In 2013 city planners widened the sidewalks at Astor Place to create a pedestrian plaza. As a consequence they partially demolished two of the oldest streets in Manhattan.
Plaques on the pavement are all that remain of the western terminus of Stuyvesant Street and the eastern terminus of Astor Place. There was an uproar over the plan at the time (I remember writing letters) due to the antiquity of these roads.
Stuyvesant Street originally ran through the farm of Peter Stuyvesant, the last director-general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Astor Place was built in the nineteenth century but follows the course of an Indian trail that also dates to the seventeenth century.
Nick Louras 