New York Songlines: 4th Street

13th St | Gansevoort | 8 Ave | Horatio | Jane | W 12th | Bank | W 11th | Perry | Charles | W 10th | Christopher | Grove (Sheridan Square) | 7th Ave S | Barrow | Jones | Cornelia | 6th Ave | Macdougal (Washington Square) | Sullivan | Thompson | LaGuardia | Washington Sq E | Greene | Mercer | Broadway | Lafayette | Bowery (Cooper Square) | 2nd Ave | 1st Ave | Avenue A | Avenue B | Avenue C | Avenue D


West Fourth Street was originally named Asylum Street, after the Orphan Asylum Society located until 1833 between Bank Street and West 12th (then known as Troy Street).





<===               WEST 13TH STREET                         ===>

West:

Corner (652 Hudson): Catherine Malandrino, fashion designer. This is the address given for Glenn Close's loft in Fatal Attraction.


W <===     GANSEVOORT ST

Block (320 W 13th): White Columns, non-profit art space




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Corner (308 W 13th): Tipton Charles Ltd., spa products











Corner (5 Horatio): Freemans Sporting Club, retro-style barber shop


<===         HORATIO STREET         ===>

West:



'sNice by warsze, on Flickr

Corner (45 8th Ave): 'sNice, coffee shop

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<===               8TH AVENUE               ===>

West:






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.

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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.


<===               JANE STREET               ===>

West:

li-lac (4) by smitten, on Flickr

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

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Corner Bistro

Corner Bistro by roboppy, on Flickr 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.


<===               WEST 12TH STREET               ===>

West:

Corner (284 W 12th St): Cafe Cluny, a bistro sibling of Odeon and Cafe Luxembourg. It's named for a town in Burgundy.

310: The Place, romantic underground Mediterranean

304: Bookleaves, sweet little bookstore

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319 (corner): For the film Doctor Strange, the title character's home, the Sanctum Sanctorum, was digitally inserted into the streetscape here. The address is given in the film as 177A Bleecker Street—Strange's canonical address in the comics—which is a much less picturesque part of the Village.

317: Poet Kenneth Patchen lived here in 1943.








<===               BANK STREET               ===>

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.

West:














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10a.GreenwichVillage.NYC.31aug07 by ElvertBarnes, on Flickr

Corner (253 W 11th): Tartine, affordable French


<===               WEST 11TH STREET               ===>

West:



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.

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267: Osteria del Sole, formerly EQ


<===               PERRY STREET               ===>

West:
















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West Village West 4th Street by Susan NYC, on Flickr

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.



<===               CHARLES STREET               ===>

West:
























228 (corner): Absolutely 4th Street, cozy bar whose name plays on a Bob Dylan song; was Jack the Ripper, serial killer-themed pub.

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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. Fedora Bar by designwallah, on Flickr

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. corner of West 4th & West 10th (my old corner) by Susan NYC, on Flickr

233 (corner): I Tre Merli ("The Three Blackbirds"), bistro that has another branch on West Broadway.


<===               WEST 10TH STREET               ===>

West:

230: Chow Bar, popular pan-Asian, was Formerly Joe's, which was named for Joe Stanziani's legendary Italian restaurant at this spot.

224: The Village Independent Democrats, an influential political club, were founded here in 1956 after the defeat of Adlai Stevenson.

220 (corner): This low-rise commercial building, built 1931, is on the site of the Greenwich Village Theatre, built in 1917 by Marguerite Abbott Barker. It was home to the Greenwich Village Follies, a variety revue that featured songs like "I'm the Hostess of a Bum Cabaret!" and "Why Be an Industrial Slave When You Can be Crazy?" Martha Graham was a dancer and choreographer in the Follies. Tony Sarge, who later made the first giant balloons for the Macy's parade, put on a ballet with puppets. DSC08817.JPG by Kramchang, on Flickr The show was so popular that it moved to Broadway in its first two seasons, and then for its third year started on Broadway, bypassing this theater. Another hit here was Sinclair Lewis' satire Hobohemia.

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Funky Door, West Village by RoboSchro, on Flickr

225 (corner): Riviera Cafe & Sports Bar used to be a hipster hangout; Lou Reed kicked John Cale out of the Velvet Underground here.


<===               CHRISTOPHER ST / 7TH AVE S               ===>

West:

Village Cigars

Village Cigars by Susan NYC, on Flickr

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. NYC - West Village: Hess Estate plaque by wallyg, on Flickr

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.

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Where the Village Voice used to be, now the Duplex by Susan NYC, on Flickr

Corner (61 Christopher): Was Village Voice offices. Now The Duplex, long-running cabaret where Barbra Streisand and Woody Allen used to perform.
























<===               7TH AVE S / CHRISTOPHER ST               ===>

NYC - West Village: Christopher St-Sheridan Sq Subway Station by wallyg, on Flickr

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.

1/9 to 14th Street
1/9 to Houston Street





















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Christopher Park

NYC - West Village: Christopher Park - Philip Henry Sheridan statue by wallyg, on Flickr 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). NYC - West Village: Christopher Park - Gay Liberation by wallyg, on Flickr

<===               GROVE STREET               ===>

West:

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.









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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.


WASHINGTON PL         N ===>

As if this area wasn't confusing enough, the street sign identifies this as Dave Van Ronk Street, after the folk singer.

Sheridan Square

NYC - West Village: Sheridan Square Viewing Garden by wallyg, on Flickr 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.

<===               BARROW STREET               ===>

South:

190 (corner): Oliver's City Tavern (aka Oliver's Bar & Grill), noted for its horseshoe bar and vaulted brick ceiling. Featured in Robert DeNiro's 1992 Night and the City; Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin meet here in Sea of Love. Formerly Boxer's, Barney Mac, Jimmy Day's.

The building was built on the site of Michael Hallanan's horseshoeing business; he made enough money with the invention of a rubber horseshoeing pad to build this nine-floor loft in 1897, which still says "MH" on it. (Hallanan is credited with naming Sheridan Square for fellow Irishman Philip Sheridan.)

188: There was a club here called Metro, where Patti Smith played in 1974. Now Bleecker Street Records, relocated from Bleecker Street.

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. Slaughtered Lamb by jilliancyork, on Flickr

182 (corner): Slaughtered Lamb, werewolf-themed pub with odd mixed drinks


<===         JONES ST



170: Tio Pepe, longstanding Mexican

168: The Bagel Restaurant; Bob Dylan used to eat here.

166: Burrito Loco

164: Smoke Shop

162 (corner): Karavas Place, Greek grill since 1983; was Humpty Dumpty's. Downstairs is the K-Lounge. Next door is Cherry B XXX, a sex shop.


<===         CORNELIA ST

Corner (333 6th Ave): The Varitype Building, a 12-story loft building from 1907. Le Petit Dejeuner —"The Little Lunch," which is what the French call breakfast— occupies the tip of this triangular block.

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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 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 NYC - West Village: 175-179 West 4th Street by wallyg, on Flickr

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.

173: Mary's Dairy—''The Queen of Cream''

171: Shisha International Tobacco was Allan Block's Sandal Shop, whose owner played the fiddle and would hold folk jams in his shop.

169: Music Inn World Instruments, packed to the gills with exotic percussion instruments. Dylan and other folkies used to frequent. Pink Pussy Cat Boutique by ChrisDigital™, on Flickr

167: Pink Pussycat, famous sex shop, established 1972

165: The Four-Faced Liar, bar named for a deceptive clock tower in Shandon, County Cork, was Flying Burrito Brothers.

163: West 4 Tattoo was Birthday Suit, another sex shop

161: This was Bob Dylan's first NYC apartment (hence "Positively 4th Street") in 1962, over Bruno's spaghetti parlor. His girlfriend Suze Rotolo moved in with him when she turned 18.

Pink Pussycat used to be in the basement.



Corner (345 6th Ave): North Fork Bank branch was O'Henry’s, long-time village eatery; later a Gap. Building from 1825.


<===               6TH AVENUE               ===>

South:

Golden Swan Gardens

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. Red Bamboo by Harris Graber, on Flickr

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.

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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.




Washington Square United Methodist Church

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.

133: WSUMC Parsonage houses Fresh Art, Alanon House.

Corner (37 Washington Square West): Notable terra cotta on this 1928 building.


<===     MACDOUGAL ST / WASHINGTON SQ WEST     ===>

South:

NYC - Greenwich Village: NYU - Arthur T Vanderbilt Hall by wallyg, on Flickr

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.


<===       SULLIVAN ST

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.

51: Heyman Hall houses the Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies, as well as the Goldstein-Goren Center for American-Jewish History.

53: Judson Hall. Once part of the church; now NYU's King Juan Carlos of Spain Center, promoting Spanish and Latin American Studies. Painter John Sloan once had a studio here.

Judson Church

Judson Memorial Church by discolights444, on Flickr

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.


<===       THOMPSON ST

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. nyu_kimmel_cntr by Rob Johnston, on Flickr

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.''


<===       LAGUARDIA PL

Bobst Library

Bobst Library

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, antisemite 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. Bobst Library at Night Lili Taylor studies here in The Addiction. At least two real-life NYU students have committed suicide by leaping down the central atrium. 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

NYC - Greenwich Village: Schwartz Plaza - Founders Memorial by wallyg, on Flickr

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. NYC - Greenwich Village: NYU Stern School of Business by wallyg, on Flickr

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.

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Washington Square Park

Chess at Washington Square Park / 20090818.SD850IS.2592 / SML by See-ming Lee ??? SML, on Flickr

In the southwest corner of the park the chess players can be found who were featured in Searching for Bobby Fischer.


























Washington Square Park by kalyan3, on Flickr

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 park underwent a controversial remodeling from 2007-2014, which (among other changes) centered the fountain in the middle of the plaza.

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.) Under control by ianqui, on Flickr


























































UNIVERSITY PL ===> N

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.


GREENE ST ===> N

31 (corner): Campus Eatery

25: NYU's Student Life Center









Tish Hinojosa w/ Joan Baez by neatnessdotcom, on Flickr

15 (corner): The music club Bottom Line opened here in 1974. Some of Bruce Springsteen's first shows were here. Other musicians who played here include Patti Smith, Lou Reed, the Police, Prince, Neil Young, Hall & Oates, Billy Joel, Laura Nyro, Linda Ronstadt, Joan Baez. Driven out of business in 2004 by landlord NYU's rent demands.


<===               MERCER STREET               ===>

South:

14 (corner): Dojo's, very affordable Asian-y diner, is on the ground floor of an eclectic 1890s building.

6: Pamela's Bake Shop the owls... by IntangibleArts, on Flickr

Corner (693 Broadway): Merchants Building has Bath & Bodyworks on ground floor. Note scary owls on 4th floor.

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Brookdale Center

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; this is where he met Joan Baez. Simon and Garfunkel also debuted here.


<===               BROADWAY               ===>

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

Crossing over to the other side by j o s h, on Flickr

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.


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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. 2008-03-15 091 by snapsparkchik, on Flickr

15: Was Other Music, originally an alternative to Tower, but it outlasted it by several years before closing in 2016. Members of the band Animal Collective worked here.

Corner (400 Lafayette): 1888 loft building


<===               LAFAYETTE STREET               ===>

South:

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





B Bar by PetroleumJelliffe, on Flickr

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.

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DeVinne Press Building

NYC - East Village: De Vinne Press Building by wallyg, on Flickr

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.

Merchant's House Museum

The stately brick Merchant's House by Curious Expeditions, on Flickr

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. Front Parlor Piano by Curious Expeditions, on Flickr (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.

27: Plans to build a nine-story hotel at this long-vacant address have evoked fears that construction could damage the Merchants House.

Samuel Tredwell Skidmore House

37: Belonged to the same family that owned the Merchant's House. Desperately in need of restoration, it was fixed up by the builders of 2 Cooper Square in 2010 as part of a zoning deal. 2 Cooper Square by edenpictures, on Flickr

Corner (2 Cooper Square): A luxury apartment building built in 2010 in the retro faux-industrial style of the Bowery Hotel. It's actually pretty nice-looking—but perhaps not nice enough to charge up to $20,000 for a month's rent, as it reportedly tried to do. Ashley Greene, a supporting actor in the Twilight films, has reportedly lived here.


<===               THE BOWERY / COOPER SQUARE               ===>

South:

New York City - 26 July 2008 by flickr4jazz, on Flickr

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.

LaMama e.t.c.

sultry by missmareck, on Flickr

74A: Early off-off-Broadway theater company, founded in 1961 by Ellen ''La Mama'' Stewart. Andy Warhol's Pork was first produced here in 1971.

78: East Fourth Street, restaurant

82: From 1958 until 1978, this was Club 82, mobbed-up drag bar that was an important venue for the first wave of punk/new wave; the New York Dolls, Television, Debbie Harry (pre-Blondie) all played here, to audiences that included David Bowie and Lou Reed. In the late 1980s/early 1990s it was Woody's, a bar owned Woody's: Ron Wood The Chills, Eleventh Dream Day Now it's The Bijou, which shows old movies to gay patrons who aren't watching them.

84 (corner): Belcourt, Parisian bistro, was for many years Frutti di Mare (''Fruit of the Sea''), fish-oriented Italian.

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Corner (200 E 5th): Evelyn & Louis Green Residence, a project of the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged.

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.

KGB Bar

KGB Bar by larryfishkorn, on Flickr

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.


S <===               2ND AVENUE               ===> N

South:

Corner (68 2nd Ave): Two by Four--referring to the cross streets-- was The Bar, gay dive with biker vibe; dates back to late 1970s. Unattended by 24gotham, on Flickr

86: The Boiler Room, dark, popular gay bar

88: Dolphin Fitness

96: East Village Foot Care Center

98: Healthfully Organic Market

108: Cicciolino; the name of this Italian restaurant means "little cute thing"-- and it is.

110: Euzkadi, Basque restaurant

116: Jeollado, Japanese/Korean sushi. Includes a video-screening room.

124: Social Tees, message T-shirts whose proceeds go to animal shelters.

128: Borobudur, tasty, affordable Indonesian named for a 9th Century Buddhist pyramid.

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Corner (72 2nd Ave): Art Deco Fleet Bank is former Industrial National Bank (c. 1926); note original name on south wall.

97: Cabrini Medical Center













113: Manhattan School for Career Development, a public high school, features murals by neighborhood grafitti artist Chico, who went to school here.

125: Best Chinese Foot & Back Rub; Village Divers

131: Unique Flowers

133: Village Computer


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South:

Neighborhood School

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.

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Village View Houses

Sunset on Village View in the East Village of NYC by jebb, on Flickr Mitchell-Lama co-op whose seven towers were built in 1964.

















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The western boundary of Alphabet City

South:

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

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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: In the Marvel show Hawkeye, Clint and Kate hide out here at Kate's aunt's apartment. Was Aquarian Foundation, "The Church of Tomorrow Here Today." Kate's Joint - East Village location by sayheypatrick, on Flickr

Corner (58 Ave B): Was 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."


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South:

Corner (53 Ave B): East 4th Deli

246: Otnoob, red, white and green apartment building decorated with sun, moon and stars.

256: Emmanuel Spanish Baptist Church

270: Tu Pueblo Batay, "your community garden" since 1982, aka Generation X Youth Cultural Garden



















300 (corner): Gothic revival building

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The Earth School

Earth School by Green Map System, on Flickr

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 Secret Garden by Green Map System, on Flickr

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.


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South:

Corner: Fine Fare supermarket. "To the ladies at Fine Fare Supermarket, just about everybody is 'Mama'"--Voice

Tranquilidad, community garden



















332: Was Chama, UFO-oriented tearoom/performance space; now Amazonas, Brazilian cafe.




Orchard Alley, community garden

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Corner (54 Ave C): Mountains of Yaffa Supermarket. I believe the name refers to Yafa in Yemen.

329: Director George Cukor (The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib, etc.) was born on this site, July 14, 1899.

Jardin el Paraiso, community garden by minusbaby, on Flickr

333: PS 15: Roberto Clemente School. Named for the Puerto Rican baseball player who died delivering earthquake relief to Nicaragua.

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.


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"You'll caper like a stupid clown when you chance to see... 4th Street and D!"--Tony Bennett on The Simpsons

Lillian Wald Houses

by minusbaby, on Flickr

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.

New York Songlines Home.

Sources for the Songlines.

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