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Sewage, Sex, and Sickness in the Five Points

By Off the Beaten Subway Track Walking Tours
Free cancellation available
Price is €38 per adult
See tickets

Features

  • Free cancellation available
  • 2h 15m
  • Mobile voucher
  • Instant confirmation

Overview

This two hour walking tour is a deep dive into the dirty history of the Five Points area in NYC, once called “the foul core of New York City's slums” and an area of “moral leprosy.” In a way, it's also a ghost tour, as we'll be exploring a geography (streets and natural features) erased by development and redevelopment. We will uncover the lives of the people who lived in this area (now Chinatown) from 1800 - 1900, discussing how sewage, sex, and sickness pervaded a area filled with the “poorest of the poor” until it was razed and rebuilt starting in 1897. This is not a tour for the faint of heart!

Your guide for this tour is a graduate of the Sanitation Foundation's Trash Academy and has a Master's of Public Administration from Columbia University. This topic is her passion!

Activity location

  • Collect Pond Park
    • Leonard St
    • New York City, New York, United States

Meeting/Redemption Point

  • Collect Pond Park
    • 130 Leonard Street
    • 10013, New York, New York, United States

Check availability

Dirty NYC, Sewage, Sex, and Sickness in the Five Points

  • Activity duration is 2 hours and 15 minutes2h 15m
    2h 15m
Starting time: 13:30
Price details
€38.49 x 1 Adult€38.49
Total
Price is €38.49
Until Sun, 17 May

What's included, what's not

  • What's includedWhat's included
    Walking tour
  • What's excludedWhat's excluded
    Please bring your own water and snacks.

Know before you book

  • Wheelchair accessible
  • Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
  • Service animals allowed
  • Public transport options are available nearby
  • Transport options are wheelchair accessible
  • All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
  • Suitable for all physical fitness levels
  • In accordance with EU regulations about consumer rights, activities services are not subject to the right of withdrawal. Supplier cancellation policy will apply.

Activity itinerary

Collect Pond Park

  • 15m
We will discuss how Collect Pond was transformed from a fresh water pond with a park to a reeking, polluted swamp to a foul landfill. In this spot, we will also discuss The Tombs (aka the Halls of Justice).

Columbus Park

  • 15m
The tour will stop just east of Columbus Park on Worth Street. We will talk about the historic location and stories of Paradise Square, The Old Brewery, Cow Bay, and the crossroads of streets that gave the Five Points area its name.

Chinatown

  • 1h 30m
The tour will continue through the historic area of the Five Points, stopping at the former sites of Donovan's Alley, Chatham Theatre, Chatham Square, Park Street, Mulberry Bend, Bandit's Roost, and Bottle Alley. We'll visit the site of a former notorious brothel and see the oldest tenement in New York City. During the tour, we'll discuss sewage, sex, and sickness in the Five Points from 1800 - 1900.

Location

Activity location

  • LOB_ACTIVITIESLOB_ACTIVITIES
    Collect Pond Park
    • Leonard St
    • New York City, New York, United States

Meeting/Redemption Point

  • PEOPLEPEOPLE
    Collect Pond Park
    • 130 Leonard Street
    • 10013, New York, New York, United States

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