133rd Street

133rd Street (Manhattan)

Derelict plant on 133rd Street in the Bronx
Location	Manhattan and the Bronx
West end	Riverside Drive (Manhattan) Bruckner Boulevard and St. Ann's Place (Bronx)
Major junctions	Broadway, Seventh Avenue
East end	Lenox Avenue/Malcolm X Boulevard (Manhattan) Locust Avenue (Bronx)

Coordinates: 40°48′50″N 73°56′41″W / 40.81389°N 73.94472°W / 40.81389; -73.94472

133rd Street is a street in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City. In Harlem, Manhattan, it begins at Riverside Drive on its western side and crosses Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and ends at Convent Avenue, before resuming on the eastern side, crossing Seventh Avenue, and ending at Lenox Avenue. In Port Morris in the Bronx, it runs from Bruckner Boulevard/St. Ann's Place to Locust Avenue. The block between Seventh Avenue and Lenox Avenues was once a thriving night spot, known as "Swing Street", with numerous cabarets, jazz clubs, and speakeasies. The street is described in modern times as "a quiet stretch of brownstones and tenement-style apartment houses, the kind of block that typifies this section of central Harlem".

The street has historical significance during the Prohibition era when there were many speakeasies operating on the street and it was known as "Swing Street". The street also gained a reputation as "Jungle Alley" because of "inter-racial mingling" on the street.

During the Jazz Age there were at least 20 jazz clubs on the street, mainly concentrated between Lennox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard) and Seventh Avenue, and a young Billie Holiday performed here and was discovered here at the age of 17. Holiday has cited 133rd Street as the original Swing Street, playing a major role in the development of African-American entertainment in Harlem and jazz. The Nest club opened in 1923 when Malville Frazier and John Carey leased the building at 169 West 133rd Street and established the Barbecue Club on the main floor and The Nest on the downstairs floor, which opened on October 18, 1923. Jazz historian Frank Driggs described the club as having a "Chicago gangland atmosphere". Nightclubs of note include Tillie's Chicken Shack, known for torch singer Elmira, Bank's Club, Harry Hansberry's Clam House at 146 W. 133rd St., one of New York City's most notorious LGBT speakeasies established in 1928, featuring Gladys Bentley in a tuxedo singing "her own risque lyrics to popular songs", and Catagonia Club, better known as Pod's and Jerry's, which featured jazz pianist and composer Willie "The Lion" Smith.