New York Songlines: 11th Street

South:

372: Was Cell Block, 1970s butch/leather bar

360: This three-story former stable is owned by artist Julian Schnabel; neighbors fought plans to add a 110-foot tower on top.

West Village Houses

348 (corner): Opened in 1974 as Mitchell-Lama housing, this 420-unit housing complex is losing its rent-regulated status.

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North:

377: Dancer/actor Gregory Hines has lived here.

359: Left Bank, nine-story condo built 1999.

West Village Houses

Corner (722 Washington Street):

South:

344 (corner): Wallse, hip Austrian

328: Washington Arms, two old tenements upgraded in the 1970s

322: Delicia Restaurant

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323: Turks & Frogs, antique store turned wine bar

321: Novelist Carson McCullers lived in this 1838 house in 1940, the year her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was published.

South:

314: The Spotted Pig, fancy pub grub, was Le Zoo

White Horse Tavern

Corner (567 Hudson): Founded in 1880 as a longshoremen's bar. Where poet Dylan Thomas drank himself to death, beat writer Jack Kerouac was thrown out repeatedly and novelist Norman Mailer conceived the Village Voice. Other regulars included James Baldwin, Anais Nin and Michael Harrington.

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North:

307: Novelist Jack Kerouac revised On the Road here at his girlfriend Helen Weaver's courtyard apartment. He also wrote part of Desolation Angels, which mentions this building and its "Dickensian windows." Now owned by photographer Annie Leibowitz; her renovation is creating controversy.

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Bleecker Street Playground

Statue of circus act is The Family ( Chaim Gross, 1979).

South:

Bleecker Gardens

In the late 1920s, poet Mark Van Doren and his neighbors tore down the fences and outbuildings in the center of this block and created a common space that still exists.

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North:

285: In 1932, director and acting teacher Lee Strasberg and his wife, actress Paula Miller, lived here in a small apartment above Suttor's Bakery. They took in playwright Clifford Odets, then an actor in Strasberg's Group Theater with no place to live.

263: Thomas Wolfe lived here (1927-28) when he finished Look Homeward, Angel.

South:

232: Manhattan Seventh Day Adventist

224: Writer Mary Cantwell, author of Manhattan, When I Was Young, moved here to an apartment owned by St. John's--and has never lived outside the Village since.

St. John's-in-the-Village Church

216-222: Grecian details in a 1974 postmodern church pay tribute to the Greek Revival predecessor destroyed by a fire.

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North:

253 (corner): Tartine, affordable French

247: In 1972, this building became Liberation House, a gay community center best remembered for the Gay Switchboard, a service that at one point answered 60,000 gay-related questions a year.

South:

Corner: Mr. M Discount Center

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201 (corner): Two Boots to Go West, Cajun pizza mini-chain. (The "boots" are Italy and Louisiana.)

South:

Corner: West Village Florist

Elephant & Castle restaurant's back door

154: Sa

152: Built 1836

134: Comedy writer S.J. Perelman lived in this brownstone (1955-66), where he wrote, among other things, the screenplay for Around the World in 80 Days

126-128: Unadilla apartments, named for an upstate town

118: Once part of Rhinelander Gardens, a row of houses designed by James Renwick Jr., notable for its New Orleans-style cast iron balconies. William Rhinelander's first tenant here was Samuel Osgood, the minister of the Unitarian Church of the Messiah (at 790 Broadway); a descendant says that Osgood "later wrote an unusually glowing obituary of his landlord (which has to be unique)." Osgood's daughter Mabel Osgood Wright, a pioneering birder and author of My New York, was born here in 1859; the family later moved up the street to No. 154. Theodore Dreiser moved here in 1923, where he wrote An American Tragedy. Demolished in 1955 to make room for the school.

116: P.S. 41: The Greenwich Village School (K-6). After the World Trade Center attacks, this school was evacuated for several days and used to house firefighters and other rescue workers. Part of Rhinelander Garden's balcony is preserved in the school's rear fence.

Corner: Sammy's Noodle Shop & Grill

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St Vincent's Hospital

Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was given her middle name because her uncle's life was saved here. Poet Kahlil Gibran died here in 1931, as did Dylan Thomas on November 9, 1953--several days after his famous night at the White Horse. Survivors of the Titanic disaster were taken here for treatment. This was the main hospital used for treating victims of the September 11 World Trade Center attack in 2001.

Harold R. Cronin Research Building

123: Poet and critic Carl Van Doren moved here in 1927.

101: Little Tony & Elisa Be Good Unisex Hair Stylists

Famous Ray's Pizza

South:

78: French Roast Cafe, 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." This etymology seems unlikely to me.

Second Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue

Manhattan’s smallest cemetery; much of its original extent is now under Eleventh Street. Active from 1805 to 1829.

70: The tall building next to the cemetery was home to composer Charles Ives from 1908 to 1911.

66: Was Enrico and Paglieri, Italian restaurant noted in the 1939 WPA Guide.

64: New School's Theresa Lang Student Center

56: Harold Ross lived here (1919-20) a few years before he founded The New Yorker. Part of this time He worked at the time for the American Legion's magazine.

52: Once owned by Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, and later rented by fake newsman Jon Stewart.

50: This was the first home of Gerald and Sara Murphy, on whom Fitzgerald modeled Dick and Nicole Diver in Tender Is the Night.

48: Playwright Oscar Wilde lived here for several weeks after a U.S. lecture tour in 1882.

46: 11th Street Pediatrics--taking care of my child since her birth.

40: Gerald and Sara Murphy (see No. 50, above) were married here, at her parents' house.

Weathermen House

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), 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.

16: Actor Dustin Hoffman lived here in the 1960s, and witnessed the Weathermen explosion.

14-26: Built by local landowner Henry Brevoort (1844)

Judge Crater House

Corner (40 5th Ave): Judge Joseph F. Crater, who inexplicably disappeared in 1930, lived on the fourth floor of this building at the time he went missing. "Almost five months after he vanished and after several police searches, three envelopes with cash, insurance policies and the judge's will mysteriously turned up in the bedroom."--All Around the Town. The home of reaper inventor Cyrus McCormick (1866-71) previously stood on this corner.

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North:

Corner (462 6th Ave): Nikos Smoke Shop; one of the world's greatest newsstands.

Side door of Charlie Mom

73: Gene's, traditional Italian since 1919.

Eugene Lang College

63-69: The New School's undergraduate division. Writer and illustrator James Thurber lived in an apartment building formerly on this site (1928-29) when he was managing editor of The New Yorker.

35: Saturday Night Live's Jane Curtin has lived here.

Larchmont Hotel

27: Larchmont Hotel, decent, affordable hotel. Max Eastman moved here in 1917, the year he became editor of The Masses.

11: Nature writer Joseph Wood Krutch lived here until he moved to Arizona in 1958.

Church Parish House; designed by McKim, Mead & White.

First Presbyterian Church

This 1846 Gothic Revival church is modeled on St Saviour, Bath; tower based on Magdalene College, Oxford.

South:

20: Eleanor Roosevelt kept an apartment here during much of her White House years (1933-42).

34: Village Bleachers Laundromat

Corner: University Chemists, drugstore

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Corner (43 5th Ave): In 1946, actor Marlon Brando lived in this 1905 Beaux Arts building with a Russian violinist named Igor, who moved out after Brando filled his violin with horse manure. Novelist Dawn Powell lived here 1960-63, when The Golden Spur was published. Hugh Grant lived here in Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks.

11: Was a pre-1898 stable; now Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue.

15: Hotel Van Rensselaer, formerly the Hotel Alabama--built 1902 in the Italian Renaissance style. The Van Rensselaers were big landowners in the Hudson Valley.

21: Mary Cadwalader Jones, Edith Wharton's sister-in-law, held literary salons here featuring such luminaries as Henry Adams, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent and Theodore Roosevelt; Henry James stayed here during visits from Europe. Jones' daughter, Beatrix Farrand, grew up to be a landscape architect who designed the East Garden of the White House and the Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden.

23: In 1903, this was the Free Home for Destitute Young Girls.

25: Poet Hart Crane lived here briefly in 1917.

Corner (80 University): In the late 1960s, this building housed the offices of the counter-cultural Grove Press. On July 26, 1968, a grenade was thrown through a window here, apparently in retaliation for Grove's publishing the writings of Cuban revolutionaries.

South:

The Albert

42 (corner): Building with Dean & Deluca Coffee/Tea on the ground floor is the Albert Apartments, formerly the Hotel Albert--named for painter Albert Pinkham Ryder, whose brother owned it. Robert Louis Stevenson stayed here, making a big impression on local writers. Novelist Thomas Wolfe lived here (1923-26) when he first moved to New York to teach English at NYU.

44: The Little Antique Shop. One of many antique stores on this block.

46: Tudor Manor antiques

48: Retro-Modern Historical Lighting

50-52: Big Apple Antiques. No. 52 was a later address of Grove Press (see corner of University Place), as well as of the Evergreen Theater (which produced Samuel Beckett's Film and the Black Circle Bar.

54-56: Paramount Antiques and Reproductions

58-60: Bijan Royal Antiques. Symbolist painter Albert Pinkham Ryder, for whom the Albert Hotel was named, lived at No. 60, 1889-96.

64: University Place Garage building has some wild detailing.

72: J. Garvin Mecking antiques

74: Roland & Victor Carl antiques

80: Kensington Place Antiques; this building was the American Communist Party HQ in the 1920s.

St Denis Hotel

84: Building with Far Eastern Art & Antiques was once (1848-1917) one of the most fashionable hotels in NYC. Guests included Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Grant, P.T. Barnum, Sarah Bernhardt and Buffalo Bill Cody. Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone by calling Brooklyn from here in 1877.

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North:

45 (corner): Kings Antiques; like many shops on the block, this is wholesale only.

49: Formerly the St. George Hotel, this 19th Century building was converted to apartments in the 1970s.

53: The home of New York's Bahai Center. Also the offices of the Metropolitan New York Library Council.

61: Antiques H.M. Luther

Cast Iron Apartments

67: Was McCreery's Dry Goods (1868), important 19th Century retailer. Ground floor now houses George N Antiques, Flores & Iva Antiques and Global Fine Reproductions.

South:

Corner (85 4th Ave): Amsterdam Billiards (formerly Corner Billiards)

Corner (64 3rd Ave): Village Pour House was Roll 'n' Roaster, Manhattan outpost of a Brooklyn "slow food" burger joint. Earlier Penang Bar & Grill, Malaysian with Adventureland decor; before that a pawn shop.

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North:

Corner: Cooper Station Post Office

117: Originally St. Ann's School (1870), connected to the church on 12th Street; now apartments.

Webster Hall

119: Built in 1863, it was dubbed the "Devil's Playground" for its wild Bohemian parties. In the 1910s, The Liberal Club and The Masses would hold costume balls here as fundraisers, often involving nudity and free love. In the '20s, the Hall held an annual gay and lesbian drag ball. Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America were founded here in 1914 by Sidney Hillman; the New York Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee met here. A "Blind Man's Ball" was held here in 1917 to protest an exhibition's refusal to accept Marcel Duchamp's urinal as a work of art.

Later called Casa Galicia, O Noso Lar and (in the 1980s) the Ritz rock club. Returned to Webster Hall, now a nightclub, in 1990s.

Corner: Loews Village VII. Built on the site of a Department of Public Charities building from 1871.

South:

206-208: All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church

232: Neighborhood Preservation Center; originally the St Marks Rectory, designed by Ernest R. Flagg (1900). Houses the Historic Districts Council, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the St Marks Historic Landmarks Fund.

The space between St Marks' rectory and the church was to be filled in by an 18-story apartment tower designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; with all due respect to Wright, it's a blessing that the Great Depression scuttled the plan. Some of the ancient maples in the yard were lost to the Asian Longhorn Beetle in 2000.

St. Marks-in-the-Bowery Church

"The Bowery" was Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant's farm, and his private chapel used to stand on this site--making this the oldest site of continuous worship in Manhattan. This church was erected 1795-99, with a Greek revival steeple added 1828 and an Italianate portico completing the structure in 1854.

Originally a church of Manhattan's elite, St Marks became a progressive force in the neighborhood both socially and culturally. Supportive of immigrant, labor and civil rights, the church was a meetingplace for Black Panthers and Young Lords, and launched the first lesbian healthcare clinic.

Poets W.H. Auden (who was a parishoner), William Carlos Williams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, Kahlil Gibran, Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith and Jim Carroll have all read here; since 1966, the St Marks Poetry Project has organized poetery events. The Danspace project has featured dance legends like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. Sam Shepherd's first two plays were produced here, and Andy Warhol's early films were screened. The church served as the setting for a wedding and a funeral in the film The Group.

St Marks Churchyard

Famous occupants include former governor and vice president Daniel Tompkins, who abolished slavery in New York; Commodore Matthew Perry, who forced Japan to accept U.S. trade (later disinterred); and New York Mayor (and noted diarist) Philip Hone. Peter Stuyvesant himself is buried under the church, and six generations of his descendants also rest here.

Department store pioneer A.T. Stewart, whose store filled the block between 9th and 10th streets east of Broadway, was originally buried here in 1876, but on November 6, 1878, his body was snatched and held for $200,000 ransom. The widow eventually regained possession of the corpse in 1881, after bargaining the kidnappers down to $20,000.

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North:

Corner: Building with Fern Cliff Deli is NYU's Third Avenue North dorm.

229: In 1981, the first home of what later became the Fun Gallery, the first art space of the 1980s' East Village art scene.

Third Street Music School Settlement

235: Founded in 1894 on (where else) Third Street, this community music school moved to 11th Street in the 1970s. Songwriter Irving Caesar, who wrote "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy," was a student here.

Corner (175 2nd Ave): Kanoyama (formerly Iso), a highly regarded Sushi restaurant, is on the site of a house built in 1845 by Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, a descendant of the governor. He died two years later, willing the house to his grandnephew on the condition that he change his name from Stuyvesant Rutherford to Rutherford Stuyvesant. The renamed heir then gave the house to his father, Lewis Rutherford, a distinguished astronomer; he set up an observatory in the backyard that produced some of the best telescopic photographs of the era.

About 1915 the house was converted to part of the St Marks Hospital. It closed in 1930 and was replaced by the present apartment building in 1935.

South:

Corner (170 2nd Ave): A building formerly on this site, built in 1857, was the museum of the New-York Historical Society before it moved to the Upper West Side. Lucky’s Juice Joint, aka Liquiteria, is on the corner of the current apartment building, selling herbally enhanced smoothies.

310: Note faded sign above garage--"Knickerbocker Boarding"-- indicating that it once housed horses, not cars.

314-316: From 1930.

318: Soon Beauty Lab. Abraham Goldfaden, "Father of Yiddish Theater," died here January 9, 1908.

320: O Mistress Mine, vintage clothing and collectibles, has been around since 1969 (formerly on 7th Avenue) and claims such customers as Susan Sarandon, Boy George, Deborah Harry and Sonia Braga. The name is from the Shakespeare sonnet that ends, ''Youth's a stuff will not endure.''

322: J.C. Casey Design Rubber Stamp

326: Was Krazy Sushi.

328: King Billy's Piercing Art Studio; Odin, named "best guy's boutique" by Time Out, has the Norse god's raven as a logo.

330: Old location of Sandobe Sushi, now on 2nd Avenue.

Cinema Classics

332: A tiny theater that shows old movies and traffics in video; in back of Rififi, a dj bar named for a French film noir. Starshine Burlesque plays here Thursday nights.

334: Tokyo Joe, consignment store. In Thomas Disch's dystopian novel 334, written in 1972, this is the address of a monolithic apartment building.

338: Marla Ruzicka, the activist who was killed on April 16, 2005 in Iraq while researching civilian casualties, had her home here at the time of her death.

340: Was the prostitute's apartment in Eyes Wide Shut.

Veniero's

342: Founded by Antonio Veniero in 1894, it was originally a pool hall that served pastry. Now world famous for its desserts. Bruce Springsteen is a cousin of the family.

Right in front of the entrance to the apartments here is the Con Edison service hatch that electrocuted Jodie Lane, a psychology grad student, on January 16, 2004. Her death drew attention to the the dangers posed by Con Ed's lackadaisacal maintenance.

344: Russo’s, old-school pasta store founded 1904. Nice mural.

Corner (177 1st Ave): Something Sweet, formerly Black Forest Bakery. Not as famous as Veniero's, but a friendly little place with tasty cookies.

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North:

Corner: Was A&A Deli

299: Plump Dumpling, participant in the East Village dumpling war of 2005. Was Onion Bag soccer shop.

301-309: This apartment complex was named "most meritorious building alteration" by the East Side Chamber of Commerce in 1940-- according to a plaque.

Asher Levy School

Corner (185 1st Ave): Levy was an early Jewish immigrant, a kosher butcher, who won an important victory for religious tolerance when he successfully appealed Peter Stuyvesant's ban on Jews in the New Amsterdam militia. His first name is often given as "Asser," but you can see how that might be unfortunate in the name of an elementary school.

South:

Corner (180 1st Ave): Village Fabrics building dates to 1872.

402: Reciprocal Skateboards was Hip Tadpoles, ironic kids' clothes, and before that Piece--art, art-clothes and espresso.

408: Bella Tile, founded 1983, owns much of the block.

416-418: Love Gospel Church tore down its building and built a new one that was topped by million-dollar condos in 2001. The construction somehow brought a plague of rats to the block. No. 418 was said to be an "Italian blackhander" (i.e. Mafia) hangout in the early 20th Century.

422: East Village Community Garden

426-428: Fabria Houses (NYC Housing Authority)

430: Another "Italian blackhander" hangout.

432: Home since 1991 to New York Songline compiler Jim Naureckas. You can see the scar left on the bricks from the explosion of a motorcycle parked in front in 2000.

434: Marrakech East, beautiful Morrocan imports. The owner is sort of the mayor of the block.

436: RDS Delivery Service, founded in 1975 and located here since 1997, is a leader in hiring people with disabilities.

Corner (173 Ave A): Westville East, popular spinoff of a popular West Village joint, was briefly Angolo della Pasta and for many years La Ceiba, longstanding Mexican named for the Mayans' sacred cottonwood tree.

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Madina Masjid/Islamic Council of America

401 (corner): One of the only mosques in lower Manhattan. Founded 1976.

LES Park

A pleasant community garden.

Back entrance of East Side Community JHS, featured in the Hugh Grant film Mickey Blue Eyes.

435: Mary Help of Christians Catholic school, built 1925. This manifestation of Mary was inaugurated by Pope Pius VII, who credited her with helping him get free after being imprisoned by Napoleon from 1808-14. Mary, Help of Christians is the official patron saint of New York, and is also honored by the Salesian Fathers, who run this school (which is not long for this world, a victim of the archdiocese's downsizing).

Corner: Parking lot used to host weekend flea market.

South:

Corner: Bar On A, a cozy cocktail lounge-- recently expanded to the corner--with a snaky decor, reflecting its nickname BOA. Sundays has the burlesque show Kitty Nights. The corner used to be Aquilino, a bistro, and before that a bodega.

500: Angels and Kings, bar founded in 2007 by a number of rock musicians, including Fallout Boy's Pete Wentz and William Beckett of The Academy Is.... (Beckett grew up in my hometown, incidentally.) Was the much quieter Orchid Lounge, bar/teahouse.

502: A former nunnery, this became the home of painter Jay Rosenblum in 1971; the top floor was his studio. He died in 1989 after being hit by a bus while riding his bike just around the the corner.

510: 11th Street Bar used to be famous for having no name. Sort of literary. Has Irish music on Sunday nights.

526: Was the address of Civilian Warfare Gallery, which helped launch the East Village art scene in the 1980s and was an early promoter of David Wojnarowicz's work.

528: AAA Glass Plus

534: This was the address of Steven Vincent, an East Village activist and writer who was murdered in Basra, Iraq, days after publishing a New York Times op-ed warning that occupation forces were tolerating death-squad activity. Oddly, two of the most famous U.S. civilians to die in the Iraq War--Vincent and Marla Ruzicka-- lived on the same street in New York, almost exactly two blocks apart.

538-540: The Bathhouse, a former public bath where part of Ragtime was filmed, now converted to a photography studio. Photojournalist Eddie Adams has lived here.

Corner (174 Avenue B): Rue St Denis Vintage Clothing

On January 27, 1972, police officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie were assassinated on this corner by the Black Liberation Army. A communique described the killings as a retaliation for the 1971 Attica prison massacre.

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Paradise Alley

Corner (174 Ave A): Was the site of Paradise Alley, tenement courtyard featured in Jack Kerouac's Subterraneans and Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." After the buildings were torn down in 1985, following a fire, part of the site became the Chico Mendez Mural Garden, commemorating the murdered Brazilian environmentalist. After the garden was bulldozed, the Weinberg Apartments were built here by the Educational Alliance, a group originally dedicated to assimilating Jewish immigrants.

507: This building was The Rock, headquarters of a cocaine-selling operation run by Alejandro "The Man" Lopez, who took in $4 million a year until his 1988 bust. A line of coke-buyers is said to have stretched from here all the way back to Avenue A.

519: Solar Home won a landmark battle enabling houses with renewable energy sources to give power back to the grid.

521: This condo was built atop an old garage, formerly noted for its massive collection of old shoes hanging above the doorway.

533: In the 1991 film The Super, Joe Pesci plays a landlord who is sentenced by a judge to live in one of his derelict buildings--namely this one.

543: Father's Heart Ministry Center, built in 1868 as the People's Home Church and Settlement.

Corner: Spin City, elaborate laundromat.

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647: Tiny sake bar Kasadela is modeled after traditional Japanese bars. Matilda is a stylish Tuscan/Mexican named for the owner's daughter.