Broad Street

Broad Street is the main commercial and government corridor of central Monrovia, running through the oldest part of the city from the waterfront up toward Capitol Hill. The street holds the National Museum, several government ministries, colonial-era buildings, banks, and the main concentration of businesses serving the city centre.

Walking Broad Street end to end takes about 20 minutes and passes through the full range of Monrovia's formal and informal economies — suited government workers, street vendors, money changers, phone repair stalls, and the occasional cattle grazing on a vacant lot. The architecture ranges from intact 19th-century settler buildings to Soviet-funded concrete blocks to newer commercial premises. The whole story of the city is on this one street.

things to do neighbourhood
A story
Broad Street was laid out in the 1820s by the settlers who named it after Broad Street in their American cities of origin — particularly Baltimore and New York. The American grid names (Broad, Randall, Front, Mechlin) survive today, overlaid on a West African city, creating the peculiar sensation of navigating a Liberian capital with Baltimore street names.