It started off fun, but i’ve been working on & off all week on this random/historic greenwich village thread until now I can’t stand looking at it anymore-ha! So here it is.

I might add to it sometime, or if anyone else wants to add to it, please feel free.

 

51 horatio -- hello it us: todd rundgren, bebe buell & liv tyler

looks like it's for sale!

   

 

47 horatio – Jackson Pollock

 

 

63 bank – out on parole for killing nancy, sid vicious had his final o.d. here

 

 

 

Abingdon square – back in England the family supported the revolution, so they got to keep their square

 

105 bank – john lennon & yoko ono

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob21.html

 

W11th – Julian schnabel’s palazzo chupi

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/garden/13schnabel.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1239509551-+8Y+stqvU6ggK07JwhkOiw

 

 

116 perry – frank serpico

http://velvet_peach.tripod.com/fpacserpico.html

 

93 perry – mysterious archway to an alternate world in hp lovecraft’s sci-fi/horror story “he”

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/he.htm

 

 

66 perry – carrie’s apt in sex&the city, given the chain it looks like fans still annoy the owner

 

 

74 charles – woody Guthrie

 

79 charles – Clevelander hart crane’s home (he could afford it - his family invented lifesaver’s candy)

 

 

 

92 charles – Maurice sendak

 

135 charles – Le Gendarme apts, from 1897 to 1971, this was the Village's police station. In March 1970, when police arrested 167 customers at The Snakepit, a gay bar on West 10th, they were brought here. One panicked patron, Diego Vinales, leaped from a second-story window and impaled himself on a fence. He lived, but he became a cause celebre that led to protests here against police harassment of the gay community.

 

 

155 bank – Once the Bell Telephone/Western Electric Laboratories, this full-block complex created or help to develop some of the most important inventions of the 20th Century: the vacuum tube (1912), radar (1919), sound movies (1923) and the digital computer (1937). One of the first demonstrations of television transmission occurred here, April 27, 1927. Westbeth was also the original home of the NBC radio network.

The complex was converted to an artists' colony in 1969; photographer Diane Arbus committed suicide here, July 28, 1971, and actor Vin Diesel grew up here.

 

Charles lane – Thomas Pynchon

 

 

South of Charles lane – site of newgate prison (1797-1828), moved upstate to Ossining (aka sing-sing)

 

Weehawken street – a market thrived here after newgate prison moved

 

 

398 west -- built in 1828 as noted above

 

282 hudson – the blues bar (1978-79)

an unlicensed after hours basement joint where ackroyd&belushi developed the blues brothers

http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4659728-1.html

 

395 hudson – Home to Hot 97, the hip-hop radio station whose studios have become a traditional site for inter-artist rivalries to escalate into violence. In February 2001, a feud between Lil' Kim's posse and Foxy Brown's Capone-N-Noreaga crew broke into gunfire, resulting in one injury and a perjury conviction for Lil' Kim. The 50 Cent/The Game beef turned into a shooting here in February 2005. And rapper Jamal "Gravy" Woolard took a bullet here in April 2006--though it didn't prevent him from giving a previously scheduled on-air interview. Word.

 

10 st. luke’s – the cosby show home exterior

 

 

64 morton – john belushi

 

 

65 morton – Rosenberg spy den

 

 

Grove court -- the setting for O. Henry's story "The Last Leaf" about an ailing young woman and a failing artist. It was filmed for the 1952 movie O. Henry's Full House.

 

52 w8th - Electric lady studios: jimi Hendrix built this studio, somehow it’s still there

Whodathunkit, but prior to becoming electric lady, the shabby building was ‘the village barn,’ site of the 1st televised country music tv show (1948-50).

 

359 6th avenue – forgotten ny sez: an 1832 Federal style building; Forgotten Fans may remember it in the 1980s as McBell's. In 1922 it was a speakeasy called the Red Head; it subsequently moved to Washington Place and then uptown to 52nd Street, where it put on airs and became the 21 Club.

 

Hotel earle (now the Washington square hotel) once home of ramblin’ jack Elliot (room312), peter Lafarge in 312, who ‘wrote the ballad of ira hayes’ there, & bob Dylan in room305.

 

161 w4th st – bob dylan’s  1st apt in nyc, from the 1962 freewheelin’ era

 

The freewheeling album cover was taken around the corner on jones street

 

567 Hudson st – the white horse tavern replaced the james dean oyster bar in 1878 and it is doubledylantastic – poet Dylan Thomas drank himself to death in here uttering one of my favorite quotes,"I've had eighteen straight whiskies, I believe that's the record . . ." and later a young bob Dylan hung out here to listen to and rip off the Clancy brothers irish band.

 

94 macdougal – bob dylan’s late 1969 second wave nashville skyline era village home

The move back to the Village was, Dylan later admitted, "a stupid thing to do....The worst times of my life were when I tried to find something in the past. Like when I went back to New York for the second time. I didn't know what to do. Everything had changed."

 

 

Minetta lane – crooked street follows old minetta brook – once the heart of ‘little Africa,’ then became a slum. the red restaurant down there was once called ‘the commons’ & is where Dylan first played ‘blowin in the wind,’ later it became the fat black pussycat, then panchito’s.

 

177A bleecker st – any marvel comics fans? This is/was? doctor strange’s sanctum sanctorium

 

7th avenue at barrow st. – the village volcano, it was an 80's thing

 

the late signless writer's/frat bar Chumley’s once had this little hidden alley entrance

 

Grove st & Bedford st – I spied some tourists discussing the ‘friend’s’ tv show apt up there

 

Christopher street – “two wide eyed sisters from Columbus, ohio moved here to pursue their dreams” in the play ‘wonderful town.’

They’d probably stay in Columbus today!  :laugh:

 

666 greenwich st - The 1899 archive building - monica lewinsky

 

555 hudson st – an urbanist mecca

Jane Jacobs lived & wrote 'the death & life of great american cities' here

 

77 bedford st at commerce st – isaacs-hendricks house, oldest in the village (1799)

 

77 ½ Bedford – the picturesque super-skinny former carriage house alley, was formerly a cobbler’s shop, then a candy factory, later poet edna st vincent millay lived here, as did actors john Barrymore & cary grant (yes, with his boyfriend).

 

81 bedford – nysonglines sez:  An apartment was used as a safe house by the CIA for LSD experiments from 1952-54

sometimes administered by prostitutes on unwitting non-volunteers.  :-o

http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Articles/George-White.html

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/27/digging-deeper-into-.html

 

 

Bedford st & downing st – today’s blue ribbon bakery restaurant was yesterday’s jimi Hendrix jam pad

Jimi Hendrix ‘holding together’ village gate, nyc 5/4/1970

 

23-29 washington place at greene st – the asch building aka the brown building

site of the triangle shirtwaist factory fire, today an nyu campus structure they didn't tear down

I went by just after the anniversary (3/25/1911) so there was a memorial up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

 

*** that's all for now - hope you enjoyed. maybe more to come...???***

 

 

wow, how interesting.  Love this thread. 

 

I didn't know Carrie's home was actually in Greenwich.  In the show, its in the Upper East Side. 

The village sucks. It's so old, gritty and boring. I want a new one!

 

Seriously though, fantastic thread. Greenwich Village seemed to have a vibe all of its own when I went through it.

 

Can we get a thorough SoHo tour? That's my favorite neighborhood!

 

That was awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Awesome thread!  Thanks for all the commentary and research!

Great thread! Thanks for all the work you must have put into that.

Good thread.  Cute.  Stonewall would been a great addition to this.

 

l feel personally responsible for the actions at one of those homes.

wow, how interesting. Love this thread.

 

I didn't know Carrie's home was actually in Greenwich. In the show, its in the Upper East Side.

 

correctomundo. i read that carrie lived on the ues, too. however, it said that is a fictional address. so they used this charming 66 perry st front and just said it was the ues.

 

tour busses stop here or they used to and the owner was pretty po'd. i have no sympathy, after all they agreed to it. it's just too bad the show got popular. that's the gamble you take selling your soul to hollywood. we should all have such 'problems,' right? ha.

 

 

Quaint, but now I want a tour of Inwood.

ha. that's gonna have to wait for fall & another columbia football game!

wow, how interesting.  Love this thread. 

 

I didn't know Carrie's home was actually in Greenwich.  In the show, its in the Upper East Side. 

 

correctomundo. i read that carrie lived on the ues, too. however, it said that is a fictional address. so they used this charming 66 perry st front and just said it was the ues.

 

tour busses stop here or they used to and the owner was pretty po'd. i have no sympathy, after all they agreed to it. it's just too bad the show got popular. that's the gamble you take selling your soul to hollywood. we should all have such 'problems,' right? ha.

 

 

 

Yes, Carrie lives on the UES.

 

None of their "homes" are the places you actually think.

Very interesting thread.  Thanks for the time you put into this, mrnyc.

Got to be one of the all-time greatest UO tours! It was nice to see the locations of so many places I have read about.

I echo the sentiments of UrbanSurfin.  That was awesome, especially with the photos of the famous people. 

Agree with the previous comments.  You never fail to keep your photo threads interesting.  The pop culture references are not only interesting, but also enlightening.  Thanks a bundle.

Thanks a million!!! Great tour. Greeenwich Village is amazing and you really showed us quite a bit of the diversity and history. It has such a special place in the literary history of the US.  Fantastic!!

I enjoy this thread because you can come back to it and find something you glazed over before.  The area around the Friends apartment in Google streetview looks amazing.  Ugh, I need to get back to NYC. 

thanks everyone. your reactions inspired me to go back and back and annotate the shots i had left over after i crashed and burned. so here are the rest:

 

160-162 waverly place: This was the residence of Carmine "The Cigar" Galante, the much-feared boss of the Bonano crime family (until he was murdered by fellow mobsters in Brooklyn in 1979). He would hang out all day in front of this apt building while he was being observed by the coppers, then be taken in a town car to his upper east side mansion townhouse after midnight.

 

59 grove – later in life, thomas paine lived and died here in 1809 at the farmhouse of his friend, marguerite de Bonneville.  The current building was built in 1839. bette midler once lived upstairs.

 

7th avenue & Christopher st, sw corner in front of the landmark village cigars building - The hess triangle

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.

 

7th avenue at w4th st: the Riviera sports bar. This is where a surly lou reed (I know, shocking, right?) met with john cale and broke up the velvet underground. Today it’s a nice tavern to check out a game. Btw both andy warhol and lou reed said cleveland had the velvet’s best fans.

 

87 christopher st – before john lennon, this was a young yoko ono’s first apt

 

W4th st at 6th avenue - Golden swan gardens

Built on site of the Golden Swan bar, AKA the Hell Hole or the Bucket of Blood; portrayed in Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, and in John Sloan's etchings. Demolished 1928.

 

Sixth Avenue at 3rd Street, 1928 - more john Sloan

 

6th avenue aka avenue of the america’s. more on these medallions:

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SIGNS/americas/americas.html

 

19-23 9th street: These four-story buildings, built 1870, were from 1877 until 1905 the Hotel Giffrou, operated by Madame Marie Giffrou, a French widow. A bohemian refuge, the hotel was frequented by French and Spanish artists, as well as literary figures like Mark Twain, William Dean Howells and Thomas A. Janvier. the basement was once home of the notorious go-go 1990’s era hangout marylou’s.

 

458 (corner): French Roast, 24-hour bistro in a 1915 apartment building. There used to be a roadhouse here called The Old Grapevine that dated back to 1830; it was a center of neighborhood gossip and was supposedly the origin of the phrase "I heard it through the grapevine.”

 

 

6th avenue bet w10th & w1tth - Milligan place

a gated community like Patchin place around the corner, built (in 1848) as housing for workers at 5th Avenue's Brevoort Hotel. Named for 19th Century landowner Samuel Milligan--father-in-law of Aaron Patchin. Eugene O'Neill a resident & George Cram Crook, founder of Provincetown Players.

 

 

W10th st at 6th avenue - Patchin place

Like Milligan Place around the corner, built as housing for Basque workers at 5th Avenue's Brevoort Hotel. Has had a number of famous residents, mainly literary: No. 1: John Reed and Louise Bryant (1895-1920); No. 4: e.e. cummings (1923-62); No. 5: Djuna Barnes (1940-82). Also here were Theodore Dreiser (1895) and Marlon Brando (1943-44). Still has one of the last original street gas lamps in the city too.

 

 

 

w11th street – what’s going here in the middle of this charming rowhouse block?

 

18 w11th street - 18: Modern-looking, odd-angled house was originally built in 1845, one of four houses on the block built by Henry Brevoort Jr. for his children; it was later the home of Charles Merrill (of Merrill Lynch), whose son, the poet James Merrill, was born here. In 1970, it was a hideout for the radical Weathermen group (including Kathy Boudin and William Ayers), who were using it as a bomb factory. On March 6, 1970, 60 sticks of dynamite accidentally exploded, killing three group members and virtually destroying the house. It was rebuilt in modernist style in 1978. In the 1960’s actor Dustin Hoffman and his family lived at number 16 next door and their home was wrecked by the Weathermen explosion (luckily, they were not home at the time).

 

 

 

Woohoo! Awesome.

Thanks.

 

lol@ Thomas Paine.

interesting about Dustin Hoffman. When I first moved to NY a hundred years ago I lived in a sublet (a townhouse) on Greenwich Ave. and was talking to someone who lived in the small apt building next door who claimed Dustin Hoffman ("Dusty," as he called him :roll: :roll:) once lived there in his years as a struggling actor. He must have been forced to relocate there when the family manse collapsed.

interesting about Dustin Hoffman. When I first moved to NY a hundred years ago I lived in a sublet (a townhouse) on Greenwich Ave. and was talking to someone who lived in the small apt building next door who claimed Dustin Hoffman ("Dusty," as he called him :roll: :roll:) once lived there in his years as a struggling actor. He must have been forced to relocate there when the family manse collapsed.

 

How long have you been in NYC?

interesting about Dustin Hoffman. When I first moved to NY a hundred years ago I lived in a sublet (a townhouse) on Greenwich Ave. and was talking to someone who lived in the small apt building next door who claimed Dustin Hoffman ("Dusty," as he called him :roll: :roll:) once lived there in his years as a struggling actor. He must have been forced to relocate there when the family manse collapsed.

 

How long have you been in NYC?

 

didn't I say, a hundred yrs? (actually 30, before it turned into an obnoxious, yuppified mall)

interesting about Dustin Hoffman. When I first moved to NY a hundred years ago I lived in a sublet (a townhouse) on Greenwich Ave. and was talking to someone who lived in the small apt building next door who claimed Dustin Hoffman ("Dusty," as he called him :roll: :roll:) once lived there in his years as a struggling actor. He must have been forced to relocate there when the family manse collapsed.

 

How long have you been in NYC?

 

didn't I say, a hundred yrs? (actually 30, before it turned into an obnoxious, yuppified mall)

 

You arrived when the city was falling apart. 

 

A mall??    You're the one telling mrnyc to run down to topshop!  lol

interesting about Dustin Hoffman. When I first moved to NY a hundred years ago I lived in a sublet (a townhouse) on Greenwich Ave. and was talking to someone who lived in the small apt building next door who claimed Dustin Hoffman ("Dusty," as he called him :roll: :roll:) once lived there in his years as a struggling actor. He must have been forced to relocate there when the family manse collapsed.

 

How long have you been in NYC?

 

didn't I say, a hundred yrs? (actually 30, before it turned into an obnoxious, yuppified mall)

 

You arrived when the city was falling apart. 

 

A mall??    You're the one telling mrnyc to run down to topshop!  lol

well, I have mixed feelings, but in many ways it was a lot more fun back then:

 

^oops! historic reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Galante

Yeah....I miss sleazy NYC.

Awesome!