Editing 42nd Street (Manhattan) (section)

=== 19th century ===
The street was designated by the [[Commissioners' Plan of 1811]] that established the [[Manhattan]] [[grid plan|street grid]] as one of 15 crosstown (east-west) streets that would be {{convert|100|ft}} in width, while other streets were designated as {{convert|60|ft}} in width.<ref>[[Gouverneur Morris|Morris, Gouverneur]], [[Simeon De Witt|De Witt, Simeon]], and [[John Rutherfurd|Rutherford, John]] {{sic}} (March 1811) [http://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/nyc1811.htm "Remarks Of The Commissioners For Laying Out Streets And Roads In The City Of New York, Under The Act Of April 3, 1807"] {{Webarchive|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/2566/20211028212005/http://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/nyc1811.htm |date=October 28, 2021 }}, [[Cornell University Library]]. Accessed June 27, 2016. "These streets are all sixty feet wide except fifteen, which are one hundred feet wide, viz.: Numbers fourteen, twenty-three, thirty-four, forty-two, fifty-seven, seventy-two, seventy-nine, eighty-six, ninety-six, one hundred and six, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and thirty-five, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty-five—the block or space between them being in general about two hundred feet."</ref>

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.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Burrows|Wallace|1999|p=579}}</ref>

[[Cornelius Vanderbilt]] began the construction of [[Grand Central Depot]] in 1869 on 42nd Street at Fourth Avenue as the terminal for his Central, [[Hudson Line (Metro-North)|Hudson]], [[Harlem Line|Harlem]] and [[New Haven Line|New Haven]] commuter rail lines, because city regulations required that trains be pulled by horse below 42nd Street.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Burrows|Wallace|1999|p=944}}</ref> The Depot, which opened in 1871, was replaced by [[Grand Central Terminal]] in 1913.<ref>{{cite news|date=September 29, 1871|title=Local News in Brief|page=8|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1871/09/29/archives/local-news-in-brief-newyork.html|access-date=July 4, 2011|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=July 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703021807/https://www.nytimes.com/1871/09/29/archives/local-news-in-brief-newyork.html|url-status=live}}<br>{{cite news|date=October 1, 1871|title=The Grand Central Railroad Depot, Harlem Railroad.|page=6|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1871/10/01/archives/the-grand-central-railroad-depot-harlem-railroad.html|access-date=July 4, 2011|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=July 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702233321/https://www.nytimes.com/1871/10/01/archives/the-grand-central-railroad-depot-harlem-railroad.html|url-status=live}}<br>{{cite news|date=November 1, 1871|title=Local News in Brief|page=8|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1871/11/01/archives/local-news-in-brief-newyork-brooklyn-long-island-staten-island.html|access-date=July 4, 2011|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=March 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307210341/https://www.nytimes.com/1871/11/01/archives/local-news-in-brief-newyork-brooklyn-long-island-staten-island.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Between the 1870s and 1890s, 42nd Street became the uptown boundary of the [[Theatre District, Manhattan|mainstream theater district]], which started around 23rd Street, as the entertainment district of the [[Tenderloin, Manhattan|Tenderloin]] gradually moved northward.<ref>{{harvnb|ps=.|Burrows|Wallace|1999|pp=1149–1150}}</ref>