New York Songlines: 28th Street

South:

628: Was (briefly) The Vault, NYC's premier S&M dungeon.

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554: Eagle is a long-running gay leather club that reopened here c. 2002.

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536: Scores West Side, spin-off of Midtown sports bar/strip club.

530: Crobar, part of a dance club chain whose other outlets are in Chicago and Miami.

505: Jay Grimm Gallery

South:

Chelsea Park

District Health Center

Corner (303 9th Ave): This Board of Health facility features a monument to the soldiers and sailors of Chelsea who fought in the World War--the one from 1914-18. There's also some pillars commemorating various Tammany politicians.

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Block (314 10th Ave): Abandoned-looking building is Morgan South, an annex to the main post office that is used for mail transport and sorting operations. An employee explains that it looks abandoned in part because of "the grafitti-proof paint they used: Spray-paint doesn't stick to it ... and it doesn't stick very well to anything else, i.e. the structure itself."

South:

Church of the Holy Apostles

Corner (300 9th Ave): This 1849 Epicopalian church, by Minard Lafever, was saved from the Penn South clearance effort in part because of its unique architectural style, both Romanesque and Italianate. Transepts added 1958 by Charles Babcock. Noted for its stained glass by William Jay Bolton. Now shares the space with Congregation Beth Simchat Torah.

360: Empire View Condominiums. Seems to have been built on church land.

Penn South Houses

built 1962 by ILGWU as middle-income housing co-op for garment workers.

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305: Geriatrics/Internal Medicine at Penn South

Corner: William "Big Bill" Devery, reputedly "the most corrupt man to ever wear the uniform of the New York City Police Department," was chief of police from 1898-1902. He would stand every night at this corner--known as "The Pump"--to accept payoffs and information from gamblers, brothel owners and other Tenderloin entrepreneurs.

South:

Fashion Institute of Technology

Block: the garment district's academic hub.

David Dubinsky Student Center (1977); named for the ILGWU leader who helped found the American Labor Party and New York's Liberal Party.

Arts and Design Center (1977)

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North:

Corner (362-368 8th Ave): This building, currently scheduled for demolition, served as a business office for William "Big Bill" Devery (see opposite corner), and was his campaign headquarters when he ran for mayor in 1903. After he lost, he bought a Baltimore baseball team, moved them to New York and renamed them the New York Yankees.

At the corner now is Krour Thai.

229: Caxton Building

215: Demerara, club space. Was N'Gone, Senegalese cafe.

Corner (322 7th Ave): Cavallos Pizzeria; The Greek Corner

South:

Corner (315 7th Ave): Kheel Tower, a 1929 neo-Gothic office building--now condos.

150: Industrial Building has a castle-like entrance. Starbright Floral Design is here; Rock Star NYC, the crystal warehouse, is upstairs. Also houses the Association for Research and Enlightenment, a group devoted to the teachings of psychic Edgar Cayce.

146: Bear Cave/Vault; underground gay sex club shut down by the city in 2001.

120: MCC (Manhattan Class Company) Theater & TADA! youth theater.

116: Cool hip-hop mural.

106A: Corporate burger outlet used to be a branch of Child's, local cheap food chain; note seahorse-and-trident trim. Also houses Noble Planta.

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Flower District

This area has been home to New York's plant and floral wholesalers since the 1870s.

Corner: Seventh Avenue Building

151: Green (orchids); Mutual Cut Flowers

147: This was the address of three African-American victims of the Draft Riots of 1863: William Henry Nichols, who was killed with a crowbar while defending his mother from the mob; Joseph Reed, a seven-year-old boy clubbed to death with the butt of a pistol; and a three-day-old baby, name unknown, who was thrown to his or her death from an upper window.

145: Twelve stories finished 1914 by Sommerfeld & Steckler

141: Twelve stories finished 1913 by Frederick C. Zobel

135: Agomar Flower Shop

131-133: Associated Cut Flower Co.

129: Dry Nature Design

127: The Plant House

123: OK's Flower Inc.

117: PNK Silk Flowers Corp.

115: NY Flowers

111: Silk Gardens & Trees

107: New Concept Wholesale Flowers

105: C&M Farms; potted plant bargains.

103: P&J Florist Supply

Corner (817 6th Ave): The lot that used to hold City Plants & Gardens is now the future site of Remy, a futuristic residential high-rise designed by Costas Kondylis--the only really original project to come out of the Sixth Avenue condo tower boom.

South:

Tin Pan Alley

The stretch of 28th Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway was the center of music publishing at the beginning of the 20th Century, when the music business was the sheet music business. The publishers on the street all hired "pluggers" to play songs for prospective customers; the din from all their pianos playing at once gave the street its nickname. The street is now a center for clothing and accesories wholesalers.

Corner: Stretch of old buildings demolished in 2002.

44: Sixteen floors designed by George F. Pelham and completed in 1912

42: Jewelry House Corp was Chas B. Ward Publishing Co. (''And the Band Played On''); also Harry von Tilzer Music Publishing. Later the last home of actor Zero Mostel.

36: Was Leo Feist, Inc. (1900-02)

34: Copa Cabana Fashion Wear

Everard Baths

26-30: Wholesale Center, wholesalers' mini-mall. Was Everard Baths; originally a church, turned into public baths in 1888, serving a primarily gay clientele by WWI. Nicknamed the Ever-Hard Baths, was the city's longest-running gay bathhouse. Closed in 1985.

Corner (1181 Broadway): Clover Trading Corp. is in the Baudouine Building (1896); note Greek temple on roof.

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North:

Corner (816 6th Ave): Bill's Flower Market

57: This building was once a high-class gambling den run by William "Dink" Davis.

55: In 1911, Emma Goldman made this the address of her anarchist magazine Mother Earth

49-51: Paul Meconi Inc., Wholesale Florists was M. Witmark & Songs (''Sweet Adeline," ''Hello Central, Give Me Heaven'') from 1893-98. No. 51 was later Paul Dresser Publishing Co. (1905-06).

47: Another Paul Meconi storefront was the office of the New York Clipper, ''the oldest American Sporting & Theatrical Journal''; top floor was Whitney-Warner Publishing Company (''Hiawatha'').

45: Shapiro, Bernstein & Company, music publisher (1899-1904); opulent office boasted a ''Turkish Corner'' with colored lights. Later the Jerome Remick Music Co., where a teenaged George Gershwin worked as a song plugger (1914-17). Among his customers were Fred and Adele Astaire, a vaudeville song-and-dance team. Gershwin met Irving Caesar here, with whom he wrote "Swanee."

43: Great Magic Int'l and Rainbow Asia Imports are in the former offices of agent William Morris (1903); Morris at the time booked acts for the vaudeville circuit, the U.S.'s first national entertainment system. This was also the office of Helf & Hager's Hitland (''Everybody Works but Father''). In 1892 this was the address of the American Actors' Amateur Athletic Association.

41: Aida's & Jimi's Merchandising Co. was P.J. Howley Music Company (1905-07).

37-39: A 12-story building designed by George F. Pelham and completed in 191l. Imperial Umbrellas was Gotham Music Co.; Harry von Tilzer was also found at No. 37. Earlier this was the address of the Alhambra, a Tenderloin-era dance hall.

South:

Corner (1170 Broadway): House of Perfume is in the Johnston Building, a 1903 13-story structure by Schickel & Ditmars. Note lions' heads, dome on roof.

12: Active Sportswear is at the address of the Actor's Fund of America.

6: Stylish brownstone with Western Perfumes Inc. was one of many posh illegal gambling halls along this stretch of street. Opened by Thomas Darden and Willard Fitzgerald c. 1890, it was later run by Shang Draper, who was described as "the king of New York's underworld."

Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence lives on West 28th Street-- probably on this block, or close to it, considering all the walking on 5th Avenue the character does.

Corner (246 5th Ave): Yi Li Da Inc., export/importers, is in a building I find very interesting, with its three-story arch and its asymmetry.

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North:

17 (corner): Young Town Jewelry. This was the site of the Gaelic Society library--same building?

15: Note caryatids on top floor. Ubu Repertory Theater, which specialized in French plays in translation, had a small theater here starting in 1982. Now houses Tada! Youth Theater.

Corner (250 5th Ave): Broadway National Bank was Second National Bank (1908)--a lesser McKim, Mead & White effort.

South:

Latham Hotel

4: An affordable, kinda historic hotel. The 13-story building dates to 1906 and was designed by Augustus N. Allen. At this hotel on June 21, 1957, Soviet spy Rudolf Ivanovich Abel was arrested by the FBI in the "Hollow Nickel Case." Five years later, he was exchanged for downed U-2 pilot Gary Powers.

8: Site of the Fencer's Club, organized in 1883.

Prince George Hotel

14: Once the fashionable haunt of personalities like Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell, this 1906 hotel was the first to boast a private bath in every room. Later a notorious welfare hotel. Still a home for the formerly homeless, now much better run--and it looks great.

28: Painter Mark Rothko lived in this building (1940-43) just before he became famous.

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North:

1 (corner): The site of Black, Starr & Frost, a fashionable jewelry firm founded 1810, from c. 1876 to 1913. Now home to Ultimate Gym Muay Thai, Thai boxing.

7: There's a public plaza here which was provided by the Madison Belvedere apartment tower in return for the city allowing it to become 20 percent bigger--to 50 floors. There's a gold-topped pagoda on the roof of the 1999 building.

Corner (80 Madison): 80 Deli

South:

28 (corner): Ziff Davis Media, publisher of PC Magazine and other technology-oriented titles.

36: Home of the Technology Club-- MIT's alumni association--in 1903.

42: Address of the Ledonia Hotel, which was noted by the 1939 WPA Guide as offering rooms for $2/night--a good deal even in those days.

Corner (400 Park Ave S): For years, there's been talk of replacing the parking lot here with a futuristic building by French architect Christian de Portzamparc-- an asymmetric crystalline structure that would be much more interesting than the usual bland residential high-rise.

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North:

Corner (79 Madison): This 16-story building from 1925 was designed by Buchman & Kahn. Below Scopa Cafe is the Boston (212) Cafe, hangout for Red Sox fans.

29: Chef 28, Chinese, is in an 1879 four-story building, reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm, that was designed by James Renwick (of St. Pat's fame).

31: This 12-story office building by Schwartz & Gross was completed in 1913 and converted to condos in 2006.

35: Bono's Cafe

37: Urena

43: Chicken Delicatessen

45: Was Mesa de Espana, old-school Spanish opened c. 1980

Corner (404 Park Ave S): Walter Haefeli was the architect of this 16-story building finished in 1917. Croissant Cafe was on the ground floor.

SUBWAY: 6 Train to Union Square

In the film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, the ransom for the hijacked subway train is delivered to this station. It was also the site of the first recorded real-life subway crime, when a $500 diamond stick-pin was stolen on opening day, October 27, 1904.

South:

108: Butala Emporium, Indian religious icons and other crafts

110: Stony Brook Manhattan, a big-city outpost of the suburban SUNY school

116: Bagel & Schmear

118: Max Nass Jewelry, since 1957. Between the massive pillars is a shortcut to 27th Street.

122: The Black Duck, a bistro in a well-preserved four-story townhouse, named for a 1920s rumrunner.

Park South Hotel

124: A mid-priced (for New York) hotel in an attractive 1906 office building.

126: The Copper Chimney, eclectic Indian

128: Little India Stores, spices etc.

130: Taco Express

Corner (118 Lexington): Little Michael Deli has a friendly cat.

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North:

Corner (407 Park Ave S): The Ascot, rather generic 26-story apartment building from 1983 (Philip Birnbaum & Assoc., architects)

127: Tiffin Wallah, veggie Indian. The name refers to a person in India who delivers lunch to you from your home.

129: M & N Smoke & Grocery

Corner (120 Lexington): Chinese Mirch, Indian/Chinese fusion, named for a hot pepper. This was, until his death in 1906, the home and office of Dr. Edward Bliss Foote, a birth-control pioneer, women's suffrage advocate, co-founder of the Free Speech League and the author of a children's sex education book involving ''Sponsie, the Troublesome Monkey'' (1874). Foote was the first person to be prosecuted for obscenity by postal inspector Anthony Comstock.

South:

Rice

Corner (115 Lexington): Rice, a stylish and friendly restaurant serving delicious exotic varieties of the namesake grain. One of my favorite places to eat. Briefly Kulustyan's Masala Cafe.

136: Coup de Coeur ("Heart Attack"), well-named clothing store; Bollywood Corner, Indian DVDs

140: The Bing & Bing Building, designed by Emery Roth, dates to 1932. Intended for middle-class residents, it was the first building in New York to be built with low ceilings. A reader writes: "Because the developer wasn't sure the concept would take off, the top 3 floors (11th, 12th and Penthouse) were built with regular 10-feet ceilings."

152: Gannon Funeral Home, est. 1924

154: Nice four-story townhouse

160: Paquitos Tex-Mex Restaurant, pretty good local chain

Corner (390 3rd Ave): 3rd Avenue Quick Stop was California Farmers Market

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North:

Corner (119 Lexington): Curry in a Hurry, an affordable Indian restaurant owned by Kalustyan's. I've eaten here often.

135: Was Stop 28 Luncheonette, old-school

141: The Epiphany School Upper Campus is an 1898 building that the Catholic grade school, established in 1869 on 22nd Street, expanded into into in 1991.

St. Stephen's Church

149: A gorgeous 1854 Roman Catholic church, designed by James Renwick Jr., architect of Grace Church and St Patrick's Cathedral. The spectacular murals are by Constantino Brumidi, known for his work in the U.S. Capitol. In 1860, this was the largest Catholic parish in the country, with 24,000 members.

157: Happy Cooking Japanese BBQ boasts of being "open 7 days."

Corner (394 3rd Ave): Thainy, not-so-tiny Thai in a four-story tenement that was Noodles on 28th, tasty dumpling house with a tank of beautiful koi that moved up the street after a fire.

South:

Corner (393 6th Ave): L'Annam, friendly Vietnamese, used to be a restaurant called Tammany Hall. On the ground floor of The Rosehill, mad-ugly apartments named for the mansion of Gen. Horatio Gates, who saved the American Revolution by winning the Battle of Saratoga.

208: Six-story brown brick apartment complex has some character.

Nathan Straus Houses

225 E. 27th: Public housing from 1965, named for a co-owner of Macy's who gave much of his wealth to philanthropic projects, including lodging houses, a tuberculosis sanitarium for children, World War I relief and health centers in Palestine. Straus was a primary proponent of the pasteurization of milk.

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North:

201 (corner): Chesapeake House, 20-story white-brick apartments that went up in 1964; S. J. Kessler was the architect to blame. White brick is the curse of 3rd Avenue.

217: The Self-Realization Fellowship, a yoga-oriented spiritual foundation established in 1920, has a branch here in an 1893 firehouse by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons. This site was the original home of Ladder Co. 7, which was organized here in 1865 in what used to be the home of Washington Hook & Ladder 9. Moved out in 1968.

219-225: Five-floor apartments with stern bearded faces over entrances

227: Attractive red-brick rowhouse

229: This co-op, built in 1963, is home to photographer Sanford Hohauser.

Kips Bay Court

Large apartment complex was built in 1976 as Phipps Plaza West Apartments, part of the South Bellevue Urban Renewal program to provide nearby affordable housing for Bellevue workers. "Phipps" is Henry Phipps, a partner of Andrew Carnegie's who in 1905 founded the nonprofit development group that carried out the project. In 2002, however, people who put up money for the project successfully sued to force it out of the Mitchell-Lama nonprofit housing program.