The Place Of Blood

from pseudo-intellectualism back in August of 2005

I got my copy out of Paradise Alley to check on the passage where Tom was working as a butcher on Houston Street and then went to watch a dog fight. Rereading it spurred some online research to try and find the exact site of "The Place of Blood." I didn't have any luck but I realize now that its location might have been further westward then I thought. After working he went to watch a bull that was tied to a pole fight off some wild dogs. BTW, any value judgments on what merits the definition of sport should be set aside when today's most popular spectator sport is NASCAR racing.
This took place at a fort near Bunker Hill on Grand Street. I knew there was a hill near eastern Grand Street, but that was incorporated into Fort Pitt. (now the approximate sight of the 7th Police Precinct). Finding an early topographic map I saw that the Bunker Hill area was on the western part of Grand (now in SOHO). There are lots of hills shown on the map], I tried to pinpoint it by drawing an arrow to where Grand Street should be. I did some further notation on the map which is dated 1826. Wonder where they got the land to expand the shoreline of Manhattan? They did it by leveling all the pre-existing hills. I've also provided a link to the passage from Paradise Alley