s thoroughfares is most likely “The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan’s Street Names and Their Origins,” by Henry Moscow, published four decades ago. *(published by Fordham University Press on January 1, 1990)
The stories behind a few of the streets mentioned by Mr. Moscow:
■ Ann Street in Lower Manhattan is probably named after Ann White, the wife of Capt. Thomas White, an 18th-century businessman. Mr. Moscow wrote that the captain “named the street for his wife, Ann, probably at her demand, because other land speculators already had named streets for their wives or daughters.”
■ Bethune Street, in the West Village, is named for Johanna Bethune, described as an “early 19th-century philanthropist and educator who ceded the land for the street to the city.” The book says, “She joined Mrs. Alexander Hamilton in founding the New York Orphan Asylum at Barrow and Fourth Streets.”
“The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan’s Street Names and Their Origins,” by Henry Moscow was published by Fordham University Press on January 1, 1990)