Turtle Bay Tutors

About Turtle Bay

Our world’s nations come together in Turtle Bay. The Headquarters of the United Nations is located in this Manhattan neighborhood. Since 1952, when the complex was completed, it has served as the headquarters for the world’s nations. Overlooking the East River, the building was designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. Many diplomatic missions are carried out and discussed here in hopes to better the world. But the area was not always known for trying to “keep the peace”. During the mid-1850s, the area between First and Second Avenues and 41st and 43rd Streets was a more violent area. Irish immigrants moved into what was known as “Goat Hill”. This hill was ruled by goats and squatters only to then be taken over by the Irish who were tired of the prejudice they experienced in the other neighborhoods. One man is credited with single-handedly turning this neighborhood into a shanty Irish community.

Jimmy Corcoran immigrated to the United States when he was 25 from Dublin. He worked as a laborer in New Orleans before settling in New York before the start of the Civil War. After becoming a truckman he became frustrated with the prejudice accusations made towards him for being an Irish immigrant. Corcoran found the Goat Hill colony and made it his home. Soon the neighborhood was turned into a shanty Irish community later to be named “Corcoran’s Roost”. His colony would be known as a high-crime and poverty stricken area in Manhattan. Within no time the Rag Gang was developed and Corcoran was its head leader. It is said he operated under the name Paddy Corcoran and by the 1860s he was head of the violent residents who lived in his colony. Do you struggle in some of your classes? Contact a tutor in your area to raise your grades and succeed in your classes. Corcoran had a reputation for having “a caustic tongue and a ready wit” which were tools he used to his advantage in being a successful businessman. When his residents ended up in jail, he would bail them out almost every time. Corcoran’s Roost did not live forever. His family eventually moved out of the colony but still, he involved himself with shady affairs for the rest of his life. After Corcoran’s death in 1900, at the age of 80, his roost would be torn down and rebuilt. During the late 1920s, the Tudor City was built, turning this shanty colony into a tenement district. Above the entrance of Tudor Tower is a Gothic inscription dedicated to Corcoran’s memory.

By 1988 the Tudor City was named a historic district, years after it had developed into the “peacekeeper” district it is today. In the late 1940s, the area went through a major transformation. Slaughterhouses were torn down to make room for the new UN headquarters. Highrises and condominiums were built in place of the elevated trains. Turtle Bay is now rid of its once violent and dark past. Now the area has a constant focus on creating peace between the countries nations involved with the UN.