3.4.5

Believe it or not your webmaster has never actually been inside the 1832 "Old Merchants' House," 29 East 4th just west of the Bowery, originally built by Joseph Brewster and later home to the Tredwell family; Gertrude "Gitty" Tredwell spent her entire life here, from 1840-1933, 93 years. It has been a museum since 1936 and has a twin next door, awaiting restoration for many years.

Like Popeye, your webmaster says "ghosks is the bunk" but Ghosts of New York City author Therese Langan-Schmidt disagrees and says that Gitty is still here, in a noncorporeal condition. Several workers and guests claim to have seen her.

34 and 36 East 4th near Lafayette. 34 features the Swift Hibernian Lounge on the ground floor...

...and rare tinplate eagles at the top, that get no respect from the pigeons.

Mural on East 4th east of the Bowery by artist Elizabeth Prager. Note the Mayor Dinkins reference, which likely means it was placed here between 1989-1993.

69 East 4th. The Pageant Book Store, famous for its prints and maps of old New York, was founded in 1946 by Sidney B. Solomon and Henry "Chip" Chafetz on NYC's former Booksellers' Row, 4th Avenue between Cooper and Union Squares. Its most famed location, between 1981-1999, was on East 9th between 3rd and 4th Avenues, where a tavern briefly maintained the old name after its departure. Not sure when this iteration of the Pageant opened; it had been on East Houston Street for awhile. The 9th Street locale can be seen in the Woody Allen classic Hannah and Her Sisters.

62 East 4th. I have often thought about doing a page called ...ah... Great Escapes, about distinctive exterior fire escapes, but so far haven't found enough interesting ones. This one, a circular stairacse encased by a metal screen, is certainly arresting. The date of construction, 1889, is seen at the top of the column.

66-68 East 4th, now Manhattan Plaza, once Turn Verein, or "Gymnastics Club." It now houses 44,000 sq. feet of cultural space, in a building that once hosted the first theater production in Yiddish, "The Witch," in 1882.

RIGHT: 74 East 4th, home of the La MaMa experimental theatre, founded by Ellen Stewart in 1961. One of the three plays by Harvey Fierstein that became Torch Song Trilogy premered here in 1978.

Your webmaster was intrigued by the three busts above the second floor, however...

There's Ludwig Van, certainly, but who are the other two guys? Mozart perhaps, and who else? The one in the middle, shown above, is the most prominent.

ForgottenFans, help me here.

Clock, Industrial National Bank (the building is now a Bank of America branch) NE corner of East 4th at 2nd Avenue, built in 1926.

Volkswagen T2 Bus. VW T2s, first introduced in 1968, can be recognized by their single front windshields (earlier VW Buses had a split windshield). VW buses were painted in psychedelic colors in the Swingin' Sixties and Super 70s, but here on East 4th Street, NYers have their own way of sprucing 'em up. Here's a collection of vintage VW Bus ads.

Generation X Youth Cultural Garden, one of the East Village's myriad community gardens, many begun after dilapidated tenement buildings were razed. They bring oases of green to neighborhoods that don't have much in the way of street trees. Most are open spring and summer weekends. 270 West 4th between Avenues B and C.

The eastern end of East 4th has some marvelously art-ed up buildings and an abandoned phone booth, which now looks like something out of an Aztec temple.

345 East 4th near Avenue D: Originally a Russian Orthodox church, the Western Orthodox Christian Church of San Isidoro and San Leandro dates to 1895; its exterior boasts a bold brown and white paint job.

The Hispanic (Mozarabic) rite was practiced on the Iberian peninsula until the expulsion of the Moors from northern Spain in the late eleventh century.

Orchard Alley, community garden on East 4th across from the church.

244 East 3rd: Basic box home to the Tompkins Square Branch Post Office, and the former locale of the Baroness, a prime purveyor of recreational latexwear.

The Clash figure prominently in the East Village; the British band enjoyed their NYC visits (they played Bonds International Casino in Times Square for 17 consecutive nights in 1981, one of which was attended by your webmaster.) The Clash always provided top entertainment for the money -- they once released 5 albums (the 2-disc London Calling and the 3-disc Sandinista!) for the price of two in 1979-1980. Joe Strummer appears in a mural at East 7th Street and Avenue A.

Not sure who this artist is...Forgotteners, fill me in.

236 East 3rd Street: Nuyorican Poets Café, acclaimed forum for innovative poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy and theatre, founded in 1973 by Rutgers University professor (at the time) Miguel Algarin. Nuyorican moved to their present location in 1980. The mural depicts a Nuyorican co-founder, playwright Miguel Piñero (1946-1988) whose most famous work, the prison-themed Short Eyes, was staged in 1972 and won an Obie, was Tony-nominated, and became a feature film in 1977. The title is prison slang for a child molester.

I didn't pass the Kenkeleba Gallery, on East 2nd Street, but I did pass its back yard.

Named for a West African plant believed to possess spiritual powers, Kenkeleba House is dedicated to the exhibition of artworks by African-American, Latino, Asian-American and Native American artists. Kenkeleba House sponsors eight to ten exhibitions a year of four to five weeks' duration, often exploring historical or thematic issues. Exhibits have included Unbroken Circle, a show of works by African-American artists produced during the Work Projects Administration; and In the Spirit of Wood, a multi-ethnic exhibit of artists who use that medium. Kenkeleba has a substantial collection of contemporary American paintings, especially works by established and emerging African-American artists. [NYC Arts]

It's a pizzeria...no, it's a movie theatre...no, it's a video rental place. Actually Two Boots is all three; despite serving some of NYC's best pizza (if you like Cajun spices on your pizza) it also hosts a popular indie film house, the Pioneer, East 3rd and Avenue A.

The day I passed, I spotted the Ghostly Gentleman of Providence on a poster. No doubt the old boy would have been horrified to have been the subject of LovecraCked! The Movie, in which...

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, our story follows the exploits of a bumbling investigative journalist as he struggles to discover the truth behind the enigmatic Lovecraft and his mysterious past.

You have to love the teal decor as well as the street names on the buildings.

The imposing Catholic Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, built in 1905 at 173 East 3rd east of Avenue A, was for many years the tallest building in the East Village before the Jacob Riis and Lillian Wald Houses were built along the FDR Drive in the 1940s.

The "motorcycle club" Hells Angels' longtime headquarters is at 77 East 3rd, west of 1st Avenue.

The city has tried to move the Angels out at times in the past, without success:

Club members have lived at the ramshackle East Village apartment house at 77 East Third Street since 1969. The building has developed a reputation as the scene for loud parties, drug deals, orgies and random acts of violence to passers-by. A Federal lawsuit was filed under a 1984 law allowing the Government to seize property used in drug trafficking. [New York Times, Feb. 5, 1994]

"Everyone has a story," said Amanda Daloisio, a member of the New York Catholic Worker as she describes life at Maryhouse. "It's fascinating, the story of many of the women that come here, some of them were famous child actresses, writers or happily married. But, it can all change so quickly and these women are examples of the victims of this struggle." Maryhouse is part of the Catholic Worker movement, founded by Dorothy Day (1897-1980) and Peter Maurin (1877-1949) in New York City, 1933. Both Day and Maurin were deeply influenced by the poverty of the depression, the Gospels and the Catholic Social Teaching. Day and Maurin went against the norm and sacrificed their own well-being and personal wealth to help people living in the slums of New York City. They believed in helping every human being. Although this moral motivation seems to be prevalent in many charitable organizations, the Catholic Worker lives up to its word. Today, there are 185 Catholic Worker communities in the United States. In New York City, Maryhouse and St. Joseph House, only a few blocks away from eachother, are houses of hospitality and soup kitchems for women and men.

Maryhouse offers showers, clothes and a soup kitchen to women. For many women, it is a safe haven. They come to relax and bond with the volunteer workers or the other women who are staying or eating at Maryhouse.

Unlike many other charitable organizations, the Catholic Worker is not government funded. Because the Catholic worker opposes war and holds the government accountable for economic policies that create poverty, they refuse funding from state and local government. Rather it is funded by the readers of The Catholic Worker newspaper and private donations. This community is also not tax exempt, believing that those who contribute should do so from a genuine sense of charity and personal responsibility and not to get something in return from the government. [Marymount School]

I was intrigued by the handsome building on the NW corner of 2nd Avenue and East 5th Street; developers are unwilling to build in this style anymore. There are not one but two Rex Cole GE signs above the first floor, indicaing it was equipped with Rex Cole-designed refrigerators in the 1930s. As I noted on FNY's Preservation By Default page:

So who was Rex Cole and why is his refrigerator on so many NYC housing projects? Cole (1887-1967) was originally a lamp manufacturer, then became associated with General Electric in the 1920s and designed white enamel Monitor Top refrigerators. Famed architect Raymond Hood designed a series of buildings in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, the Grand Concourse, and Northern Blvd. in Flushing for Cole's showrooms that either looked like refrigerators or featured them in the design! Most are still standing but have been altered beyond recognition. Enamel signs proclaiming Cole's GE refrigerators can still be found on a handful of buildings around town.