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Reading more about it, accounts vary. There are historians who posit it was in fact inspired by Manhattan, or maybe Boston, but it's not cut and dry. Edit for
by 0_____0 2y ago
Reading more about it, accounts vary. There are historians who posit it was in fact inspired by Manhattan, or maybe Boston, but it's not cut and dry.
Edit forgot link: https://downtownny.com/news/where-did-downtown-come-from/ https://downtownny.com/news/where-did-downtown-come-from/
- thaumasiotes 2y agoI'm not especially impressed by the argument "if we assume it came from Manhattan, then we can know it came from Manhattan": > Let’s suppose that Fosdick, incoherent from distress, forgot to include the words “to the” between “down” and “town” when describing the direction in which people were fleeing. With this in mind, we can assume that Lower Manhattan is in fact the original “downtown,” as posited by Schwarzer, and that the possible Bostonian origin of the word is simply a misunderstanding.
- 0_____0 2y agoI'm also frustrated by the lack of sourcing here but the wiki article for downtown [1] also points to Manhattan, citing a book I don't have a copy of. Allegedly it was in use in Manhattan in the 1830s, which aligns with the date given by the etymology entry linked previously. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown