Broome Street

[2] The street was named after Staten Island-born John Broome, who was a Colonial merchant and politician and became a Lieutenant Governor of New York State.

According to a map sourced from the New York Public Library collection, the area around Broome Street was developed in the first decade of the 1800s as part of the neighborhood known at that time as 'New Delaney's Square,' although this is probably a mistake for "Delancey," as the Delancey family had owned the land for many decades and had already begun planning development in the 1760s.

[3] The street is named after John Broome, an early city alderman and lieutenant governor of New York in 1804.

[4] In the 1960s, as the city was going through massive urban renewal and revitalization projects, Broome Street became the proposed route for the Lower Manhattan Expressway, designed by Robert Moses.

Had the construction been carried out, the ten-lane elevated highway would have completely replaced the street, along with all of the buildings on its north side, many of which are now land-marked as part of the historic cast-iron district.