New York Songlines: 1st Avenue

with Allen Street

E 59th | E 58th | E 57th | E 56th | E 55th | E 54th | E 53rd | E 52nd | E 51st | E 50th | E 49th | E 48th (U.N. Headquarters) | E 47th | E 46th | E 45th | E 44th | E 42nd (Tudor City) | E 41st | E 40th | E 39th | E 38th | E 37th | E 36th | E 35th | E 34th (Kips Bay) | E 33th | E 30th | E 29th | E 28th (Bellevue Hospital) | E 27th | E 26th | E 25th | E 24th | E 23th | E 22nd | E 21st | E 20th (Stuyvesant Town) | E 19th | E 18th | E 17th | E 16th | E 15th | E 14th (East Village) | E 13th | E 12nd | E 11st | E 10th | E 9th | E 8th | E 7th | E 6th | E 5th | E 4th | E 3th | E 2nd | E 1st | E Houston (Lower East Side) | Stanton | Rivington | Delancey | Broome | Grand

Allen Street, 1st Avenue below Houston, is named for Captain William Henry Allen, a naval hero of the War of 1812. Commanding the brig Argus, he captured 20 British ships before being killed by cannonfire.



West:

Queensboro Bridge

Also known as the 59th Street Bridge-- this is the bridge that Simon & Garfunkel sing about in "Feeling Groovy." Completed in 1909, the bridge is mentioned in The Great Gatsby: "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world". It features as an icon in Woody Allen's Manhattan and the TV series Taxi.

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East:

Bridgemarket

A vaulted space under the Queensboro Bridge, with a ceiling covered in Gaustavino tile. Long neglected as city storage space, it was converted in 1999 into a Food Emporium and a Conran's Restaurant & Housewares Store.




W <===     EAST 59TH STREET     ===> E

West:

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1076 (corner): Writer John Cheever lived here in the late 1940s before moving to suburban Scarborough, New York in 1951. In the early 2000s, Casa la Femme North was located here.






W <===     EAST 58TH STREET     ===> E

West:

1063 (corner): Rosa Mexicano on First Avenue, part of a local chain








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W <===     EAST 57TH STREET     ===> E

West:

Corner (360 E 57th): The Morrison, 25-story apartment building from 1983.


Corner (345 E 56th): A 22-story apartment building from 1960 is on the site of 353 E. 56th, where painter Piet Mondrian moved in 1939 after fleeing the Nazi invasion of Holland and then the London Blitz. He painted Broadway Boogie Woogie, now at MOMA, here.

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East:

1026 (corner): 1931 Art Moderne apartment building; includes Sutton Cafe Restaurant.









W <===     EAST 56TH STREET     ===> E

West:

Cathedral High School

Corner (350 E 56th): A Catholic girls' school founded in 1905 and moved to this location (from Lexington Avenue) in 1973.

Catholic Center of New York

1011 (block): This building, known as the Terence Cardinal Cooke Building, dates to 1979 and is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. Catholic Charities is also based here.

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W <===     EAST 55TH STREET     ===> E

West:

989 (corner): International Film and Video Center; Reme's Oggi Pets







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994 (corner): A 17-story building from 1956








W <===     EAST 54TH STREET     ===> E

West:

Corner (350 E 54th): A six-story building from 1959






965 (corner): Madison Restaurant, a 24-hour diner opened in 1948

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Corner (400 E 54th): The Revere, a 30-story, dark-brown-brick apartment tower from 1970. Presumably named for Paul Revere, silversmith and patriot.



Corner (411 E 53rd): Sutton Manor, a 20-story white-brick apartment building from 1960.

W <===     EAST 53RD STREET     ===> E

West:

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548: The site of Billy's Restaurant, opened 1870 and closed 2004--at the time, reportedly the oldest family-owned restaurant in New York.



W <===     EAST 52ND STREET     ===> E

West:

939 (corner): Jeffrey Wine & Liquor on the ground floor

Corner (351 E 51st): The Beekman Regent's five-story base was originally built as P.S. 135 in 1892 (George W. Debevoise, architect), expanded in 1904. It later served as the United Nations School, educating the children of diplomats. A tower was added to bring it up to 20 stories in a 2000 condo conversion.

This was the site of Mount Pleasant, James Beekman's mansion. During the Revolutionary War, it was headquarters of the British military force. Nathan Hale was tried and sentenced to death here.

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East:

W <===     EAST 51ST STREET     ===> E

West:











891 (corner): Azaza, Asian, was Wylie's Ribs and Steak Joint.

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East:

The Grand Beekman

Corner (400 E 51st): A 32-story apartment tower designed by Costas Kondylis and completed in 2002. With a Post-Modern crown and distinctive corner bay windows, it's actually a fairly interesting and attractive building--much better than the average generic new apartment building.




W <===     EAST 50TH STREET     ===> E

West:

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Corner (400 E 50th): This is the address of The Women's Mosaic, "Recognizing our unity, celebrating our diversity."

Beekman Tower Hotel

Corner (3 Mitchell Place): This 28-story Art Deco landmark was originally built in 1928 as the Panhellenic Tower, designed as a residence and clubhouse for members of Greek-letter sororities. The architect was John Mead Howells, the winner (along with Raymond Hood) in the Tribune Tower design competition, though it more resembles the influential second-place plan by Eliel Saarinen.

The Zephyr Grill is in this building but has the address 1 Mitchell Place.

W <===     EAST 49TH ST/MITCHELL PL     ===> E

West:

875 (corner): Nations Cafe

871: German House, Germany's permanent mission to the U.N.

865: This 1929 neo-Medieval building was designed by George & Edward Blum. Christopher Gray praises their work for its "informality" and its "picturesque and varied crowning towers."

Corner: United Nations Plaza, 1990s apartments by Der Scutt.

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866 (Block): 860 U.N. Plaza Apartments, a 40-story tower that's part of a 1968 apartment complex designed by Harrison, Abramovitz & Harris








W <===             EAST 48TH STREET             ===> E

Below this intersection flows De Voor's Mill Stream, aka Turtle Creek, which used to flow into Turtle Bay. An 1854 cholera epidemic prompted the city to turn it into a culvert, which still empties into the East River.

West:

Trump World Tower

845 (block): This 72-story building, completed in 2001, is the tallest residential building in the world. It closely resembles the monoliths from 2001, but is far less likely to advance human evolution.


W <=== DAG HAMMARSKJOLD PLAZA




823: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith is in a 1953 building put up for the Carnegie Endowment International Center. Founded in 1913 as a broad-based civil rights group, the ADL increasingly tends to make support for Israel its litmus test-- honoring Italy's Silvio Berlusconi despite his praise for Mussolini, for example.


W <===         E 46TH ST

821 (corner): The U.N. missions of Turkey and Bangladesh are at this address.

809: Built in 1961 as the Institute for International Education, this building is noted for its penthouse Kaufmann Conference Rooms, designed by Finland's Alvar Aalto--one of only two U.S. projects by the renowned modernist architect.


W <===         E 45TH ST

U.S. Mission to the U.N.

799 (corner): A perforated concrete shell surrounds this 1959 building, scheduled to be replaced.

787 (corner): 1 U.N. Plaza is a strikingly folded glass and aluminum form by Roche-Dinkeloo (1975). "The public spaces within are some of the best in New York's modern architecture"--AIA Guide. The National Bank of Pakistan is on the 1st Avenue side. The Milennium Plaza U.N. Hotel starts on the 28th floor.


W <===         E 44TH ST

777 (corner): U.N. Church Center; built by the United Methodists in 1962, this 12-story building provides offices for U.N.-related programs of many denominations and non-governmental organizations.

771: Brunei's mission to the U.N. This used to be the Herbert Hoover Building, a 1960 building that housed the Boys and Girls Club of America.

765: U.N. Plaza Dental

763: Bhutan's mission to the U.N.


W <=== SHCHARANSKY STEPS

Named for the Soviet dissident (now an Israeli cabinet member), these steps lead up to Tudor City and E. 43rd Street.

Ralph J. Bunche Park

This small park commemorates the African-American U.N. official who received a Nobel Peace Prize for leading the Palestine Peace Commission in 1947. The tall, silver sculpture here is Daniel LaRue Johnson's Peace Form One. The Isaiah Wall on the edge of the park, a gift from New York City, bears the hopeful message "They Shall Beat Their Swords Into Plowshares...."

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East:

The flags of the U.N. members fly along U.N. Plaza in alphabetical order; the flag of Afghanistan is at the corner of 48th Street.

United Nations Headquarters

This land, formerly used by slaughterhouses, gas works and the like, was going to be developed by William Zeckendorf into a futuristic housing/retail complex called X-City. When that fell through, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave the U.N. the money to buy it for its headquarters, to spare New York the embarrassment of having the world organization base itself in Philadelphia instead. The land is now considered international territory, not part of the United States.

Construction began in 1947, following the design of an international architectural committee, with Switzerland's Le Corbusier probably the most famous and influential member.

North Garden

Cast the Sleeping Elephant, by Bulgarian-born artist Mihail and donated to the U.N. by Kenya, Namibia and Nepal, has attracted more than its share of controversy. The bronze, based on a cast of a tranquilized wild bull elephant, made U.N. officials squeamish because of the animal's anatomically correct erection; some strategically planted shrubbery was added for modesty. Model Cheryl Teigs, who volunteered to be a test subject for the casting process, has been in court with Mihail over the product of the experiment.

Good Defeats Evil, by Georgian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, depicts St. George killing the dragon; the dragon was created from two actual dismantled nuclear missiles, U.S. and Soviet. It was donated by the Soviet Union in 1990.

Let Us Beat Our Swords Into Plowshares, by Evgeny Buchetich, was also given to the U.N. by the Soviet Union, in 1959.

Visitors Plaza

In front of the U.N. entrance is Arnoldo Pomodoro's Sphere Within a Sphere, a reflective sculpture. The gun tied in a knot is Non-Violence, a 1988 gift from Luxembourg by sculptor Karl Fredrik Reutersward.

General Assembly Building

The lobby of this building contains a stained glass window by Marc Chagall, as well as a Foucault pendulum, donated by the Netherlands, demonstrating the rotation of the Earth. The General Assembly Hall, where Nikita Kruschev banged his shoe on the table in 1960, seats 1,800.

Conference Building

Hidden away behind more prominent buildings, this is where the real power at the U.N., the Security Council, meets, in a chamber donated by Norway.

Northwest of the Secretariat Building is the Japanese Peace Bell, cast out of coins collected by children in 60 countries. It is rung twice a year, on the first day of spring and on International Peace Day (September 21).

Secretariat Building

Built in 1952, 544 feet high and only 72 feet thick, this was the first major example of the International Style built in New York.

The 21-foot-tall bronze oblong with the hole in it is Single Form, by Barbara Hepworth, created in 1964 as a memorial to Dag Hammarskjold, the two-term U.N. secretary general. Hammarskjold died in a plane crash in 1961 while on a peace mission to the Congo. Nearby is Henry Moore's Reclining Figure: Hand.

Dag Hammarskjold Library

An expansion of the original plan built in 1963, it was a gift from the Ford Foundation and is mainly intended for the use of U.N. officials.

The flag of Zimbabwe, the last member nation in alphabetical order, flies at the corner of 42nd Street.


W <===             EAST 42ND STREET             ===> E

The boundary of Turtle Bay and Murray Hill

West:

Tudor City

A self-contained development, built in 1925-28 by the Fred F. French Company, in the half-timbered style of Ye Olde England. Few of the windows face east because in those days there were mostly slaughterhouses and glue factories where the U.N. is now.

The area used to be called Dutch Hill, where "one can hardly enter a shanty where is a sober family," according to an 1872 account.

Block (25 Tudor Place): Tudor City's Tudor Tower. Tom Hanks lived here in Splash. In the mid-1800s, gang leader John Corcoran aka "Paddy" aka "Genteel Jamie" had a hideout around here known as Corcoran's Roost, from which his Rag Gang terrorized the neighborhood.

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East:

Robert Moses Playground

Moses, despite never being elected to any office, did more to reshape New York City than perhaps any other person--for better and for worse. Among his many projects were Shea Stadium, Lincoln Center, the BQE, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and Jones Beach. Among the things he destroyed or tried to destroy: Penn Station, the South Bronx, Greenwich Village and Shakespeare in the Park. He was involved with the construction of the United Nations Headquarters, which is presumably why his park is here. The large, oddly angled building provides ventilation for the Queens Midtown Tunnel.




W <===             EAST 41ST STREET             ===> E

An underpass to bypass U.N. Plaza begins here. You can't actually turn west on 41st Street here, there being a large dropoff.

West:

Block (5 Tudor City Pl): Tudor City's Windsor Tower, noted for its ornate stonework entrance. This building is the target of a bomb plot in the Al Pacino movie Scarface.


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Block: Schindler Elevator Corporation



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Con Edison Waterside Station

700 (block): Con Ed shut down this plant and increased power production at its 14th Street facility. This plant was demolished, to be replaced with high-rise apartment buildings and office towers. There's talk of a riverfront park being built over the FDR Drive.

The section between 39th and 40th streets was actually quite handsome-- a classic old red-brick factory building. It's highly unlikely that what they replace it with will be more attractive.




The middle section, built more recently, was admittedly kind of bland.



The section of the plant by the corner of 38th Street was kind of cool again. Bore the inscription "NY Edison"-- it's strange to think that the electric company was founded by the same guy who invented the lightbulb etc.


W <===             EAST 38TH STREET             ===> E

West:

645: The Corinthian, 1987 luxury apartment building with distinctive fluted bay windows. "Corinthian" is used to mean "luxurious" because Corinth was the party town of ancient Greece--noted as the home of Aphrodite's sacred prostitutes.

The fountain in front of the building is called Pierene--named for the fountain in Corinth where the flying horse Pegasus was captured.

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660: This office building was originally the Kips Bay Brewing Company's brewery. NYU Medical Center and other healthcare practices have offices here.








W <===             EAST 37TH STREET             ===> E

West:

Queens Midtown Tunnel

Opened in 1940 to relieve congestion on the East River bridges. Ole Singstad, who earlier dug the Holland Tunnel and later started work on the Brooklyn-Battery, was the chief engineer. FDR broke ground on the project in 1936.

The entrance to the tunnel is the western end of the Long Island Expressway.

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630: Manhattan Place. This 1984 apartment building is situated at an angle, creating a triangular public plaza. On the ground floor is Karabelas Food Market & Cafe.







W <===             EAST 36TH STREET             ===> E

West:

St Vartan's Park

Sadly enough, this out-of-the-way, one-square-block piece of green, bisected by the Queens Midtown Tunnel entrance road, is the only real park in Manhattan's 30s. Opened in 1904 as St Gabriel's Park, it was renamed in 1978 for the Armenian cathedral on 2nd Avenue. Vartan was a general who fought against Persians in Albania who were trying to force the Armenians to convert to Zoroastrianism.

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616 (block): This former Con Ed plant is slated for demolition and redevelopment as luxury condos.









W <===             EAST 35TH STREET             ===> E

West:

Corner (350 E 35th): Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the U.N.








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Block (401 E. 34th): Rivergate; U-shaped luxury apartment building has a three-story atrium featuring a waterfall and ponds filled with koi.

There used to be a Coca-Cola bottling plant on this block, where a reader recalls getting free soda on hot summer days.



W <===             EAST 34TH STREET             ===> E

The boundary of Murray Hill and Kips Bay

Between 34th and 30th streets, the avenue has the honorary name "Samuel D. Leidesdorf Way," after the accounting tycoon and philanthropist who helped create the NYU Medical Center.

West:

593 (corner): Kips Bay Delicatessen

591: Golden Dragon #1

587: Bagels & Cafe


577 (corner): NYU Child Study Center


W <===     E 33RD ST

545: Greenberg Hall

Residences for NYU's med school.



Kips Bay Plaza

This 21-story exposed-concrete slab was built in 1960 to an I.M. Pei design.

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NYU Medical Center

Built from 1950 to 1977 to a Skidmore Owings & Merrill design.

Corner (400 E 34th): Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine; part of the NYU Medical Center, it's named for Dr. Howard Rusk, who pioneered medical rehabilitation treating injured airmen during World War II.

560: NYU's Tisch Hospital. Lawrence Tisch, the media mogul who funded it, ended up dying here, November 15, 2003. My daughter, Eden Jean Jackson Naureckas, was born here February 24, 2004.

540: NYU's Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine

Schwartz Health Care Center (Co-op Care)

The Morgue

520 (corner): Offices of the New York Medical Examiner. John Lennon, Andy Warhol and the Son of Sam victims all came here after their deaths.


W <===             EAST 30TH STREET             ===> E

West:

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Bellevue Men's Shelter

Block 9400 E 30th): Also known as the 30th Street Shelter, this Victorian pile houses elderly and mentally ill homeless men.






W <===             EAST 29TH STREET             ===> E

West:

491 (corner): East Bay Diner & Cafe





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Closed to vehicle traffic.

Theodore Roszak's 1969 statue Sentinel honors ''those intrepid men and women who dedicate themselves to science and humanity.''

Public Health Laboratories

455 (block): A division of the NYC Department of Health; houses the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, which played a key role in developing the combination drug therapy that greatly reduced the death rate from HIV. In 1996, Dr. David Ho, the center's director, was named Time's person of the year.

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Children's Center

492 (corner): A shelter for children and teens run by the city's Administration for Children's Services. The building, which is quite striking, is a McKim, Mead and White design added to the Bellevue complex from 1907-12. It formerly served as the hospital's morgue, but it sounds like ACS has gone out of its way to make it hospitable.

Bellevue Hospital

462: This institution got its start in 1794, when the city needed a site to treat victims of a yellow fever epidemic far from the city center, they bought the Belle Vue estate of Peter Keteltas, named for its beautiful view of the East River. In 1811 additional land nearby was purchased from the Kip family.

Songwriter Stephen Foster, who fatally injured himself in a Bowery flophouse, died here in 1864. Socialist Congressmember Meyer London died here after being struck by a car in 1926.

People used to refer to the emergency ward as the Eastman Pavilion because gangster Monk Eastman sent so many people here with his club.

It's most famous for its psychological services; Dr. Norman Jolliffe's study of patients here helped establish the modern concept of alcoholism. Santa Claus was sent to Bellevue for observation in Miracle on 34th Street, Ray Milland dried out here in The Lost Weekend and Michael Caine was a shrink here in Dressed to Kill. In "For You," Bruce Springsteen sang that "They're waiting for you at Bellevue/With their oxygen masks."

W <===         EAST 26TH STREET         ===> E

West:

433 (corner): Built in 1897 as the Bellevue Hospital Medical College; now NYU Med School's Basic Science Building.





Corner (341 E 25th St): Built for the NYU Medical Center's School of Medicine in 1938.

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Hunter College Brookdale Health Science Center

Block (435 E 25th St): Includes the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, the Brookdale Center on Aging and the Hunter College School of the Health Professions.




W <===         EAST 25TH STREET         ===> E

West:

NYU College of Dentistry

421 (corner): Weissman Clinical Science Building houses part of the largest dental school in the country.

Corner (345 E. 24th) NYU's Schwartz Hall of Dental Science


W <===     E 24TH ST

Corner (340 E 24th): International Center for the Disabled, a rehabilitation center.

East Midtown Plaza Apartments

The AIA Guide is very excited about this 1972-74 complex, calling it "an ode to brick." No. 403 was the East End Temple-- now moved to 17th Street.

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East:

VA Hospital

(423 E 23rd): Technically, this is the New York Campus of the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System. It's Manhattan's main hospital for veterans.













400 (corner): District 75/Citywide Programs; provides instructional support for students with special needs throughout New York's public school system.

W <===         EAST 23RD STREET         ===> E

The southern boundary of Kips Bay

West:

385 (corner): Post Luminaria, a 2002 apartment building that appears to have been inspired by Mondrian.

383: 1st Avenue Wines & Spirits has a neat old sign.










377 (corner): Lucky Chicken, formerly Chirping Chicken

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East:

Peter Cooper Village

Built in the late 1940s by Met Life Insurance Co. as affordable housing for veterans returning from World War II; now being converted to market-rate (i.e. luxury) apartments. When Met Life sold it and Stuyvesant Town--a total of 110 apartment buildings--for $5.4 billion in 2006, it was reportedly the biggest real estate transaction in history. The purchaser was Tishman Speyer Properties, a real estate group that owns Rockefeller Center, among other things.

Peter Cooper was a 19th Century industrialist who ran the first U.S. railroad (the Tom Thumb), helped lay the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable and invented jello. He founded Cooper Union, a school of art, engineering and architecture where tuition has always been free.

W <===     E 22ND ST / PETER COOPER RD     ===> E

West:

375 (corner): PB Deli & Grocery

371: Frank's Trattoria

367: Vera Cruz Council of the Knights of Columbus

361 (corner): There was a bar here from the 1930s until 2005--first as Walter Mac's, later as Freddie's, then as the First Avenue Pub. Served as an unofficial local of the Steamfitters' Union. Now a corporate doughnut franchise.


W <===         E 21ST ST

359 (corner): Ess-a-Bagel ("Eat-a-Bagel"); a contender for the best bagels on the island. Opened in 1976.

357: Rose Restaurant; buffalo wings.

349: Bangkok Express

347: Tony's House of Pizza

345 (corner): 345 Produce & Plus

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Peter Cooper Village

Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town were built on the site of the notorious Gashouse District, where fumes from chemical plants kept out all but the poorest immigrants. Home to the Gashouse Gang, one of New York's more fearsome crews--they specialized in robbing other gangs (since there was so little to steal on their own turf).



















W <===         EAST 20TH STREET         ===> E

West:

343 (corner): Season's Clothing

339: Cooper Town Diner, since 1984

331: David's Bagels

329: MJ Armstrong's, a restaurant opened in December 2001 and named after Michael Joseph Armstrong, a Cantor Fitzgerald vice president who was killed in the September 11 attacks. ''You could say you went to a building on 14th Street, and he would know exactly what building it was and what it looked like,'' his fiancee recalled.


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Police battled mobs at this corner during the 1863 Draft Riots.

327 (corner): Donna's Deli

321: Adriatic Pizzeria

319: K's Gourmet Food & Cheese

315: One's Fruit & Grocery

313 (corner): Quigley's, a restaurant/sports bar, formerly the Stuyvesant Town Cafe


W <===         E 18TH ST

U.S. Rep. Meyer London, a Socialist, run over at this corner, June 6, 1926.

311 (corner): Karpas Health Information Center; connected to the hospital Beth Israel ("House of Israel")

Corner (353 E 17th): Gilman Hall, housing for Beth Israel, built 1969. This was the first home of writer Teresa Gardstein.


W <===         E 17TH ST

Beth Israel Medical Center

The university hospital for the Manhattan campus of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

295 (corner): The tall building is Beth Israel's Linsky Pavilion.


W <===         E 16TH ST

273: Ambrosia Diner

265: No. 1 Restaurant (Chinese take-out)

263: La Bagel, dairy restaurant. (Kosher restaurants can generally serve either milk or meat, not both.)

261: Murray's Falafel & Grill-- glatt kosher; Johnny's Pizza & Pasta.

259 (corner): Orchid Garden was Pan Pangea, veggie burger joint; before that Far East Oriental Restaurant.


W <===         E 15TH ST

239-241: Salt & Pepper was Darbar East Haute Indian Cuisine. Cornice says "G. Wilkens."

Corner: Papaya Dog (formerly 14th Street Papaya) is a Gray's Papaya imitator, offering cheap, tasty hot dogs and frothy tropical fruit drinks.

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Stuyvesant Town

Like Peter Cooper Village, built in the late 1940s by Met Life Insurance Co. as housing for returning World War II vets; it was slightly more affordable than its uptown neighbor. Now being converted to luxury condos. To build these highrises, Met Life leveled the notorious Gashouse District-- which chemical fumes made one of Manhattan's least desirable neighborhoods.

The development is named for Peter Stuyvesant, New Amsterdam's one-legged governor, who owned most of the land in this neighborhood. Autocratic, anti-democratic and intolerant, he was something of a 17th Century Giuliani.

346 (corner): Emerald Too, greeting cards, etc.


338: The Villager is a concierge for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village--not to be confused with the local paper of the same name.

332: Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town leasing office




310: The Gramercy Theatre (not to be confused with the one on 23rd Street) was once here.









298: Elm Drugs & Wellness Center; a good drug store.




288: The Linen Depot

284: Stuyvesant Camera









Earlier the mansion called Petersfield could be found here, less than one block east of 1st Avenue between 15th and 16th streets. It was the home of Petrus Stuyvesant, a descendant of Peter.




























W <===         EAST 14TH STREET         ===> E
The northern boundary of the East Village.

West:

237 (corner): Was 1st Federal Savings & Loan; later one of the last Love Stores in New York, a local drug store chain. The offices of City Council member Margarita Lopez were in this building.

233: Big Arc Chicken, Middle Eastern barbecue, popular with cabbies.

231: Vinny Vincenz Pizza

229: Was Old Fashioned Donuts, driven out of business by the oppressive corporate doughnut chain

227: Was Blue Velvet, fancy Vietnamese

225: The designer discount shop Gabay's is considered one of the neighborhood's shopping secrets; it's been here since the 1970s, and in business since the 1920s.

223: Build a Green Bakery (formerly Birdbath), green/natural bakery. Was Prince of Peace Bakery, the bakery formerly known as Prince Bakery.

221: Senor Pollo ("Mister Chicken"), Peruvian, was Rancho El Girasol ("Sunflower Ranch"), Mexican featuring mariachis. Was Prince Fruit & Vegetable.

219 (corner): Was Mee Noodle Shop, Allen Ginsberg’s favorite Chinese--and I guess mine, too. Closed in 2005 when the building started to collapse.

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228: David’s Bagels, tasty--where I go for Sunday morning bagels

226: Wine on 1st, helpful shop

224: The Crossings apartments--I think it includes all the addresses north to the corner.

222: Ikura, Japanese

220: H&W Hardware, since 1924











218 (corner): Was Victor's Marketplace, long-running meat market. The building has recently been thoroughly uglified.


W <===         EAST 13TH STREET         ===> E

West:

217 (corner): Olympic Deli & Grocery was DiBella Brothers, Italian grocery known for its stuffed artichoke hearts.

211-213: Luzzo's was Zito's East, a charming old place that claimed to make one of the best 50 pizzas in the world.

207: Slavic Evangelical Christian Church

205: Lugo's Mecca of Hair

203: Tuba's Shish Kabob, Mideastern; was Cyclo, Vietnamese with a namesake bicycle rickshaw out front.

201: Wai? Cafe

199 (corner): Fuji Apple Deli is my favorite corner grocery.

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East:






214: Elvie's Turo-Turo, tasty Filipino fast food

210: Gena's Grill was National Cafe, a notable Cuban hole in the wall; Lazzat, halal.

208: Christine's, long-standing Polish diner. Building from 1911.

204: No Relation, formerly Treasure Trends NYC, vintage and pseudo-vintage clothing

198-200 (corner): Hearth, fancy American; used to be Tappo, another pricey place.


W <===         EAST 12TH STREET         ===> E

West:

Asher Levy School

185 (block): P.S. 19 is named for 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 name is also spelled "Asser Levy," but you can see how grade school kids might find that too entertaining. Art, dance and drama are integral parts of the curriculum here.






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East:

196 (corner): 1st Avenue Gourmet Deli

192-194: Neptun, formerly KK, Polish diner

190: Trees replaced Brunetta’s, an incredibly old little Italian

188: Mandarin Grill, Filipino

186: A-1 Music

184: Atomic Wings, which painted over its "Make Wings, Not War" slogan when the war in Afghanistan started. At the same address is Sahara East, Mideast restaurant noted for its backyard and its hookahs.

182 (corner): Madina Masjid Islamic Council of America, one of the few mosques in downtown Manhattan.


W <===         EAST 11TH STREET         ===> E

West:

177 (corner): Something Sweet, formerly Black Forest Bakery. Not as much history as some other nearby pastry shops, but still plenty yummy.







173: Five Roses Pizza, longstanding pizzeria. Handsome Dick Manitoba of The Dictators lived here for 18 years.

171: Krystal's Cafe, a Filipino bakery, was Ferucci’s Gourmet Market. A cast-iron building atypical of the neighborhood.

167: Sandobe Sushi was the faux retro Bendix Diner.

165: Commodities natural food store

163 (corner): Momofuku Ko only takes reservations online, and the 12 seats are booked within seconds every day at David Chang's hearty Japanese. Used to be a wrap place. Taralluci e Vino's name means "cookies and wine," but sells sandwiches and espresso--go figure. Formerly Sassy's Sliders, tasty White Castle-like burgers. Upstairs used to be Princess Pamela's, a secret apartment/restaurant "where you could eat great homecooking, served by the hostess often wearing scuffy slippers."

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East:

180 (corner): Village Fabrics building dates to 1872.

DeRobertiis Pastry Shoppe

176: Italian pastries since 1904; a more authentic Old New York experience than Veniero's. Handsome Jack Giordano, a Gambino family member, ran a bookmaking operation out of here in the late 1980s; the FBI said they had "bugs in everything but the cannolis and the espresso machine." Tom Cruise carries a box from DeRobertiis in Eyes Wide Shut.

174: Xunta, Galician tapas, eaten on barrels. Formerly Pete's Spice. Upstairs is First Flight Music.

172: Fourth World House, progressive daycare

170: This building has a faded ad for corsets (!) on its southern wall.

168: Lanza’s, old-school Italian since 1907, now part of the Sal Anthony's mini-chain. Was the favorite restaurant of Gambino underboss Joe "Piney" Armone, who died in prison in 1992.

166: La Zarza, Spanish/Argentine, was a club known as One66. Formerly Izzy Bar.

Corner (245 E. 10th): Sapporo East, good, affordable Japanese


W <===         EAST 10TH STREET         ===> E

McLaughlin’s Bear Pit, where one could bet on fights between dogs and bears, was located at this intersection in the 1860s.

West:

Theater for the New City

155: A progressive, experimental playhouse founded in 1971, and named for a remark by Mayor John Lindsay about building a new city for all. Used to be the First Avenue Retail Market, which was built by Mayor LaGuardia as a way to get pushcarts off the streets. Also houses anarchist May Day Books and serves as a neighborhood polling place, which makes for an interesting combination. The city, which controlled the air rights, forced the building of a luxury condo above the theater, known as the New Theatre Building; though very 21st Century-looking, it seems to have made some effort to echo the surrounding tenements. Vin Diesel started his acting career with a play here when he was 7 years old.

153: Coyote Ugly, bar that the movie was based on, sort of.

149: Flor’s Kitchen, Venezuelan

147 (corner): Angelica’s Herbs; paranoid style detracts from the wide selection of botanical products.

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East:

158: Mary's Dairy, an ice cream parlor, was Standard, a stylish and mellow bar. Earlier it was Downtown Beirut, a classic punk bar featured in After Hours.

156: Diamonds & Oranges, a gallery in a former bodega










P.S. 122

150 (corner): Public school turned performance space in 1979 for the likes of Spalding Gray, Penny Arcade, Karen Finley, Quentin Crisp, etc. Ira Gershwin is said to have attended here when it was still a school. The auditorium was feautured in the movie Fame.


W <===         EAST 9TH STREET         ===> E

West:

145 (corner): East Village Pizza & Kebabs. Nicholas Stuyvesant, a descendant of Peter, had a dwelling approximately here called Mansion House.

143: Paquitos, Mexican

141: Gourmet Market Place was 1 Ave Fish Market

137: Tara Thai, friendly, tasty, affordable--with shadow puppets

135: Shiki Kitchen, sushi restaurant decorated with the chef's paper art--like origami, but with scissors as well as folding. Also Gea's Garden Jewels.

Corner (83 St. Mark's): Stromboli Pizza, named for a Sicilian volcano.

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East:

Corner (400 E. 9th): Lime Tree Market, Japanese deli

140: Cheap Shots, newish dive bar, was First Avenue Meat Products, one of several butcher shops along this stretch of First Avenue.

138: East Village Wines, noted for annual palindrome contest. "Dubya won? No way, bud" a recent winner.




134 (corner): Simone Espresso and Wine Bar. Either way blood flows.... Building dates to 1872.


W <===         ST MARKS PLACE         ===> E

West:







129: Lulu's, bar noted for skeeball

127: Was Prana Foods, organic, pro-animal rights, anti-genetic manipulation grocery

123: Organic Grill

121: Sticky Fingers Bakery

119: Dok Suni; Korean restaurant's name means "strong woman."

115 (corner): Real name is WCOU Radio, but best known as Tile Bar. My first date with my wife was here.

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East:

132 (corner): Tribe was St Marks Bar. In the video for "Waiting on a Friend," Mick Jagger and Keith Richards meet the rest of the Rolling Stones here.

130: Rainbow Records; Homemade Pierogi & Deli Co.

128: Kebab Garden, Mideastern with a "flaming" sign, was La Focacceria, Italian since 1914.

126: Lunasa, modernist Irish bar, named for the pagan holiday of Lughnasa; was Galapagos, Ecuadoran restaurant

124: Was Kurowycky & Son Meat Products, sausage-makers opened in 1955 and closed in 2007

120 1/2: Was International Bar, much-missed skinny dive

120: La Casalinga, compact Italian


W <===         EAST 7TH STREET         ===> E

West:





111: B & M Meat Market

109: Ginger, neo-sushi

105: Counter, Cajun vegetarian--both tasty and stylish

103: Solex, French wine bar, was Teresa's, charming, affordable Polish diner

99 (corner): Mancora, Peruvian; was Spice House, grocery serving "Little India"

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116 (corner): Saifee Hardware used to be Pauline's Bar and Restaurant. It was also Tunnel Bar, which pioneered the East Village gay scene in the early 1980s. Before that it was Red Bar, a hangout for artists like Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

112: Imagine Bar & Grill was Miracle Grill, Southwestern restaurant where celebrity chef Bobby Flay achieved fame; building dates to 1885.

110: Polonia, cozy diner; even cheaper and more Polish than Teresa's.

102: Lilly Coogan's bar; formerly the Old Homestead Inn


W <===         EAST 6TH STREET         ===> E

West:

97: Banjara, spiffy Indian fusion place. Banjara are Indian relatives of the Romani (aka "Gypsies").

93: Bengali restaurants with so many Christmas lights they're psychedelic. Milon is on the left and Panna II is on the right; Royal (which used to be light-free) is down below. Warning: Make up your mind which Christmas-light restaurant you want to eat in before you go up the stairs--or the decision will be made for you.

91: Sigiri, Sri Lankan; E & C Trading had Indian movies, music, instruments; Dual (formerly Dowel Quality Products) has Indian groceries.

87: Was First, restaurant/bar noted for fancy martinis. Now Blue Door Video.

85: Was Mod World, Little Ricky-style kitsch

83 (corner): Three of Cups, romantic Italian; Quentin Tarantino got into a brawl here, May 2, 1998. In the Tarot deck, the three of cups signifies emotional fulfillment. Used to be Dizzy Chicken.

<=== E 5TH ST

71: Pukk, tasty, stylish vegetarian Thai

69: Downtown Bakery II is an unassuming hole in the wall that serves tasty Mexican food.

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Village View Apartments

There is a pleasant shortcut through these highrises to the rest of 5th Street.


































W <===         EAST 4TH STREET         ===> E

West:



59: New Rage, another kitsch gift shop.

49 1/2: Kudo Beans, a coffee shop that oddly boasts of its coffee's New Jersey origins. Used to be Bulgin’ Waffles; before that was Little Ricky's, kitsch mecca of the Lower East Side.

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W <===         EAST 3RD STREET         ===> E

West:

41: d.b.a., bar with great beer, scotch selection. Stands for "Doing Business As," a standard acronym in small business documents. Norman Mailer wrote most of The Deer Park upstairs in this building.

39: Former home of Edwin Fancher, who founded the Village Voice along with Norman Mailer.


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W <===         EAST 2ND STREET         ===> E

West:

27 (corner): The Ezra Pound apartments. Ground floor is Gringer's, appliances since 1918.

25: Sanctuary, new age restaurant; Interfaith League Guest House, a retreat center run by an offshoot of Hare Krishna.

21: East Village Radio, an alternative station that plays on 88.1 FM. You could literally step in the front door and be on the air.

19: Lil' Frankie's Pizza; spin-off of the popular Frank is "the East Village's best pizza parlor"-- Village Voice.

17: Speedy Lock & Door Co., since 1982.

15: La Linea

13 (corner): Boca Chica, festive South American

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26 (corner): Rama Cafe was Animal Crackers pet supplies, Arka Co., Ukrainian gifts

Lucky Cheng's

24: Asian food served by attractive crossdressing waitresses. In a previous incarnation, the building was Club Baths, a plush gay sex club; later a restaurant, Cave Canem, whose basement featured lesbian orgies.

22: Ortiz Funeral Home. Child abuse victim Nixmary Brown's wake was held here in 2006.

16: Sutra, two-story lounge; previous bars here include The Flat, xvi; Artists Rec. Ctr.

14: Lucien, French bar/restaurant

12 (corner): One and One, Irish-y pub


W <===         EAST 1ST STREET         ===> E

One of only two places in Manhattan where a numbered street meets an avenue with the same number.

West:

First Park

Sliver of playground created in 1935 from land left over from widening Houston. Renovated in 1997. Includes Le Kiosk snack bar.



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East:

Peretz Square

Named in 1952 for Isaac Loeb Peretz (1851-1915), a Jewish Pole who has been called the father of modern Jewish literature.





W <===         EAST HOUSTON STREET         ===> E
The southern boundary of the East Village.

West:

Corner (161 E Houston): Oliva, cozy Spanish restaurant

205: Isla Del Encanto, deli



















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In part to improve Allen Street's bad reputation (it was part of the Lower East Side's red-light district), the street was widened in 1932 and a median put in in an effort to create a Park Avenue-like effect. All the buildings on the east side of the street were demolished for this project. The street is just now beginning to recover from this ill-conceived plan.

Corner (173 E Houston): Was Economy Foam & Futon Center, long-running LES business; it's given up the Allen side of its space for a new restaurant called, I believe, Sugar Cafe.

196: Rockwood Music Hall

188: Bar-B, DJ lounge

Corner (82 Stanton): Epstein's Bar, burger-and-beer joint named for the Welcome Back Kotter character (and not, they say, for the Epstein-Barr virus). Was The Living Room, acoustic-music club now on Ludlow.

W <===     STANTON ST     ===> E

West:





165: Dish, fancy foods at affordable prices.

157: Happy Happy Happy, dairy-free and gluten-free desserts







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Bluestockings

172: A progressive bookstore and activist resource center. The name is a 19th Century term for "a woman with strong scholarly or literary interests." This was also the site of Surf Reality, an experimental theater space of the sort that can no longer afford to be on the Lower East Side.

158: Jutta Neumann makes remarkable things out of leather.

152: Moo Shoes, vegan footwear. Founded 2001, moved to LES 2003.

W <===     RIVINGTON ST     ===> E

West:




143: Building dates to 1920--looks a lot older.

133: Formerly the Allen Street Baths; between 1905 and 1988, an estimated 4 million baths were taken here. Now houses the Church of Grace to Fujianese NY, a Chinese immigrant congregation.


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W <===     DELANCEY ST     ===> E

West:




99: Fried Dumpling is one of the cheapest places to eat in town--recommended by the Voice's Robert Sietsema.

95: Lucky's Restaurant




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98: Congee Village Bar, noted for outstanding karaoke rooms, as well as for tourist-challenging dishes like pork-stomach porridge and steamed fish head.



W <===     BROOME ST     ===> E

West:



85: Herbalica

83: Paramount Variety Goods Center

81: Leyartte Bakery


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88: Natural Restaurante








W <===     GRAND ST     ===> E

West:



















45 (corner):

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62-70 (corner): This building, an 1876 French Empire structure, was E. Ridley & Son, which claimed in 1886 to be the country's largest retail store. Founded as a small dry goods store here in 1850, Ridley's moved uptown in 1901. A fire badly damaged the building in 1905, and one side was removed for the 1932 widening of Allen Street.

On November 23, 1859, No. 70, the corner address, was the birthplace of Henry McCarty--better known as Billy the Kid. McCarty moved west with his family in 1865, where he later killed 21 men under the name William Bonney.

No. 62 is now Atlantis Seafood Wholesale.

40: Lobster Farm

W <===     HESTER ST     ===> E

West:

37: Time Art in Glass

27: This building, now a garage, served as a stable for Ridley's department store.

21: Mr. Tall Coffee & Bakery, Chinese/American

17: The Voice of Fujianes, immigrant magazine

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East:

W <===     CANAL ST     ===> E

West:



11: Proton Saga Malaysian Restaurant

3: Sentosa Malaysian Restaurant

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8: Happy Cafe




W <===     DIVISION ST     ===> E

West:

Seward Park Co-Ops

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Seward Park Co-Ops

W <===     EAST BROADWAY     ===> E

West:

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East:

W <===     HENRY ST     ===> E

West:

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East:

W <===     MADISON ST     ===> E

West:







W <===     MONROE ST

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East:

Rutgers Houses

W <===     CHERRY ST     ===> E

West:

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East:

W <===     SOUTH ST     ===> E

W <===     FDR DRIVE     ===> E







EAST RIVER




What's missing on 1st Avenue? Write to Jim Naureckas and tell him about it.

Topography: Thirst Avenue is a collectively produced guide to 1st Avenue drinking establishments.

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Sources for the Songlines.