Five Points (Manhattan)

Five Points, Manhattan

The former site of the notorious Five Points tenement, as seen in 2014. Worth Street is in the foreground; Baxter Street, can be seen from the left. Columbus Park is to the right, in the background.
Other name(s)	The Five Points
Length	1.6 km (1.0 mi)
Major junctions	Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row (former) Civic Center to the west and south, and Chinatown to the east and north (present-day)

Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row (former)

Five Points (or The Five Points) was a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The neighborhood was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row to the south. The former Five Points is now split between the Civic Center to the west and south, and Chinatown to the east and north.

The Five Points gained international notoriety as a disease-ridden, crime-infested slum that existed for well over 70 years.

The name "Five Points" was derived from the five-pointed intersection created by Orange Street (now Baxter Street) and Cross Street (now Mosco Street); from this intersection Anthony Street (now Worth Street) began and ran in a northwest direction, dividing one of the four corners into two triangular-shaped blocks; thus the fifth "point." To the west of this "point" ran Little Water Street (which no longer exists) north to south, creating a triangular plot which would become known as "Paradise Square," after the buildings standing in the triangle were torn down in 1832.

The topography of the area that would become Five Points helped turn the neighborhood from middle class homes built upon reclaimed land to a sprawling, disease-ridden slum.