New York Songlines: 18th Street

South:

High Line Park

Bridging the street here is a disused elevated railroad that was used to transport freight along the Westside waterfront, replacing the street-level tracks at 10th and 11th avenues that earned those roads the nickname "Death Avenue." Built in 1929 at a cost of $150 million (more than $2 billion in today's dollars), it originally stretched from 35th Street to St. John's Park Terminal, now the Holland Tunnel rotary.

Partially torn down in 1960 and abandoned in 1980, it now stretches from Gansevoort almost to 34th--mostly running mid-block, so built to avoid dominating an avenue with an elevated platform. In its abandonment, the High Line became something of a natural wonder, overgrown with weeds and even trees, accessible only to those who risked trespassing on CSX Railroad property.

In 2009 it was opened to the public as New York City's newest park; it truly transforms its neighborhood and hence the city, though it lost some of the World Without Us quality that was its original appeal.

W
E
S
T

1
8
T
H

S
T
R
E
E
T

North:

IAC Building

555 (corner): Star architect Frank Gehry's first major building serves as the headquarters of Barry Diller's InterActive Corp.

515: The Roxy, longtime night club that started out as a roller rink. Named for Samuel "Roxy" Rothapfel's fancy 1920s' movie theater on 50th Street. I saw Trip Shakespeare here with a woman I had a crush on--a great show.

High Line Park

South:

Fulton Houses

NYCHA

436: Was the address of Off Center, an experimental theater company.

W

1
8
T
H

North:

South:

356: Michael Callen-Audre Lorde Community Health Center; serves the LGBT community's AIDS- and non-AIDS-related medical needs. Callen was a singer/songwriter who died from (and organized against) AIDS; Lorde was a poet, a black lesbian feminist who died of cancer.

W

1
8
T
H

North:

351: Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities/Humanities Preperatory Academy. Was Straubenmuller Textile High School.

331: Used to be the address of Animal Talent Scouts.

South:

250: Liberty High School; 9th grade for new immigrants

236: Barney's Co-Op; there used to be a lot more to this upscale department store in the neighborhood. The building was the wagon house of the Siegel-Cooper department store, from which delivery wagons would race to deliver merchandise to the "Big Store's" upscale customers. Note "S.C." logo, winged globes.

228: El Cocotero, Venezuelan

W

1
8
T
H

North:

Corner (140 7th Ave): Chadwin House Apartments

South:

168 (corner): Le Madri; pricey Italian

154: Hellmuth Building; spooky name.

142: New York Aikikai; eastern HQ of the U.S. Aikido Federation.

126-140: Most of these were originally stables, built 1864-65:

138: Original Vintage Posters.

136: Carriage House, hip restaurant with a 1950s desert motif. Brooks Brothers used to own this. 134: Movie Star News, featuring film stills and Betty Page videos. This business was founded by Irving Klaw, pin-up pioneer. 130: Props, Displays & Interiors; also Heart Art. 128: Nagel Roofing, since 1919.

120: Carlyle Collection, sofabeds

108: Amuse, American tapas; was the spendy Tonic. The space is said to have been a hangout for silent-movie actors.

104: Kudos Deli

Corner: Parade of Shoes

W
E
S
T

1
8
T
H

S
T
R
E
E
T

North:

Corner: Con Edison substation

153: Fisch for the Hip, consignment store

151: Fido's Cafe, dog restaurant

145: Was the 18th Street Playhouse, now the New York Dog Spa & Hotel.

125: Metropolitan Pavilion, exhibition/event space.

115: Henry Holt and Company, the publishing house founded in 1866, which has printed such authors as Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells, Ivan Turgenev, Robert Frost, Hermann Hesse and Norman Mailer. Today its roster includes Paul Auster, Thomas Pynchon, Salman Rushdie and Barbara Ehrenreich.

107: Petite Abeille, Belgian mini-chain

Corner (621 6th Ave): Was B. Altman (1876-1906), the "Palace of Trade." Now Today’s Man.

South:

Corner: The Price Building contains Old Navy.

44: A.I. Friedman, frames et al

42: Adorama, "the photography people"

32: Drexel Heritage Home Inpirations

26: Latin American Coffee Shop

18-22: Chat 'N Ciao cafe

16: Books of Wonder, great children’s bookstore--for kids and collectors both.

14: Pizza Paradise

12: Academy Book Store and Records is a great place to sell CDs (and buy, too).

10: ANC NY, antiques

8: Chef & Company, caterer/bakery

Corner (126 5th Ave): Gap Kids clothing

W
E
S
T

1
8
T
H

S
T
R
E
E
T

North:

"The Big Store"

Corner (616 6th Ave): Bed Bath & Beyond, a superstore featured on Sex and the City; Filene's Basement; TJ Maxx. Was Siegel-Cooper, "The Big Store--a City in Itself" (1896-1914). In its day, the center of NYC shopping; "meet me at the fountain" was a catch phrase, referring to the store's centerpiece, which featured Daniel Chester French's statue of The Republic (today in California's Forest Lawn Cemetery). Henry Siegal is credited with introducing the free sample.

23: The Cluett Building has PaperAccess.com on the ground floor.

13: Skyline Books & Records, specializing in art, photography and literary editions.

7: Print Icon, printing supplies

3: St Ann Building, 1896 building by Cleverdon & Putzel, houses City Bakery; best salad bar in town, says Village Voice. Carrie and Samantha have lunch here on Sex and the City. Was Zip City microbrewery.

Corner (130 5th Ave): Express is on site of Chickering Hall, auditorium where Alexander Graham Bell made the first interstate telephone call in 1877. Site of lectures by Oscar Wilde and Matthew Arnold.

South:

Corner (105 5th Ave): Barnes & Noble; the chain started this branch in 1932, and it became the corporate flagship.

8: Devi, fancy Indian, makes even okra taste good, claims Time Out.

12: Rafael Decorators

Engine Co. 14

14: FDNY company housed in a 1890s Renaissance Revival firehouse designed by Napoleon Lebrun.

28: The site of actor Edwin Booth's home from 1862-65; his brother, fellow actor and assassin John Wilkes Booth, often stayed with him here.

Paragon Sporting Goods

Corner (867 Broadway):

Founded 1908, in a brick building that dates to 1882. In the novel Drowned Hopes by Donald Westlake, a gang of criminals buy scuba gear here so they can rob a flooded town.

E
A
S
T

1
8
T
H

S
T

North:

Corner (111 5th Ave): Daffy's Fifth Avenue is on site of financier August Belmont's mansion, the first in the city to have a private ballroom. Belmont helped underwrite NYC subway construction; his hobby was horse-racing, and the Belmont Stakes are named for him.

9: Rosa Mexicano, the downtown branch of an acclaimed mini-chain, was America, a U.S.-themed restaurant.

15: Tarallucci e Vino, cafe, was XYZ Total Home, an alternative to ABC Carpets.

Corner (873 Broadway): The building housing New Andy's Deli and spanning this entire block used to be the Arnold Constable department store (1869-1914); founded by Aaron Arnold and son-in-law James Constable, it offered "Everything From Cradle to Grave." Mary Todd Lincoln was a frequent customer, along with Carnegies, Rockefellers and Morgans.

South:

Corner (872 Broadway): Hawes Building houses the Dynasty Deli.

28: Was Quisqueyana Cigars Cafe; before that a novelty shop, part of a now-vanished novelty district.

The rear of the Century Building, now occupied by Barnes & Noble.

Corner: Haru was Nong and before that Aleutia

E

1
8
T
H

S
T

North:

Corner (874 Broadway): Klein Sleep is in MacIntyre Building (1892); note name behind awning. Over-the-top tower was first occupied by McLoughlin Bros., pioneering children's book and game company (1892-98).

35: Was Chicama, Pan-Latin

37: Djoniba Dance & Drum Center is described by the Voice as "the best dance studio" in town.

Old Town Bar & Grill

45: Opened in 1892 as Veimieske's; in the 1920s, it was Craig's Restaurant, a speakeasy under Tammany Hall protection--a hangout for Al Smith. Since Prohibition ended in 1933, it's been known as the Old Town Bar. It was used as the exterior of Riff's Bar on the TV series Mad About You.

Corner: Alkit Pro Camera

South:

118: Sarah Feldman House

Corner (61 Irving): The Gramercy apartments

E

1
8
T
H

North:

Corner: American Woolen Building

115: Sushi Desse

119: Los Dos Molinos ("the two windmills"), spicy Mexican

123: Paul & Jimmy's Ristorante Italiano; since 1950, though this address was Sparks Pub South in 1966.

South:

130: Gramercy Plaza apartments

136: Site of Calvert Vaux's home, where he and Frederick Law Olmstead planned the landscaping of Central Park in 1857-58.

142: Site of Stuyvesant Apartments (1869), considered the first true apartment building in U.S.; it resembled the building across the street at No. 143. It was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and financed by Rutherford Stuyvesant, who changed his name from Stuyvesant Rutherford in order to inherit money. Poets Elinor Wylie and William Rose Benet lived here after their 1923 marriage.

150: Author Herman Melville lived briefly at this address in 1862.

E

1
8
T
H

S
T

North:

Pete's Tavern

129 (corner): In an 1829 building that may have been serving liquor as early as 1852, which would make it the oldest drinking establishment in the city. The first official saloon here, however, seems to have opened in 1864. Originally called the Portman Hotel, it was bought in 1899 by Tom and John Healy, and it was under the name Healy's that it was a favorite hangout of O. Henry's. (It appears in the writer's "The Lost Blend" as "Kenealy's," and the idea for "The Gift of the Magi" is said to have occurred in booth No. 2.) It survived Prohibition by posing as a flower shop. The interior has been featured in Ragtime, Endless Love and Seinfeld, not to mention a number of beer commercials.

135-143: Date to 1855.

145-151: Built 1853-54.

Corner (206 3rd Ave): Sunburst Espresso Bar

South:

Park Towers

Corner (197 3rd Ave): At 30 stories, the tallest thing in the neighborhood.

206: This building was the home of Socialist Norman Thomas (1923-39) during his first three (of six) runs for president. Like 208 and 210, it was built c. 1850.

212: This house was built for William Dodge, a founder of the Phelps Dodge copper company and a supporter of the YMCA, around 1849-50.

214-216: These Greek Revival houses, from 1842-43, are the oldest in the Stuyvesant Square Historic District. They were also built for William Dodge, who has a statue in Bryant Park.

218: This four-story Italianate house was built c. 1856-57. It now houses the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, a progressive philanthropy.

220-226: These narrow, four-story Italianate brick houses went up in 1869.

228-234: Built c. 1850 with mixed Italianate and Greek Revival features.

Rutherford Place Apartments

Corner (303-305 2nd Ave): Was New York Lying-In Hospital (1899); in the early 20th Century, 60 percent of all NYC hospital births were here. (Check out the dancing babies on the facade.) Wesley Snipes, Judd Nelson and David Lee Roth have all called this their home.

E

1
8
T
H

S
T

North:

Gramercy Park Towers

Corner (205 3rd Ave): An awful white-brick apartment tower houses Liberty Travel, Alpine Cleaners.

211: A number of writers have lived in this building; notably, Frank McCourt wrote Angela's Ashes here while he was teaching at the old Stuyvesant High School, and Vincent Patrick wrote The Pope of Greenwich Village.

Corner (311 2nd Ave): Lantern, classy Thai, was Pongsri Thai, more old-school.

South:

Hospital for Joint Diseases

Corner: Founded in 1905, the hospital has been here since 1979.

312: This was the address (and possibly the actual house) of James W. Blake, who wrote "East Side, West Side" (aka "The Sidewalks of New York"), one of the best-known songs about New York, here in 1894. The people mentioned in the song--"Jackey Krause the baker," "pretty Nellie Shannon" and so on--were based on real characters from the neighborhood.

318: This building has numerous gargoyles affixed to its facade--sort of a permanent Halloween look. The person who lives here is sort of a gargoyle himself. In 1966, Yippie Paul Krassner lived here.

326-330: With deep yards and cast-iron verandas, these landmarked 1853 Italianate row houses bring a taste of New Orleans to Manhattan.

Corner: Karpas Health Information Center, part of Beth Israel.

E

1
8
T
H

S
T

North:

Corner (310 2nd Ave): Posto, great thin-crust pizza; a spin-off of Alphabet City's Gruppo. Used to be Tasty Corner, Chinese.

301: Famous Pita & Pizza

303: This brownstone was the home, from 1859 until 1872, of Sarah Willis, who under the pseudonym Fanny Fern was America's first female columnist and an early proponent of women's rights.

309: Beautiful glass above the door and ground-floor windows.

325: Musician Stevie Wonder has lived here.

327: Musician Wynton Marsalis has lived here.

Corner (313 1st Ave): Quigley's was Stuyvesant Town Cafe

Stuyvesant Town

Built in the late 1940s by Met Life Insurance Co. as affordable housing; now being converted to high-cost rentals. Built on the site of the notorious Gashouse District, where fumes from chemical plants kept out all but the poorest immigrants. Terrorized by the Gashouse Gang.