Pier N brawl

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/4/2012 12:11 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>Thanks for your response, Joel. I think we probably agree. The
>author's comment about a "Pier Six brawl in tennis" was meant to be a
>joke. He was not saying that the phrase had actually been applied in
>that domain.
>
>The writer was implicitly providing an etymology for "Pier Six brawl".
>He was suggesting that "Pier Six" referred to a pier in Staten Island.
>The early references starting in 1926 were in the boxing domain. The
>writer probably had heard the term "Pier Six brawl" used in the boxing
>domain.
>
>Here is one hypothesis: Perhaps "Pier Six" in Staten Island was known
>as a dangerous and sometimes lawless area where brawls might occur
>with regularity.

As someone who grew up in NYC, I would never have associated a "Pier
<n> brawl" with Staten Island -- that was the peaceable country.  I
would have thought Manhattan, probably the Hudson side where I knew
the piers were numbered.  But what did I know, especially about the
East Side, as a lad.

>The brawls would not follow the Marquess of
>Queensberry Rules. At some point a sports writer referred to a tough
>boxing match as a "Pier Six brawl" and the term became popular.

Apparently I didn't know -- a Manhattan pier list of today
http://www.easysurf.cc/pierlst.htm is intriguing -- Piers 1 to 19 are
on the East River, Piers 25 to 99 on the Hudson!  I wonder how long
that's been true.  Ah, the genteel Lower East Side.  A transference
from the pier to the ring seems plausible.


>Below is a letter that was written to the Boston Globe in 1895 about
>"Pier T" in Boston.

As the text from the Boston Globe indicates, it is not "Pier T" but
the "T Wharf".  It dates back to the 18th century (I'm guessing the
1750s), when a wharf in the shape of a T was constructed near the
middle of Long Wharf on its north side. (Long Wharf was built
1710-1721).  It was originally called "Minot's T".  See the 1768
engraving by Paul Revere at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_1768.jpg or the 1775 map at
http://www.his.jrshelby.com/btp/ labeling it "Minots T".

Joel

>This article was not about Pier Six in New York. I
>am posting this article because I think it illustrates stereotypes
>about the lawlessness associated with piers in urban areas. The
>article contained the phrase "disturbance or brawl on this pier". The
>letter writer was a police officer who was actually denying that Pier
>T was a dangerous area.
>
>Cite: 1895 February 24, Boston Globe, Quiet and Orderly, Page 16,
>Boston Massachusetts. (ProQuest)
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>
>"Special" on T Wharf Calls Attention to the Good Police Service.
>
>Being a constant reader and admirer of The Globe,  I  hope you will
>make space in your paper for the following statement in answer to the
>writer in The Globe Thursday evening, Feb 21, concerning Capt Phinney
>of the schooner Harvester, which laid at this dock.
>
>I want to say particularly that the information your correspondent
>received relative to T wharf and its surroundings is entirely untrue.
>
>The facts are these:  I have been a special officer on this wharf for
>the past  11  years, being  employed  by the T wharf corporation, and
>I  can positively state that there are no treacherous men, thieves or
>murderers who linger around here nights, nor has there been one on any
>night for the past 11 years, making a business of attacking and
>robbing sailors as they are bound for their vessels, and this wharf is
>not lonely and unguarded. ...
>
>In case of any disturbance or brawl on this pier, or on board of any
>of the vessels docked here, I need only rap on the gate fronting the
>avenue and in five minutes there are two or more police officers on
>the grounds.
>
>[End excerpt]

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