The uptown trend of
Manhattan, allegorized as an inexorable
parade of
destiny on its "march uptown",[1][2] refers to the northward socioeconomic
real estate trend toward
Uptown, a long-standing historical pattern from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Beginning with
New Amsterdam at the island's southern tip, European colonial and later American settlement under the
Commissioners' Plan of 1811 expanded continually in a common direction.
Former agricultural hamlets such as Harsenville, Carmansville, and
Harlem became successively industrial exurbs, residential suburbs, and urban districts, the former farmland between them being filled in.[3] Thus, in the
concentric zone model, the zones moved outward.
Few projects were able to slow the trend,[11] though some aspects of it did settle in the mid-20th century.[12]Broadway theatre during the 19th century marched from Lower Manhattan via the
Bowery and up Broadway, finally alighting around Longacre Square, soon to be renamed
Times Square and displacing the horse trade.
^Barr, Jason M. (2016-05-12).
"The First Inversion". Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers. Oxford University Press. pp. 135–141.
ISBN978-0-19-934438-3.