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Astor Place is a short two-block street in NoHo/East Village, in the lower part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from Broadway in the west, just below East 8th Street; through Lafayette Street, past Cooper Square and Fourth Avenue; and ends at Third Avenue, continuing as St. Mark's Place. It borders two plazas at the intersection with Cooper Square, Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue, and Eighth Street – the Alamo Plaza and Astor Place Station Plaza. The name is also sometimes used for the neighborhood around the street.〔Elsroad, Linda. "Astor Place" in p.64〕 It is named for John Jacob Astor, at one time the richest person in the United States, who died in 1848; the street was named for him soon after. A $16 million reconstruction to implement a redesign of Astor Place〔 began in 2013.〔 ==History== Astor Place was once known as Art Street. Vauxhall Gardens, a country resort, was located on this street. The area belonged to John Jacob Astor, and Astor Place was renamed after him.〔 In 1826, he carved out an upper-class neighborhood from the site with Lafayette Street bisecting eastern gardens from western homes. Wealthy New Yorkers, including Astor and other members of the family, built mansions along this central thoroughfare. Astor built the Astor Library in the eastern portion of the neighborhood as a donation to the city. Architect Seth Geer designed row houses called LaGrange Terrace for the development, and the area became a fashionable, upper-class residential district.〔Henderson, Mary C. (2004). ''The City and the Theatre: The History of New York Playhouses, a 250-year Journey from Bowling Green to Times Square''. New York: Back Stage Books. ISBN 0-8230-0637-9. p.61〕 This location made the gardens accessible to the people of both the Broadway and Bowery districts.〔Caldwell, Mark (2005). ''New York Night: The Mystique and Its History''. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-7432-7478-4. p.138〕 Astor Place was the site of the Astor Opera House at the intersection of Astor Place, East 8th Street, and Lafayette Street. Built to be ''the'' fashionable theater in 1847, it was the site of the Astor Place Riot of May 10, 1849. Anti-British feelings were running so high among New York's Irish at the height of the potato famine that they found an outlet in the rivalry between American actor Edwin Forrest and the English William Charles Macready, who were both presenting versions of ''Macbeth'' in nearby theatres. The protest in the streets against Macready became so violent that the police fired into the crowd. At least eighteen died and hundreds were injured. The theater itself never recovered from the association with the riot and was closed down shortly afterwards. The interior was demolished and the building was turned over to the use of the New York Mercantile Library. From 1852 until 1936, Astor Place was the location of Bible House, headquarters of the American Bible Society. In the mid- to late-19th century, the area was home to many of the wealthiest New Yorkers, including members of the Astor, Vanderbilt and Delano families. Editor and poet William Cullen Bryant and inventor and entrepreneur Isaac Singer lived in the neighborhood in the 1880s.〔, pp.121–122〕 By the turn of the century, however, warehouses and manufacturing firms moved in, the elite moved to places such as Murray Hill, and the area fell into disrepair. The neighborhood was revitalized beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s.〔 The New York City Department of Transportation's "Reconstruction of Astor Place and Cooper Square" plan〔("Reconstruction of Astor Place and Cooper Square" ) New York City Department of Transportation (January 6, 2011)〕 calls for some changes to be made to Astor Place beginning in 2013. The street itself will end at Lafayette Street, and will not continue to Third Avenue, as it does currently. This will allow the expansion of the "Alamo Plaza", where the Alamo Cube is located, south to the southern sidewalk of Astor Place between Lafayette Street and Cooper Square, and the creation of an expanded sidewalk north of the Cooper Union Foundation Building. The Astor Place subway entrance plaza will also be redesigned, and Fourth Avenue south of East 9th Street and the western part of Cooper Square is scheduled to be converted to be used by buses only, with a new pedestrian plaza created on Cooper Square between East 5th and 6th Streets. The traffic pattern of the area will change significantly, with Astor Place from Lafayette Street to Third Avenue becoming East Eighth Street eastbound, and the current bidirectional Cooper Square bus lane becoming northbound-only.〔 The $16 million project〔("See Updated Designs For Long-Awaited Astor Place Revamp" ), Curbed. September 26, 2013, by Jessica Dailey. Retrieved September 9, 2014.〕 was first proposed in 2008, then abandoned and re-proposed in 2011. Construction started in September 2013.〔("Major Astor Place Reconstruction Is Actually Starting" ), Curbed. September 16, 2013, by Jessica Dailey. Retrieved September 9, 2014.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Astor Place」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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