Orchard Street (Manhattan)

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Sunday street market on Orchard Street, Lower East Side, New York (2004)

Orchard Street is a street in Manhattan which covers the eight city blocks between Division Street in Chinatown and East Houston Street on the Lower East Side. Vehicular traffic runs north on this one-way street.

From south to north, Orchard Street starts from Division Street, intersects Hester Street, Grand Street, Broome Street, Delancey Street, Rivington Street and Stanton Street, and ends at East Houston Street.

Orchard Street is often considered the center of the Lower East Side and is lined end to end almost entirely with low-rise tenement building with the iconic brick face and fire escapes. A Jewish enclave that was home to first generation immigrants in the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century. The street's past as the heart of the Jewish immigrant experience is captured at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and its centerpiece, the restored 97 Orchard Street tenement.

The street is known for its discount shopping. There are several lingerie shops and Orthodox Jewish-owned men's suit stores below Delancey Street, while discount clothing and luggage stores dominate the block between Delancey and Rivington Streets. Every Sunday, the northern segment of the street between Delancey and East Houston Streets is closed to automobile traffic, allowing stores on the street to sell their leather jackets and suitcases outside.

Like the rest of the Lower East Side, Orchard Street has gone through gentrification in the past decade, especially above Rivington Street, where boutiques and upscale restaurants have opened shop.

The transition has been slower on the lower end of the street, especially below Grand Street, which is part of Chinatown's industrial east end, but new restaurants, bars and art galleries have opened in this area in recent years as well.

Meanwhile, several luxury condominiums now stand or are under construction where immigrant families once shared tight quarters. In early 2006, The Blue Moon Hotel, a boutique hotel opened at 100 Orchard St, just below Delancey Street, while a hotel to be operated by Jason Pomeranc is under construction near Houston Street.