Shinbone Alley and Vicinity Aug 2008

I was thinking of exploring Lafayette St and I chanced upon a name in my Hagstrom map book that seemed more properly to belong in the Okefenoffee Swamp than Manhattan, Shinbone Alley. I had to see it for myself. It is located in that curious backwater of Manhattan, Great Jones St and Bond St. This is an area that time seems to have passed by with many grimy industrial businesses. Shinbone Alley and Jones Alley are shut off from public access by locked gates. I have to wonder about the legality since they appear to be public thoroughfares. There is no street sign identifying Shinbone Alley but it is listed as such in the Hagstrom map book. Forgotten New York states that Shinbone Alley was the home of Archie and Mehitabel. In regard to the Cable Building, yes, Manhattan had cable cars at one time. The Cable Building housed the steam engines that pulled the cables through underground conduits.

Shinbone Alley and Vicinity Aug 2008