New York Songlines: White Street

West Broadway | 6th Ave | Church | Broadway | Lafayette | Centre | Baxter

White Street is named for Capt. Thomas White, an 18th Century tea merchant and local real estate developer. Ann Street may have been named for his wife.

The easternmost block of this street is named for John J. Clavin, a Department of Corrections employee and volunteer homeless advocate who died in 1986.









S <===     WEST BROADWAY     ===> N

South:

Corner (229 W Broadway): Columbine Foods, pricey sandwiches





W
H
I
T
E

North:

Corner (235 W Broadway): Little old building







S <===     6TH AVENUE     ===> N

South:

Landscaped traffic island.














W
H
I
T
E

North:

Tribeca Grand

Tribeca Grand + clock by allert, on Flickr

Block: This fancy hotel opened in 2000. Owned by Hartz Mountain Industries, the pet food company that also owns the Soho Grand and (formerly) the Village Voice. I once went to a wild party here.


S <===     CHURCH STREET     ===> N

South:

Corner (281 Church): Arqua, Tuscan named for the owner's hometown, Arqua Petrarca. Opened c. 1985.

Civic Center Synagogue...a very strange building indeed by pashasha, on Flickr

49: The Civic Center Synagogue is a 1965 building that replaced an 1866 Greek Revival loft building. The synagogue has a bizarre brick facade--like a wave about to splash on the sidewalk, or like the building's pregnant.



S <===   FRANKLIN PL



Corner (379 Broadway): World Journal Bookstore

W
H
I
T
E

S
T
R
E
E
T

North:

34 (corner): Petrarca Vino e Cucino, spinoff of Arqua across the street, was the Baby Doll Lounge, divey topless bar that opened in 1975--forced out of business by Giuliani. Featured in the film In the Cut and in the Jay McInerney novel Model Behavior. Let There Be Neon by CC Chapman, on Flickr

36: Let There Be Neon, sign de- signers









62: The address of The Paris Review, a literary magazine founded by Peter Matthiessen, George Plimpton and Harold L. Humes in Paris in 1953. Its pages carried the first published work of Adrienne Rich, Philip Roth and V.S. Naipaul, and published early works by Samuel Beckett, Jack Kerouac and Jim Carroll.




S <===     BROADWAY     ===> N

South:

W
H
I
T
E

North:


S <===     CORTLANDT ALLEY     ===> N

South:

77 White Street by Peter Comitini, on Flickr

77 (corner): This used to be the Mudd Club, from 1978-82 one of the leading punk/new wave clubs (as recognized by the the Talking Heads' line, "This ain't the Mudd Club--or CBGB's"). Named for the doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth, the club is memorialized in the Talking Heads' line, "This ain't the Mudd Club--or CBGBs." It also got a shout-out from Nina Hagen and the Ramones. The B52s played their first New York show here.

Corner (80 Lafayette): Bagel Deluxe

W
H
I
T
E

S
T
R
E
E
T

North:
















Corner (90 Lafayette): The New York City Rescue Mission has been giving "spiritual hope, food, clothing and shelter to people in crisis in New York City" since 1872.


S <===     LAFAYETTE STREET     ===> N

South:

Civil Municipal Court Building

75 (corner): A "sleek but dull cube" (AIA Guide) built in 1960, designed by William Lescaze and Matthew Del Gaudio.

A bas relief on the side of the building depicts Justice pointing to a baby and rejecting a snake. The innocence vs. guilt symbolism is somewhat out of place on a civil courthouse.






















W
H
I
T
E

S
T
R
E
E
T

North:

DCTV Firehouse

Firehouse by HorsePunchKid, on Flickr

Corner (87 Lafay- ette): This fanciful chateau, one of several remarkable firehouses designed by Napoleon LeBrun & sons, was built for Engine Co. 31, which was stationed here from 1895 until it was disbanded in 1972. 2 Battalion 2 by iamos, on Flickr It's now home to Downtown Community Television; for several years it also housed the crucial alternative news show Democracy Now!, which moved here when Pacifica Radio was giving the show's co-host Amy Goodman a hard time.

Corner (133 Centre): Where this eight-story building stands was once the stream that drained the Collect Pond--it turned into the canal that is Canal Street's namesake.


S <===     CENTRE STREET     ===> N

This intersection would have been the northern shore of the Collect Pond before it was filled in.

South:

The Tombs

125 (block): Formally known as the Manhattan Detention Complex, these buildings connected by a pedestrian bridge are a jail for those being arraigned or standing trial in the nearby Criminal Court. It's a semi-modern successor to the jail built in 1838 on a former island in the Collect Pond, built in an Egyptianate style that resembled a mausoleum, hence the nickname inherited by the current complex. tombs by Margie & James, on Flickr

The southern building was built in 1941; the northern one, replacing a torn- down section of the 1941 building, went up in 1990. The jail, which holds about 900 short-term inmates, was dubbed the Bernard B. Kerik Complex by Rudolph Giuliani in 2001, honoring the chauffeur whom Giuliani had elevated, like Caligula's horse, to police commissioner; after Kerik's many ethical failings came to light, the name was removed by Mayor Bloomberg. Along White Street by Runs With Scissors, on Flickr

Among the notable criminals held here are Bernard Goetz, Sid Vicious, Sean "Puffy" Combs, "Preppy Murderer" Robert Chambers and the guy who killed John Lennon.

Harlan Ellison was held here on a gun charge, an experience that became the basis for his novel Memos From Purgatory. Eric Cash is booked here in the novel Lush Life. Jim Carroll sings in "People Who Died" that "Bobby hung himself from his cell in The Tombs." Denzel Washington's release from prison in the film American Gangster was shot here.

J
O
H
N

J

C
L
A
V
I
N

P
L
A
C
E

North:


S <===     BAXTER STREET     ===> N









What am I missing on White Street? Write to Jim Naureckas and tell him about it.

New York Songlines Home.

Sources for the Songlines.

NYSonglines' Facebook Fan Page.

Share