Knickerbocker Village

150 Cherry Street | also 30 Monroe Street, 100 Cherry Street | Two Bridges | built 1935

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1818

    Brooks Brothers opens at Cherry and Catherine Streets, later two borders of Knickerbocker Village

    In 1818 the clothier Brooks Brothers opened at the corner of Cherry and Catherine Streets, two of the streets that now bound Knickerbocker Village. The area was then a fashionable commercial quarter near the Catherine Market. Brooks Brothers left in 1857, when the neighborhood had begun to deteriorate.

    Source: bedfordandbowery.com

  2. 1903

    A newspaper counts 265 tuberculosis cases in one block in nine years, and the Lung Block earns its name

    In 1903 the New-York Tribune reported 265 cases of tuberculosis in a single block of this district over nine years. The Charity Organization Society's tenement handbook of that year said the Lung Block had well earned its name, and the area became a byword for bad housing. Nearly 4,000 people lived on the block, including some 400 babies. Developer Fred French later chose it for clearance and replaced it with Knickerbocker Village.

    Source: barrypopik.com

  3. 1934

    High rents keep the original Lung Block families from returning

    The new complex's rents, set at $12.50 per room each month, are far above the roughly $5 the old buildings had averaged. The Lung Block families cannot afford them, so the 1,590 small apartments go mostly to middle-income families. The complex later becomes known for tenant organizing and for early landlord-tenant disputes.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 2024

    Knickerbocker Village gives Donald Trump his only Manhattan precinct win, 251 votes to 235

    In the 2024 presidential election Kamala Harris carried Manhattan with 81 percent of the vote, yet Knickerbocker Village went the other way. Out of roughly 500 votes cast, Trump took 251 and Harris 235. No other Manhattan precinct went to Trump in any of his three presidential runs.

    “The difference was 251 for Trump and 235 for Harris, which resulted in Trump's only precinct victory in Manhattan out of any of his three presidential runs.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 43 buildings with stories in Two Bridges