23rd Street, one of the wide crosstown streets of the 1811 grid.
23rd Street was laid down in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which created Manhattan's street grid, as one of 15 east–west streets 100 feet wide, against 60 feet for minor side streets. In the 19th century the area between 14th and 23rd Streets, Sixth Avenue and Broadway became a shopping district dubbed Ladies' Mile, because women were its target customers.