This traffic island once had a pink triangle
painted on it by unknown parties to commemorate
those lost to AIDS. It was eliminated when
traffic was reconfigured in the 1990s.
W
4 T H
East:
Corner:The Rembrandt apartments, an
18-floor co-op from 1959, cited in 1969 as
an example of the kind of architecture the
Greenwich Village Historic Distric would prevent.
Sculptor
Gleb W. Derujinsky,
writer
Ed Hoagland, activist
Linda Stone Davidoff
and dollmaker
Robert McKinley have lived here.
Corner (40 8th Ave):
This building, built c. 1900 at the tip
of a nearly triangular block, houses
Li-Lac Chocolates, an old-school
chocalatier that opened in 1923.
Corner (283 W 12th):Smorgas Chef, Scandinavian mini-chain
W E S T
4 T H
S T
East:
Corner Bistro
331 (corner): A cozy
pub that many say has the best cheeseburger in New York.
It's been a bar since the 1870s; during
prohibition, it masqueraded as a butcher shop,
with patrons entering the drinking area
through the refrigerator.
281 (corner):The Cubby Hole, gay bar that
"looks like Bugs Bunny took acid and threw up"--Shecky's.
Dawn Powell's novel The Locusts Have No King
starts at this intersection, with the protagonist
getting into a cab and then getting out again because
he has no money.
280: This house was bought in 1919
by
Charles Webster Hawthorne (1872-1930),
an American impressionist who helped found the
Provincetown art colony. The studio he added in back
can be seen from 11th Street.
259 (corner):Sant Ambroeus, pastry cafe that
is a branch of bakery founded in 1936 in Milan,
was Anton's, old-world Italian;
Extra Virgin, Mediterranean, was
Titou, cozy French. The building is called
The Victoria.
228 (corner):Absolutely 4th Street,
cozy bar whose name plays on a Bob Dylan
song; was
Jack the Ripper, serial killer-themed pub.
W E S T
4 T H
S T R E E T
East:
Corner (62 Charles St):Sevilla, a
well-regarded Spanish restaurant, opened on this corner
in 1941; it's been under the same family's management since
1962. From 1923 it was Talk of the Town, an Irish tavern; in
the late 1800s there was a hansom cab stand here.
239: During Prohibition, this was Charlie's Garden,
a restaurant with a speakeasy in the back. In 1952, the
son of the original owner renamed it the
Fedora Bar, after his wife; the son is dead
but in recent years Fedora was still tending bar
and doing most of the cooking here.
233 (corner):I Tre Merli ("The Three Blackbirds"),
bistro that has another branch on West Broadway.
Corner (110 7th Ave S): A neighborhood landmark; it's
what the main character in Next
Stop, Greenwich Village sees when he gets out of
the subway for the first time.
James Woods' character has his law office in this
building in True Believer.
There's a
plaque on
the sidewalk here that says "Property of the Hess
Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated for Public
Purpose." According to the website
Forgotten NY, it is the last remnant of Christopher
Street's Voorhis House, owned by one David Hess, who
was able to keep just this tiny corner from being
condemned by the city for the construction of 7th Avenue South.
Actually, though, the phrasing seems to be
a standard disclaimer for reserving the
right to remove loiterers and the like;
there's a similar plaque at
1st Avenue and 14th Street.
W E S T
4 T H
S T R E E T
East:
Corner (61 Christopher): Was
Village Voice offices. Now The Duplex, long-running cabaret where
Barbra Streisand and Woody Allen used to perform.
This traffic island features the
subway station that provides the title for
the movie Next Stop, Greenwich Village.
The station features the Greenwich Village
Murals by Lee Brozgold and the students of I.S. 41.
Named for Charles Christopher Amos, a developer who laid out and named several Village
streets after himself. (Amos Street became West 10th.)
The park is often mistaken for Sheridan Square, because it has a
statue of Philip Henry Sheridan in it,
Union cavalry commander and Indian fighter. Best-known quote: "The only good Indian is a dead
Indian." Also contains the more benign Gay Liberation statues by
George Segal (cast 1980; installed 1992).
9 (corner): The Sheridan Square Branch of
Chase bank goes by the address of
204 W. 4th, rather than by its more proper
Sheridan Square location--hard to blame them,
because these other addresses are confusing.
3 (corner): In 1972, this apartment
building replaced several historic structures, including:
6 1/2: The Crumperie, an artists'
and actors' tea room. This was also the address
of the studio of photojournalist
Jesse Tarbox Beals.
6: The basement became an expansion of
the Greenwich Village Inn.
5: The Greenwich Village Inn, a flapper-era speakeasy.
In 1951 it became the Circle in the Square
Theater, considered the birthplace of off-Broadway theater.
(It's now on Broadway itself.)
3:Louis' Tavern, a hangout for Beats, writers
and actors like James Dean, Steve McQueen, Jason Robards
and William Styron.
S H E R I D A N
S Q U A R E
North:
The Monster
Corner (80 Grove): Long-time gay bar, big enough for
both disco and show tunes. In 1939, this was the address of El
Chico, a club featuring "authentically Spanish" entertainment.
As if this area wasn't confusing enough,
the street sign identifies this as Dave Van Ronk
Street, after the
folk singer.
Sheridan Square
Can be distinguished from Christopher Park by the fact that it does not
have a statue of Gen. Phil Sheridan in it. Instead, it has
the
Sheridan Square Viewing Garden, planted in 1982 by
local volunteers to replace an unsightly traffic island.
190 (corner):Boxer's, noted for its
horseshoe bar. Formerly Barney Mac, Jimmy Day’s.
Featured in Robert DeNiro's Night and the City.
186: Was Poly Esther's 1970s & 1980s Disco.
Earlier Bianchi & Margherita, a pasta
place where the entire staff sang opera.
Now Disc-o-Rama, CD bargains.
184 3/4:The Silversmith, the
Village's smallest shop.
184: Nova Ice costume jewelry; Modern Age tattoo
and piercing. At this address was the shop of
Sonia the Cigarette Girl, a Village legend.
182 (corner):Slaughtered Lamb,
werewolf-themed pub with odd mixed drinks
Corner (333 6th Ave):Le Petit Dejeuner--"The Little
Lunch," which is what the French call breakfast--
occupies the tip of this triangular block.
W E S T
4 T H
S T R E E T
North:
2 Sheridan Square (corner): This entrance to the theater in the basement
of No. 1 is in this 1834 building.
1 Sheridan Square: In the basement of this
1903 warehouse is the
Axis Company, an innovative off-Broadway theater group. The space was
from 1967-95 the home of Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company.
Earlier it was Cafe Society, a left-wing, integrated club backed by Benny
Goodman; performers like Lena Horne and Billie Holiday (who famously
sang "Strange Fruit" here) played for the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul
Robeson and Lillian Hellman. It closed in 1950.
More recently, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman
has owned property in this building.
187: Was bakeshop of "Mother" Douglas; now
Patisserie Claude
bakery.
185: 1899 stable, 1919 garage, 1937 studio.
181:Aki, West Indian-inflected sushi
175-179: Federal-style houses with dormer
windows, built 1833. No. 179 is Down the
Hatch, bar with cheap beer that sued Sex in the
City for portraying it as a place that sells
pot. Varsano's Chocolates upstairs.
165:The Four-Faced Liar, bar named for a
deceptive clock tower in Shandon, County Cork, was Flying Burrito Brothers.
163:Birthday Suit, another, better sex shop
161: Bob Dylan lived here (hence "Positively
4th Street") in 1962, over Bruno's spaghetti parlor. Pink
Pussycat used to be in the basement; now Tic Tac Toe,
yet another sex shop.
Corner (345 6th Ave): North Fork Bank branch was O'Henry’s,
long-time village eatery; later a Gap. Building from 1825.
Corner of 6th Ave: Named for the
Golden Swan, AKA the Hell Hole or the Bucket of Blood, a bar
that used to be on this site that served as a hangout for the
Hudson Dusters gang. It provided the setting for Eugene O’Neill’s
The Iceman
Cometh, and was the subject of John Sloan paintings.
150: Was Mad Hatter Cafe: Hendrik Willem van Loon wrote
Story of Mankind; later Pony Stable Inn,
1950s lesbian bar where Gregory Corso met Allen Ginsberg.
148: Belgian Beer Bar is on the site of The Samovar,
which was claimed as "the
oldest restaurant in Greenwich Village"--housed in a former cow barn.
This later became
the Pepper Pot, a Bohemian restaurant
said to have been "established by Dr. Carlyle Sherlock for his wife Viola when
they retired from the 'Motion Picture Screen,' as a meeting place for their
friends of the Motion Picture, Theatrical, Bridge and Chess world."
"Hip Pocket Specialties prohibited in this building," a presumably Prohibition-era
menu noted. Al Jolson is said to have been discovered here--and Norma Shearer
worked briefly as a hat-check girl. A Village character named Tiny Tim (not the singer)
used to sell "soul candies" here, wrapped in bits of his own poetry. Mayor Jimmy
Walker had a hideaway on the second floor where he used to tryst with his showgirl friends. Later it became The Chantilly Club, a speakeasy
that was shut down after a notorious murder on site. In
the 1950s it was The Showplace.
146: Disc-o-Rama Music World
144:Vegetarian Paradise 2, noted
for faux meat. In 1951 this was Eddie's Aurora,
an Italian restaurant.
140:Red Bamboo Vegetarian Soul Cafe
132: Actor
John Barrymore lived in the attic of this building, which he papered in gold and dubbed The
Alchemist's Corner. He planted trees on
the roof, which resulted in flooding after he moved out.
The building is said to be haunted by Barrymore's
ghost, a tradition that inspired the play I
Hate Hamlet, by Paul Rudnick, who lived here
in the late 1980s.
Corner (39 1/2 Washington Square): This building
is called Washington View.
W E S T
4 T H
S T R E E T
North:
Corner: Washington Mutual Bank branch
149: Pearl Tea & Dim Sum House; Galanga Thai Cooking.
Was the Peacock Caffe, a 1950s coffeehouse
with a "long-hair musical following."
147:Ristorante Volare was
Polly Holliday's, a noted Bohemian restaurant
that moved to this building from around the corner on Macdougal Street.
John Reed wrote 10 Days That Shook the World in a room upstairs.
By 1939 it was known as Mother Bertolotti's. For the past 25
years it's been Volare. This building also housed the Whitney Studio Club,
an art school and gallery.
141:Plato Malozemoff House, dedicated April 1978.
Malozemoff was a mining executive and a
supporter of the Library of Congress; I
don't know what his connection to this house
is.
135: Built 1860.
Mathew Simpson, the church's first bishop, gave the sermon at
Lincoln's funeral. Called the "Peace Church" for its
aid to draft resisters in 1960s. Harvey Milk High School, a public
school for gay and lesbian youth, originally held classes
here in 1985. Noted for its jazz masses.
40: NYU's Vanderbilt Law School, built 1951, destroyed a number of historic buildings:
38 (corner):
Eugene O'Neill, fresh from having his first play produced in Provincetown, Mass., moved into a
building here in 1916. While living here he had an affair with
Louise Bryant, while her husband, radical journalist John
Reed, was in the hospital.
42:
John Reed lived here when he first moved to Greenwich Village as a 23-year-old Harvard
grad. Muckraker
Lincoln Steffans moved into the apartment below him. In 1913, Reed moved out to live with socialite Mabel
Dodge on Fifth Avenue.
43: John Reed lived here in 1916 when
Louise Bryant left her husband to come live with him.
They got married
while living here, and left from here in 1917 to
report on the Russian Revolution.
50 (corner): NYU's
Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies,
designed in 1972 by Philip Johnson. The entrance hall is
a reproduction of the interior of a 1797 merchant's house in Damascus.
54-57 (corner):Judson Memorial Baptist Church, built 1888-96 from a Stanford White design inspired by early Christian churches. Founded by
Edward Judson, the church has always been socially active, providing services for the immigrant neighborhood at the turn of the 20th Century. During the 1960s,
the church provided drug treatment, draft counseling and abortion referrals. It provided sanctuary from police during 1961's Folksinger Riots. In 1992, ACT-UP
held an open-casket funeral here that carried the body of AIDS activist Mark Fisher to George Bush the Elder's re-election headquarters on 43rd Street.
Poet Edwin Arlington Robinson lived in Judson's tower in 1906.
58 (corner):Holy Trinity Chapel (1964);
"awkward modernism," says AIA Guide. Houses the
Catholic Center
at NYU; formerly named for Generoso Pope, an
editor and a friend of Mussolini's.
Built on the site of the house of Daniel
Megie, the state hangman, who handled the executions
at Washington Square's
Hanging Elm. The house later became Bruno's
Garrett, a sort of Bohemian theme park run by Village
character Guido Bruno.
61 (corner): Kimmel Center for University Life (2001);
"borders on the grotesque"--AIA Guide. Replaced the
Loeb Student
Center (1958), where Bob Dylan had his first
paid gig in 1961, and which served as
the command center for the NYU student strike that followed Nixon's
1970 invasion of Cambodia.
Loeb in turn was built on the
site of Katharine Branchard's House of Genius, a boardinghouse
whose tenants are said to have included virtually every
Village literary figure--the ones who actually lived here were
Frank Norris and Allan Seeger.
60: At this defunct address, novelist
Willa Cather
lived in 1906-08, where she met her life partner Edith Lewis; here also
Robert W. Chambers wrote
The King in Yellow, a series of very disturbing short stories.
63: British occultist
Aleister Crowley
lived at this former address in 1918-19,
moving to a studio here because he had taken up
painting, seeking ''DWARFS,
HUNCHBACKS, Tatooed Women, Harrison Fisher Girls,
Freaks of All Sorts'' to pose for him. He held a
party here called the Benzine Jag, to which he invited ''the
representatives of the Press, the Prohibition
Movement, the Pulpit, Poetry and the Police.''
70 Washington Square South (corner): NYU's main library,
built in 1972 to a Philip Johnson design; at the time, the plan was to
redo all of NYU in this
red sandstone look. Named
for Nixon supporter, anti-Semite and child molester
Elmer Holmes Bobst; a corrupt contribution from Bobst to Nixon
is supposedly responsible for the selection of Spiro Agnew
as Nixon's running mate.
Lili Taylor studies here in The Addiction. If you want
to go inside, tell the guard that you're going to the
Tamiment Labor Library on the 10th floor, which
unlike the rest of the library is open to the public.
72: When Marie Guinan first came
to New York in 1907 from Waco, Texas, she
lived in a $2/week room in a boardinghouse
at
this address. She later became
Texas Guinan, movie cowgirl and
noted speakeasy hostess.
Schwartz Plaza
This open space provides a short-cut to
3rd Street. Includes the Founder's Memorial,
made from stonework from NYU's old Main Building.
50 W 4th St: Shimkin Hall
44: Kaufman Management Center.
42: Visiting a brothel at this address
as part of his 1892 investigation of New York vice,
the
Rev. Charles Parkhurst witnessed some kind
of sex show here that he was too embarrassed to describe.
40:Tisch Hall/Stern School of Business. More of
Johnson's red sandstone (1972). Space in front is Gould Plaza,
featuring Jean Arp's Seuil Configuration,
which looks like a silver jigsaw puzzle piece.
The 1990s building with the cylindrical
entrance is Stern School's New Building.
Corner (251 Mercer):Courant Institute/Warren Weaver
Hall (1966). In May 1970, 200 students protesting NYU's ties to the
nuclear industry held the $3.5 million computer here
hostage, demanding $100,000 for the Black Panthers' jail fund. When
NYU refused to pay up, students from SDS tried to blow
the computer up, but their Molotov cocktails were
extinguished before any damage was done.
W A S H I N G T O N
S Q U A R E
S O U T H
North:
Washington Square Park
In the southwest corner of the park the chess players
can be found who were featured in Searching for
Bobby Fischer.
Originally a marsh surrounding Minetta Brook,
in the early years of New York this area was used
as a graveyard for
slaves and yellow fever victims, a dueling ground
and a place of execution. In 1826 it was
designated the Washington
Military Parade Grounds, which soon was
transformed into a public park.
Washington Square was at one point the center of New York society, later becoming the unofficial quadrangle of NYU. In
1961 it was the site of protests over a police crackdown on folksinging, and in 1963, a plan to extend Fifth Avenue through
the park was defeated. The present relandscaping of the park,
involving centering the fountain and removing the sunken plaza,
was overwhelmingly opposed by the community.
This is where Jane Fonda wanted to be Barefoot in the Park; it's also where the skateboarders
beat up a passerby in Kids. (The real-life skate kids are harmless.)
Corner (79 Washington Sq E):Paulette Goddard Hall.
The AIA Guide pronounces this NYU building "dour and
delightful."
Goddard, an actress best rembered for her
role in Modern Times, left $20 million
to NYU when she died in 1990.
45 W 4th: Violet Cafe
39: The address of stained-glass
artist
John LaFarge's glass factory
35 (corner): NYU's Education Building. Includes the
Frederick Loewe Theater, named for the composer of Camelot and
Brigadoon; the lobby features a Musical Theater Hall of Fame.
14 (corner):Dojo's, very affordable Asian-y
diner, is on the ground floor of an eclectic 1890s building.
6:Pamela's Bake Shop
693 (corner):Merchants Building has Bath & Bodyworks
on ground floor. Note scary owls on 4th floor.
W E S T
4 T H
S T
North:
Brookdale Center
1 (block): Hebrew Union College's
Brookdale Center houses the Jewish Institute of Religion. Built
1979; replaced No. 11, the location of
Gerde's Folk City, a major folk venue, in its prime years (1956-69).
Dylan played here April 1961, his first paid gig; Simon and Garfunkel also debuted here.
As a mob of 5,000 marched down Broadway during the
1863 Draft Riots,
facing some 200 police officers blocking their
path at Bleecker, other officers attacked the column
from both sides at 4th Street, dispersing the crowd
with clubs.
South:
Silk Building
14 (block):
Above what used to be Tower Records is a luxury residential
building that has been home to Cher, Rob Lowe, Tom
Cruise and Nicole Kidman,
Keith Richards, Britney Spears and other celebs.
The east end of the former Tower is Will Smith's one-customer video
store in I Am Legend.
E
4 T H
S T
North:
1 (corner): French Connection UK and and Aldo shoes
are on the ground floor of the
Audubon Building, HQ of the environmental society;
building supposed to be model of energy efficiency. Was the Schermerhorn Building.
15:
Other Music was originally an alternative
to Tower, but now is the neighborhood's record store.
Corner: This used to be Tower Video, and
Tower Books used to be upstairs.
34:Swift's Hibernian Lounge, literate Irish pub
features Jonathan Swift memorabilia, including a pulpit from
the Rev. Swift's parish.
36:Aroma, little wine bar
40 (corner):Bowery Bar (aka B-Bar); when it first moved in in 1994,
this
former Gulf station was seen as a model-ridden
plague on the neighborhood. As the Bowery continues to
gentrify, its presence here seems less and less odd.
E A S T
4 T H
S T R E E T
North:
DeVinne Press Building
Corner (393 Lafayette): The AIA Guide raves about this
"magnificent pile," built in 1886.
25: This was an early address of the
Socialist Labor Party.
29: The house was built in 1832 for Joseph
Brewster, but was the home for many years of
Seabury Tredwell, a merchant (and leading
slave-holder) so conservative in his
tastes that he was said to be the last man in
New York to wear a pigtail. Having got the house
the way he wanted it in
the 1830s, he kept it exactly that way, as did
his daughter Gertrude, who
lived here for 93 years until her death in 1933.
(She is said to be the inspiration for
Henry James' Washington Square.)
When the house was recognized as essentially a
century-old time capsule,
it was turned into a museum.
Samuel Tredwell Skidmore House
37: Belonged to the same family
that owned the Merchant's House.
Desperately in need of restoration.
Corner (359 Bowery):Phebe's Tavern & Grill
opened in 1969; it served as an Off-Off-Broadway
scene and a post-CBGB's hangout for the punk movement.
For a while it was styling itself as ''Fuel at Phebe's.''
58: The 4th Street Food Co-Op was founded
in 1995, the successor to the Good Food Co-op, which
began in 1973.
60:Barbara Shaum, custom-made sandals
and other handcrafted leather since the 1960s.
62: This 1889 building houses
Rod Rogers Dance Theater and the Duo
Multicultural Arts Center, showcasing
Latino playwrights, directors and actors.
64: Was Labor Lyceum, worker education
and social center; Volkszeitung, a German-language
labor paper, was published here. The
International Ladies' Garment
Workers Union was founded here in 1900.
It later served as HQ for the Industrial Workers of the World.
Since 1990, it's been home to the experimental
theater company Downtown Arts.
66-68:LaMama Annex is in the former New-York
Turn-Verein, or "Gymnastics Club''; known as the Turn Hall,
it was organized in 1849 for "mental and physical education and
for the relief of members in case of sickness or distress."
The Witch, first professional Yiddish play in U.S., was produced here 1882,
foreshadowing the rise of Second Avenue as the Jewish theater district.
From 1925-1937 it was the Ukranian Labor Home, with the building's
theater dubbed the Manhattan Lyceum. In 1938 the building became
a dancehall named Manhattan Plaza, a name still on
the facade.
From 1956 until 1971 it was a film/TV
center called Biltmore Studios, aka ABC Stage City,
where such films as Cop Killer, Mag Dog Coll,
Coogan's Bluff and Hester Street were shot,
along with TV shows like Naked City and NYPD.
59:Women's One World, feminist theater group,
moved here to an abandoned doll factory in 1985.
67:Cuppa Cuppa Coffee, a LaMama hangout
69:Pageant Print Shop, specializing
in old maps and other prints. Founded in 1946 on
Booksellers' Row, in a
earlier incarnation it was featured in the Woody Allen film
Hannah and Her Sisters, as well as in Neil Simon's
Chapter Two.
77:Meadowsweet Herbal Apothecary
79: The Truck & Warehouse Theater was
opened here in 1969 in a former warehouse--
founded by Bruce Mailman, owner of Phebe's.
The red mohair seats, interlaced with gold thread,
were bought cheaply after being rejected by the
Metropolitan Opera. The New York Theatre Strategy was
here for the 1974-75 season; Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company
briefly played here about that time. In 1978, the space was taken over by
the Fourth Wall Political Theatre, affiliated with the cultlike
Sullivan Institute, which stayed until 1991.
New York Theater Workshop took up residence
here in 1993, and went on to premiere Rent and Dirty Blonde.
83: The Fourth Street Theater opened here
in 1954. From 1962-65 it housed the company Writer’s Stage.
New Dramatists were here from 1965-69, and the Playwrights Unit,
founded by Edward Albee, was here from 1969 until it folded in 1970.
The Players Workshop called it home in 1971-73, followed by
Wonderhorse Theatre from 1973-83.
85: Literary hangout, complete with
anthology.
Used to be the Ukrainian Labor Home, a
pro-Soviet hangout; upstairs was earlier the
Palm Casino, owned by Lucky Luciano. Spaces include
the Kraine Theater and the Red Room. Downstairs is
the East Village Music Store,
selling new and used instruments.
87:Cucina di Pesce (''Fish Kitchen''),
was a twin of Frutti di Mare across the street.
Corner (121 E 3rd): A
pre-K-through-5th-grade school founded in 1991
to "give children the experiences and opportunities to become
good citizens of a democratic society."
Ageloff Towers
172 (corner): This apartment building with cool Assyrian detail
was built by developer Samuel Ageloff for
$2.5 million in 1928, hoping to lure the affluent to what was then the Lower East Side;
the 1929 stock market
crash put a crimp in this plan, but it's not true, as the Songlines
once reported, that Ageloff committed suicide by jumping off his tower.
His grandson informs me that the developer bounced back from the
Depression, "enjoyed life very, very substantially," and lived
to be 92.
Ground floor used to be Cucino Cuzco,
Peruvian restaurant--now a bank.
E A S T
4 T H
S T
North:
Village View Houses
Mitchell-Lama co-op whose seven towers
were built in 1964.
Corner:Key Food has maddening
checkouts--though the price and selection aren't
bad.
220:Holy Child Middle School/Cornelia Connelly Center for Education.
Connelly, a nun, founded the
Society of the
Holy Child Jesus.
Houses (at 220A) the Connelly Theater, a 19th Century stage, as
well as the Metropolitan Playhouse, a company noted for
rediscovering forgotten American plays.
Also found here is the Catholic Big Sisters/Lower East Side Girls Club.
230:
Madonna lived here in 1978,
when she was poor and so was the neighborhood.
234:Ma-Ya, Thai tapas bar;
Perbacco Cafe, Italian tapas.
236: Bellet Construction
240: Lotus Salon.
Handsome Dick Manitoba
of The Dictators lived at this address
when he first moved to the East Village.
Corner (50 Ave B): Avenue B Grocery Store
E A S T
4 T H
S T R E E T
North:
Corner (58 Ave A): Discount Fine Wine
& Champagne's
193: Go Girl Salon
199:Venus Modern Body Arts,
famous body-piercing salon.
203:Eugenia Kim Hats claims
Jennifer Lopez and Janet Jackson as clients.
205:Assenzio; the Sardinian
wine bar's name means
"absinthe," but they use southernwood
as a non-brain-damaging alternative.
207: An unusual wood facade.
211:Mamlouk, prix fixe Mideastern
215: Yale Apartments; houses
Last Rites Tattoo Theater and Curio Shoppe,
elaborate and disturbing skin art. Now also
(instead?) In Vino, bar with hundreds of wines
from the south of Italy.
233:Ultra Hair Salon promises not to
schedule your appointment for the same time
as your ex's.
235:Aquarian Foundation, "The Church
of Tomorrow Here Today"
Corner (58 Ave B):Kate's Joint,
vegetarian restaurant serving American comfort
food; owner/chef Kate Halpern is a meat-eater
who avoids serving meat for fear of "karmic fallout."
Corner: A public elementary school
opened in 1992 with an environmental and peace focus.
269:George Daly House, residential
mental health center. Was ABC Community Center.
281: The Winner's Circle Garden
289:Road to Damascus Christian Church, Pentacostal
Corner:The Secret Garden; it's not very secret,
being right on the corner, so presumably
the name is a reference to the Frances Hodgson Burnett
book in
which restoring a garden brings life
back to a community.
345:San Isidoro y San Leandro Orthodox
Catholic Church of the Hispanic Rite; named for brothers who were
successive bishops in Seville, c. 600 AD.
Originally a Russian Orthodox Church, built c. 1895.
355: Dry Dock, a turn-of-the-20th-Century tenement
named for the neighborhood's former role as
a center for ship repair.
"You'll caper like a stupid clown when you chance
to see... 4th Street and D!"--Tony Bennett on The Simpsons
Lillian Wald Houses
Public housing project named for Lillian D. Wald
(1867-1940), who provided aid to the Lower East Side
through the Henry Street Settlement and the Visiting Nurses
Society. She fought for women's suffrage and against child
labor, and help start the Women's Trade Union League.
Margaret Sanger of Planned Parenthood was her protegee.
When Fourth Street continued to the east, novelist
Jerome Weidman, author of I Can Get It for You Wholesale,
was born at No. 390 on April 4, 1913.
What am I missing on 4th Street? Write to Jim Naureckas and tell him
about it.
