top of page

USA / NYC - Little Syria, Manhattan

From Syria (& the levant) 2 NYC, USA

Little Syria was a diverse neighborhood that existed in the New York City borough of Manhattan from the late 1880s until the 1940s. The name for the neighborhood came from the Arab-speaking population who emigrated from Ottoman Syria. Today this area would include the nations of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Also called the Syrian Quarter, or Syrian Colony in local newspapers it encompassed a few blocks reaching from Washington Street in Battery Park to above Rector Street. This neighborhood became the center of New York's first community of Arab-speaking immigrants. In spite of this name, the neighborhood was never exclusively Syrian or Arab, as there were many other Irish, German, Slavic, and Scandinavian immigrant families present.

The neighborhood declined as the inhabitants began moving out to other areas, Brooklyn Heights, the Sunset Park area and Bay Ridge, with many retail shops relocating to Atlantic Avenue, in Brooklyn. The community disappeared almost entirely when a great deal of lower Washington Street was demolished to make way for the entrance ramps to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. The quarter was located at the southern edge of the site that would become the World Trade Center.

(source: Wikipedia)


© 2023 By SyriaClopedia.

Powered and secured by Wix

bottom of page