Early history During the
American Revolutionary War, a cornfield near 42nd Street and
Fifth Avenue was where General
George Washington angrily attempted to rally his troops after the British
landing at Kip's Bay, which scattered many of the American militiamen. Washington's attempt put him in danger of being captured, and his officers had to persuade him to leave. The rout eventually subsided into an orderly retreat.
John Jacob Astor purchased a farm in 1803 that ran from 42nd Street to 46th Street west of Broadway to the
Hudson River.
19th century The street was designated by the
Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the
Manhattan street grid as one of 15 crosstown (east-west) streets that would be in width, while other streets were designated as in width. In 1835, the city's Street Committee, after receiving numerous complaints about lack of access for development above 14th Street, decided to open up all lots which had already been plotted on the city grid up to 42nd Street, which thus became – for a time – the northern boundary of the city.
Cornelius Vanderbilt began the construction of
Grand Central Depot in 1869 on 42nd Street at Fourth Avenue as the terminal for his Central,
Hudson,
Harlem and
New Haven commuter rail lines, because city regulations required that trains be pulled by horse below 42nd Street. The Depot, which opened in 1871, was replaced by
Grand Central Terminal in 1913. Between the 1870s and 1890s, 42nd Street became the uptown boundary of the
mainstream theater district, which started around 23rd Street, as the entertainment district of the
Tenderloin gradually moved northward.
Early 20th century 42nd Street was developed relatively late compared to other crosstown thoroughfares such as
14th Street and
23rd Street, which had grown during the
American Civil War, and
57th Street, which became prominent in the 1890s. It was only after the beginning of the 20th century that the street saw entertainment venues being developed around
Times Square and upscale office space around Grand Central Terminal. In the first two decades of the 20th century, eleven venues for
legitimate theater were built within one block of West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The corner of 42nd Street and
Broadway, at the southeast corner of Times Square, is the eastern terminus of the
Lincoln Highway, the first road across the
United States, which was conceived and mapped in 1913. An
elevated railroad line, running above East 42nd Street from
Third Avenue to the
Grand Central station, was closed in 1923, leading to the development of such structures as the
Chanin Building and
110 East 42nd Street west of
Lexington Avenue. The street east of Lexington Avenue continued to be made up of mostly low-rise buildings; these blocks were adjacent to the elevated
IRT Second Avenue Line and
IRT Third Avenue Line, and accordingly, initially considered unattractive for major development. By the 1920s,
The New York Times reported that several high-rise developments were "radically changing the old-time conditions" along East 42nd Street, including the Chanin,
Lincoln,
Chrysler, and
Daily News Buildings, as well as
Tudor City. The block of 42nd Street between
Second and
First Avenues was originally only wide, passing through a steep bluff known as Prospect Hill. On either side of the street, service roads ascended to Tudor City Place, which crossed over 42nd Street. Despite opposition from Tudor City residents, city officials said the street widening was necessary because 42nd Street already carried high amounts of vehicular traffic to and from the nearby
FDR Drive. and the Board of Estimate approved $1.848 million for the project that December. The board provisionally authorized the street widening in June 1949, and Manhattan's borough president announced in December 1949 that work would commence shortly.
Theatrical decline West 42nd Street, meanwhile, prospered as a theater and entertainment district until
World War II. According to historian
Robert A. M. Stern, West 42nd Street's decline started in 1946, when the streetcars on 42nd Street were replaced by less efficient buses. In the words of the
Al Dubin and
Harry Warren title song, on 42nd Street one could find: Little from the Fifties, innocent and sweet, Sexy ladies from the Eighties who are indiscreet, They're side by side, they're glorified, Where the underworld can meet the elite Naughty, gawdy, bawdy, sporty, Forty-second Street! From the late 1950s until the late 1980s, 42nd Street, nicknamed the "Deuce", was the cultural center of American
grindhouse theaters, which spawned an entire subculture. The book
Sleazoid Express, a travelogue of the 42nd Street grindhouses and the films they showed, describes the unique blend of people who made up the theater-goers: depressives hiding from jobs, sexual obsessives, inner-city people seeking cheap diversions, teenagers skipping school, adventurous couples on dates, couples-chasers peeking on them, people getting high, homeless people sleeping, pickpockets... While the street outside the theaters was populated with: phony drug salesman ... low-level drug dealers, chain snatchers ... [j]unkies alone in their
heroin/
cocaine dreamworld ... predatory chickenhawks spying on underage trade looking for pickups ...
male prostitutes of all ages ... [t]ranssexuals, hustlers, and closety gays with a fetishistic homo- or heterosexual itch to scratch ... It was common to see
porn stars whose films were playing at the adult houses promenade down the block. ... Were you a freak? Not when you stepped onto the Deuce. Being a freak there would get you money, attention, entertainment, a starring part in a movie. Or maybe a robbery and a beating. including
peep shows. East 42nd Street was, for some time, spared from similar decline, especially east of Third Avenue, where the development of the
United Nations supported a thriving business district and prompted the widening of that section of 42nd Street. By the 1960s, East 42nd Street between Park and Second Avenues contained more headquarters of industries than any other place in the United States except Chicago or Pittsburgh. During this time, there was much development outside the rundown entertainment district of Times Square, somewhat offsetting the perception of that part of 42nd Street.
Revitalization , blocking the entire intersection of 42nd Street and the
Avenue of the Americas, looking westward at the
sunset on July 12, 2016 In the early 1990s, the city government encouraged a cleanup of the Times Square area. In 1990, the city government took over six of the historic theaters on the block of 42nd Street between
Seventh and
Eighth Avenues, and
New 42nd Street, a
not-for-profit organization, was formed to oversee their renovation and reuse, as well as to construct new theaters and a rehearsal space. In 1993,
Disney Theatrical Productions bought the
New Amsterdam Theatre, which it renovated a few years later. Since the mid-1990s, the block has again become home to
mainstream theaters and several multi-screen mainstream movie theaters, along with shops, restaurants, hotels, and attractions such as
Madame Tussauds wax museum and
Ripley's Believe It or Not that draw millions to the city every year. This area is now co-signed as "New 42nd Street" to signify this change. In the 1990s, the renovation of
Bryant Park between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, as well as the renovations of Times Square and Grand Central Terminal, led to increases in office occupancy along both sections of 42nd Street. In 2025, the
New York City Department of Transportation announced that the block of 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues would be upgraded to protect it from terrorist attacks. The project, budgeted at $57 million, would include adding steel bollards, installing sewage pipes, and widening the sidewalks and bus lanes. ==Notable places==