page_title: Baxter Street
section_title: History of alignment
hierarchical_section_title: Baxter Street / History of alignment
context_page_description: Baxter Street is a narrow thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the borough of Manhattan in New York City in the United States in North America. It lies between Mulberry Street and Centre Street. It runs through Little Italy and the edge of Chinatown. Today, it runs one-way southbound from Grand Street to Hogan Place, and one-way northbound for its southernmost block from Worth Street to Hogan Place.
  Originally named Orange Street, Baxter Street was famous as the primary street to form the notorious Five Points intersection.
context_section_description: Previous to the middle of the eighteenth century, the area was still undeveloped. Orange Street is first shown in a 1754 map as a two block street running from the "High Road To Boston" (which later became Chatham St. and finally, Park Row), and ended at a small clearing where the later "bend" in the street would occur, which was at the time along the banks of the unnamed body of "fresh water" later known as the Collect Pond, with its marsh lying to the north. The future "Five Points" intersection was a normal crossing of two streets, Orange and Cross, with Cross Street running from Mott Street (as it always would), to an unmarked "Little Water Street", and then ending at the banks of the pond. Anthony Street (which would complete the "fifth point" and was later renamed Worth Street) did not exist.
  By 1797, the alignment north of the bend is shown, running all the way to Prince Street, but this section was called "Mary Street". A walkway had been built next to the street, along the pond and its marsh and running from the bend to almost Hester Street.
  In the new century, the street (the whole length by now renamed "Orange Street", and the areas to the west of it built up) was shown beginning in a dead end north of Prince Street. An 1803 plan, however, had it merge with Crosby Street at Houston Street. At Spring Street, Elm Street merged with Orange Street; and at Broome Street, Centre Street merged with Orange Street. The triangle formed by Broome, Orange, and Centre Streets was later the location of the original Centre Market.
  By 1850, the current alignment was set in place with Centre Market becoming a full block between Grand and Broome Streets, with the portions of the original street alignment north of Broome being connected only to Centre Street and renamed Marion Place (and is currently known as Cleveland Place, with Elm, now Lafayette St., taking the alignment north of there and extending past the original dead end). The street on the east side of the Market, which was displaced a bit east of where Orange ends at Grand, also had taken on the name Centre Market Place.
  On the southern end, Orange Street always ended at Chatham Street. Past there, another street, slightly to the east, named Roosevelt Street, continued to the East River waterfront.
caption: Busy commercial street (ca 1890).
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