The answer to each clue is the name of an avenue in New York. These avenues also have numbers for at least part of their length (e.g., West End Avenue is the same street as 11th Avenue). Use the number of the avenue as an index into the corresponding clue:
Location of Covent Garden (West End = 11th → C) Women's suffrage pioneer (Frederick Douglass = 8th → U) Denzel Washington role (Malcolm X = 6th → L) Fall holiday honoree (Columbus = 9th → D) Tanglewood town (Lenox = 6th → E) The western hemisphere (The Americas = 6th → S) City with many canals (Amsterdam = 10th → A) Bench locale (Park = 4th → C)
The indexed letters spell CUL DE SAC.