Roosevelt Street
Coordinates: 40°42′29″N 73°59′56″W / 40.708°N 73.999°W
Roosevelt Street was a street located in the Two Bridges district of Lower Manhattan, which existed from the British colonial period up until the early 1950s, running from Pearl Street at Park Row southeast to South Street.[1] It ran parallel to James Street.[2] The western end of Roosevelt Street was later renamed and used as an extension of Pearl Street, and is currently closed to most vehicular traffic due to safety complications.
History
The street is historically significant as the place where the New York City draft riots, a violent protest against conscription for the American Civil War, began.[3]
It was named after a Roosevelt who owned property in the area from the time of Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. It was not named after either president of the United States with of same name, Teddy Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt.[1]
The Roosevelt Street Ferry was displaced by the construction of the New York (north) tower of the Brooklyn Bridge. Later on, the majority of the street, along with many of its surrounding streets and lanes, were completely eliminated by the construction of the Alfred E. Smith Houses, a public housing project, in the 1950s.