The Alley. A backstreet History of New York’s Communities (revisiting an article by Theodore Corbett)
http://www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/voicjl28-1-2/alley.html
New York City’s alleys were created as amenities for
aristocratic and bourgeois residents. In the twentieth century, alleys survived
the age of the automobile and the decline of central cities; they have been
gentrified and protected for their contributions to the quality of life in our
cities. Now they are waiting to be studied as microcosms of vernacular
architecture and social history.
(A carriage house entrance on North
Row, Washington Square, New York City, still has its old doorway, built to
accommodate a horse-drawn wagon or carriage. This alley, modeled on the mews of
London, served wealthy residents of the city.)
Photo by Theodore Corbett.
In
the nineteenth century, the rise of carriage traffic in New York State made it
necessary to keep animals in cities and villages, causing the creation of urban
alleys. Alleys were spaces where valuable animals could be kept in barns or, as
the century wore on, decorative and substantial carriage houses. Alleys were
thus constructed as amenities, places that improved the value of a property,
and a convenience to the household they served. Yet paradoxically, alleys were
hidden behind the main house, not to be seen by respectable people—for the
owners preferred to display their carriages and themselves formally, traveling
on the most fashionable main streets.
After the Civil War, the alleys’ original function as an amenity
declined, as they became populated by working class residents. Often, alleys
were sites for both low-income housing and commercial development, because the
housing was cheaper than on the main street and the space was ideal for
small-scale enterprise. Such neighborhoods were the forerunner of the urban
ghetto. Only in the twentieth century, with the gentrification of alley
structures by returning professionals, did the alley reacquire the prestige it
had originally held, sometimes to the extent of forcing out both the working
class and commercial establishments.
Because
alleys were back streets, the sources for their study are scarce and require
the application of interdisciplinary techniques. My approach treats planned
alleys as built and social landscapes to be investigated as vernacular
architecture, and then viewed as service, residential, or commercial space that
attracted the working class.
References
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