![]() Typical American fire escapes on Mott Street
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Former name(s) | Old Street; Winne Street |
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Postal code | 10012, 10013 |
North end | Bleecker Street |
South end | Chatham Square |
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Coordinates: 40°43′11″N 73°59′47″W / 40.7196°N 73.9963°W
Mott Street (Chinese: 勿街; pinyin: Wùjiē; Jyutping: Mat6gaai1) is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is regarded as Chinatown's unofficial "Main Street". Mott Street runs from Chatham Square in the south to Bleecker Street in the north. It is a one-way street with southbound-running vehicular traffic.
Ah Ken is reported to have arrived in the area in 1858; he is the first Chinese person credited as having permanently immigrated to Chinatown. As a Cantonese businessman, Ah Ken eventually founded a successful cigar store on Park Row. He was "probably one of those Chinese mentioned in gossip of the sixties [1860s] as peddling 'awful' cigars at three cents apiece from little stands along the City Hall park fence – offering a paper spill and a tiny oil lamp as a lighter", according to author Alvin Harlow in Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of a Famous Street (1931).