Making a connection with the history of this 13th Street apartment

Earlier this year, Andrea Wang moved into an apartment on 13th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. 

Curious about the space, she requested an official rent history of the apartment. 

As she discovered, a former tenant is writer-editor Sari Botton, who lived in this unit from 1994-2004. Botton is the editor of "Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York," and the follow-up — "Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakeable Love for New York." 

Botton had written about this apartment in the first collection ("I had a lease on a marginally decrepit but livable rent-stabilized one-bedroom in a tenement on East 13th Street, for which I paid about $600 a month") as well as in The Village Voice. 

Wang contacted Botton, who now lives upstate. They exchanged photos of the apartment in its past and present condition ...

"Sari had a lot of written pieces online about her time living in New York, her apartment in New York, how she loved the city and discovered herself there," Wang told me. "I'm a newcomer to the city, and I wanted to build a connection to the history of the space I inhabited. She was in a way the perfect person to have previously lived there because her writing about her relationship to the city perfectly contextualized the connection we had, and she shared my openness and curiosity." 

Earlier in the fall, Botton stopped by the apartment when she was in the city to meet Wang and her roommate Benjy...

"When she visited, it was trippy to have us all be in the space together — felt like a collision of past, present and future," Wang said. "It felt meaningful that we had made memories in the same physical space but years apart. I moved around a lot as a kid and always wondered about the families that built their lives in those spaces before me." 

She continued. 

"It was cool when she pointed out little details about the space — shelves she had mounted that we still used, how the wall in one room had been shifted over. Apparently, she had her rent reduced one year because the bathroom ceiling caved in. She pointed out a closet in the building's hallway and said it used to be a bathroom because some of the apartments didn't have them at the time," Wang said. "Especially in a fast-paced city, our everyday interactions tend to prioritize efficiency. It was so meaningful to unearth this connection to someone who I wouldn't have met otherwise and got me wondering about the other potential shared experiences embedded in my everyday life." 

Interested in your rent history? You can visit this link to learn more.

Remembering Carol Joyce on 7th Street

This plaque arrived last week outside 39 E. Seventh St., the longtime home (1963-2020) of Carol Joyce and her husband Bob here between Second Avenue and Cooper Square ...

"In Loving Memory of the Mayor of Seventh Street."

She's remembered here as "anti-establishment, outspoken, compassionate & witty."

In the early days of the pandemic last March, she and her husband stayed at a cousin's country home. While away from the city she died of cardiac arrest on March 22, 2020. She was 93.

Jonathan Ned Katz, a longtime friend, wrote an essay about Carol at OutHistory.org.

She was born in the Bronx on April 1, 1926 ... and later graduated from Washington Irving High School. 

Carol taught textile design for many years at the School of Visual Arts, and she wrote several books on the topic. 

Here are few a excerpts from the essay:

Carol spent her adult life in Lower East Side rentals. In the 1980s, she and Robert Joyce founded the E. 7th Street Block Association which had trees planted, increased street safety and garbage pick-ups, and brought neighbors together at street fairs. Carol fought against gentrification, sometimes winning long battles to keep the heights of new buildings scaled to the neighborhood and protecting old brownstones from being demolished for high rises. 

And...

I always viewed Carol with a bit of awe, as a wondrous, fantastical creature, a quintessential New York character. Bob Joyce said it this way, recalling his wife as "a New Yorker born and bred, with no tolerance for hypocrisy..." 

Her only shortcomings, he noted, were that "she did not drink wine or eat pasta." He called her "the love of my life."

You can read the full essay here. Bob Joyce is now living upstate with relatives. 

Thank you to Dinky Romilly for the photos! 

The Tompkins Square Library hosts 'A Look Back on the East Village of the 1980s' starting Friday

[Via the Tompkins Square Library branch]

On Friday, the Tompkins Square Library branch on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B is opening an exhibit titled “A Look Back on the East Village of the 1980s.”

Some details via the EVG inbox:

This vigorous and enthusiastically researched show will focus on the creative counter-culture of the surrounding neighborhood in the 1980's. It will present important, vital highlights from the night club scene, along with the music, theater, and art activity of that period — a period in which the East Village was recognized nationally and internationally for its sometimes famous and sometimes infamous personalities and places.

In conjunction with the show, the Tompkins Square library has been working with material from the New York Public Library special collections, and with the Fales NYU Downtown archive. Of significant interest are the many photographs and fascinating ephemera and reproductions from the East Village in the 1980s.

In conjunction with the show on Friday night (at 6), the library is hosting a discussion, The East Village in the 1980s, featuring Penny Arcade, Clayton Patterson and Chris Rael. Andy McCarthy, a reference librarian at the Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History, and Genealogy at NYPL, is the moderator.

"A Look Back on the East Village of the 1980s" will be at the library until Nov. 1. This link has more details on branch hours, etc.

This old house

Been meaning to note this recent feature at 6sqft (h/t Bayou!) written by Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

Berman takes us on a fun history lesson while searching for the oldest house in the West and East Village.

We'll cut right to the rather surprising answer — 44 Stuyvesant St. ... at 10th Street across from the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.



It was built in 1795 for Nicholas William Stuyvesant.

Per Berman:

The house has all the signature elements of a Federal-era (1790-1835) home, including a sloped roof, double dormers, and Flemish bond brickwork (bricks laid in alternating short and long configurations). There are a few more modern updates, including an artist’s studio window inserted in the early 20th century (more on that here) and a doorway of more recent vintage.

But while this house, unlike some of its competitors, does not have a fancy name or title attached to it, it is, in fact, the oldest house in the Village. But that’s not its only distinction; it’s also the oldest building in Manhattan still used as a residence. And it’s one of a very small number of 18th-century structures which survive in Manhattan – an exclusive list that includes Upper Manhattan’s Dyckman Farmhouse and Morris Jumel Mansion, both of which are now museums and no longer functioning residences.

Read the full article here.

'Before we got Starfucked' — an exhibit on Avenue A tomorrow evening

Jen Fisher, who has operated the book stand on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place the past four years, is hosting an exhibit of East Village history at the space tomorrow evening.

Here are some details via the EVG info box...

Before we got Starfucked

A personal archive from the late 1980s to early 1990s of photographs, newspaper cuts, flyers and B&W Xerox books will be displayed on Tuesday, August 1 from 5:30-8 p.m.

The archive is based on 1980s and 1990s events such as The Tent City in Tompkins Square Park, the annual Stations of the Cross, Father George Kuhn, and the fight against gentrification as it was recorded and put together by a resident of the Lower East Side. Seen in the light of today's ongoing destruction of our neighborhood, we believe that this archive has acquired historical relevance as a record of the Lower East Side and the life it once contained.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Starbucks confirmed for Avenue A

Reader report: Workers dig up streetcar tracks on 3rd Avenue

An EVG reader/tipster shared these images from last evening... where workers have been putting in a new roadway on Third Avenue between Astor Place and Ninth Street/Stuyvesant Street as part of the Astor Place Reconstruction project ...

The reader thinks that workers have unearthed the former streetcar tracks along here...

"In digging out the roadbed for Third Avenue near Stuyvesant crews uncovered what I believe to be crossovers for the Third Avenue and crosstown streetcars. It may be difficult to see in the photos but one axis runs east/west (Stuyvesant) and the other runs parallel to Third Avenue."

When the Stuyvesant and Ninth Street mini-parks were built I remember Stuyvesant Street tracks being dug out."

These crossovers are still so well anchored that workers couldn't pull them out. Per the reader: "The crew has been cutting them into small pieces. They are at it again today."



No word on how this might delay the project...

According to the Village Crosstown Trolley Coalition: "The 8th St. line ran its last streetcar on March 3, 1936, clearing the way for the crosstown bus and ever-increasing swarms of automobiles and trucks."

Off the Grid has some nice trolley history here.

Unearthing retail history at 2A

[Photo by EVG reader Cate]

If you walked by 2A in recent days, then you may have noticed some ghost signage that has been unveiled ... for infants' wear and children's dresses...


[Photo by Spike]


[Photo by Spike]

Daytonian in Manhattan provides some fascinating history of the building on Avenue A and Second Street.

In 1868 the Teutonia Savings Bank was incorporated and its handsome bank building erected on the site of No. 25 Avenue A. The architect is unclear; however the structure bears striking similarities to the work of Nicholas Whyte who was working in the area. His Irwin Building, completed the same year, at the corner of Bowery and Bleecker Street includes several similar elements.

The four-story Italianate structure was faced in sandstone on the Avenue front and with red brick on the side elevation. The bank's architecture presented potential depositors with a sense of stability. Rusticated stone piers, handsome Corinthian pilasters between the upper openings on the Avenue side, and carved stone lintels with double keystones along 2nd Street spoke of the cost of the edifice. To the rear a stoop led to the arched doorway of the upper floors.

The offices on the upper floors were leased and the Teutonia Savings Bank operated from ground level. Things went smoothly for a decade before the bank collapsed under scandal and fraud.

In March 1878 a stranger who gave his name as H. G. Wagner attempted to open a bank account, using a draft for $2,750 drawn by the banking firm of Gossler & Co., in Boston. The check was accepted; but bank officials were suspicious and investigated the matter. It turned out to be a forgery and a detective was put on the case. He sat for days in the President’s office, where he could watch the bank patrons come and go through the glass door.

Wagner was too clever to personally return to withdraw funds; and he offered John Campbell 50 cents to cash a check for him. Campbell ended up being arrested and Wagner was never caught.

But that was the least of the problems for Teutonia Savings Bank. Four months later warrants were issued for the arrest of all 15 trustees of the bank. On July 15 the New-York Tribune ran the headline “Misuse of Bank Funds” and reported on the nearly $30,000 of assets the men had distributed among themselves.

The post doesn't have any mention of the retail space when it served in more recent times as a children's clothing store, as the signage shows (2A has been here since 1985)... and it's not clear if this will remain outside 2A or it's just a temporary reveal.


[Photo via JG]

20 years ago on East 13th Street

[Photo by John Penley via the Tamiment Library]

By Felton Davis of the Catholic Worker

All night long, we kept vigil, while the huge quasi-military force gathered to clear the squats on East 13th Street.

At about midnight on May 29th, people brought in an over-turned car and filled it with gasoline. One match, or even a careless person with a cigarette, could light this up and create a fire that could spread to the buildings, and trap those who were barricaded inside, burning them to death. How would that help the cause of squatting? How would that help communicate to the public the enormous work that was done to fix up these buildings? Or was it just a desperate gesture, to let the clearing turn into "another Waco," after the fatal confrontation in Texas two years earlier?

The debate will still going on the next morning, when the police brought in a re-furbished military tank, even after most of the gasoline was drained out of the car. The driver sitting on top of the tank motioned the riot officers to get out of the way, because he did not want to stop for those in front of it.

I'm alive today because the officers blocked the tank and dragged us out of the way. The debate over this extreme confrontation, and the extreme tactics brought to bear, continued in Central Booking that night, and it continued in the court where Stanley Cohen represented us, and it continued in the street, as people tried to re-take those buildings, and the Giuliani administration flexed its muscle, and more squatted buildings were seized or bull-dozed by the city.

Thanks for those who kept their sanity during this frightening time, and did not condemn us to death by fire and conflagration. Thanks for the memories.

For further reading:

• The Squatters of East 13th Street

• Battle Over 13th Street

• Tank KO's the Squatters
Daily News, May 31, 1995

• Riot Police Remove 31 Squatters From Two East Village Buildings
The New York Times, May 31, 1995

• Squatters of 13th Street Vs. Power of City Hall; More Than a Symbolic Battle for Control
The New York Times, July 12, 1995

Special feature: The East Village in 1967, 'walk into a sex, marijuana and LSD orgy'

Longtime East Village resident Anton van Dalen shared this clipping with us from the Daily News dated Feb. 8, 1967.

Titled "East Village Theme Is Now Love and Let Love," the piece begins with a bang, so to speak:

There was a time when you could knock on any of a dozen doors in the East Village and walk into a sex, marijuana and LSD orgy.

This "Special Feature" provides a snapshot of the area... from drug use to dating. You can click on the images for a better read of the article. It is well worth your time to do so.

A few excerpts by subject.

Dating:

Many of the relationships are interracial, with the usual coupling being a white girl and Negro man. At places such as The Dom, the Annex, the Old Reliable and PeeWee's Other Side interracial pickups and dating don't even raise an eyebrow.

A Negro writer who lives in the area described one East Village saloon as the "meat market" because because so many chicks from outside the area flock to it, as he said, "to prove how unprejudiced they are."

Drugs:

The artists, writers and hangers-on who take drugs lean toward marijuana and LSD. The slum-dwellers — those who live in the East Village because they have no choice — take heroin or cocaine if they take anything at all.

The "heavy" drugs bring the usual problems of muggings and burglaries, committed by addicts with expensive habits to feed.

Residents:

Strangely, the great majority of East Villagers are not from the underprivileged classes, trying to fight their ways to the top. Most of them come from middle class families or higher.

A local bank manager told Father Allen [of St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery] that many of the beatnik types are supported by their parents, drawing weekly allowances of up to $100.

Weekend tourists:

Most of these are not artists or writers. Ishmael Reed, whose novel 'The Freelance Pallbearers' is scheduled to be published by Doubleday in the fall, calls them 'A-trainers,' those who ride the subway downtown "to take their lessons in hip," then go back to where they came from.

Not everyone is scornful of the newcomers. Father Allen feels that "terrible tensions are being built up in the community."

He sees a "tendency to develop a 'we-they' attitude — 'we' when we think of ourselves, 'they' when we think of others."

We asked Anton, who moved to the East Village in 1967, for his thoughts on the article.

It's a fascinating read, this 1967 Daily News "special feature" story about our neighborhood. Beyond the shrill headline "Love and Let Love" is a good snapshot of the social revolution that took place here.

The last paragraph with naming this new culture "a kind of accidental laboratory" does call it right.

The East Village/Lower East Side by the early 60s was a largely poor and forgotten Eastern European neighborhood. But then because of its cheap rents and old-world immigrant charm came to be an attraction for counter-culture young. Mostly for young white people that sought to counter mainstream America which they felt disenfranchised by.

Out of that intermingling of old and new world cultures an unifying vision sprung of transcending cultural differences. Many, like me, came here because of wanting to be in the front row and watch up close this love revolution unfold a new way of life.

But then soon this spectacle of life drew many of us in to participate in this "accidental laboratory." In time I learned that our neighborhood had already for two centuries been a spawning ground for human social and political progress.

Last line says it well and still good today: "If we can work out our differences here, maybe there's a chance someplace else."

Revisiting Fetus Squat on East 9th Street in the early 1990s

Katie Jones lived in Fetus Squat on East Ninth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D for several years in the early 1990s. She recently shared several photos with me. Jones, who now lives in Oregon, left the neighborhood in 1996.

"I think that putting these photos out there after all this time has actually released me in some ways. With technology the way it is today, I was able to post many squatter photos from the early 1990s on Facebook. In doing that I have been back in touch with many people from this time. That part has been awesome," she wrote in an email.

"I wanted to be able to give them their history back and letting go of these pictures people are reminded of what we fought for. They are reminded of their part in the struggle to maintain those squats. I am nostalgic about the past in some respects. I miss the community we had back then. I miss the sense of ultimate trust I had in my activist friends. I also see too many faces in those photos that have died — that part is hard."

She return to the city several weeks ago for a long weekend.

"I had not been to NYC since 1997, so it was the first time I had seen the full effect of the gentrification on the LES. Shocking and sad," she said. "I had been warned by friends who still live in the area, but it really was a mindfuck."

Here are several of the photos with a brief description from Katie. (And a special thanks to MoRUS for putting me in contact with Katie.)

------





Fetus Squat 1992
My home for most of 1992 until a fire destroyed the entire building. This shot was taken on 9th Street toward Avenue C. To the left of Fetus is a giant garden that had been reclaimed from one of the numerous vacant lots that were so prevalent in the LES during this time.

I loved living at Fetus Squat. I really found my niche in this building. I learned how to do masonry, put up insulation and sheetrock, gather food from dumpsters and restaurants, and make window frames out of police barricades. (Actually, we used those police barricades for everything from stairs to lofts.)

It really was my first communal experience. I think there were about 30 of us living at Fetus by the time I got there. I had moved to NYC from Miami. The scene was young and punk rock with a lot of political ideologies. More than any other squat, Fetus was where I felt at home. I am still in touch with so many of my friends from this building 20 years later.

-----



Amy and Soy During Fire at Fetus Squat
This shot was taken during the fire that engulfed Fetus Squat in October of 1992. Everyone got out. The fire department showed up, but only put water on the adjacent building. One of the firemen turned to me and said “Is this your house?” to which I said in a confused, numb way “Yes…” He replied “Not anymore! Hahaha!”

-----



Fetus Rubble
This photo is of Fetus Squat after the wrecking crew came and demolished all remains of our home. It seemed like days that we all gathered there to sort through the rubble trying to retrieve something from out shattered lives. Scott looks on as Frankie crosses the street with some of his unburied belongings.

-----



Fetus Rubble Black Flag
This was such an impossibly surreal time for all of us. We were homeless and digging through the remains of our old Squat on 9th and C. You can see the old doorway still intact with the Anarchist Black Flag next to it. We spent days sifting through the rubble looking for belongings.

Shortly after this I decided to travel. Some friends had found a ride down to New Orleans. The guy who was driving put in a mixed cassette tape and I recognized it as one of mine! It kind of freaked me out and I asked him where he got it. He said he found it at the Fetus lot. I never knew this guy before the road trip and here he was with one of my mixed tapes scavenged from the fire. He told me I could have it back, but I was homeless and traveling so I told him to keep it. We all lost everything we had in that fire.

-----



Lot Between Serenity and Dos Blocos
This shot was taken from the Serenity Squat Roof around 1993. This Lot was on 9th street between C and D. People were living in the van and maybe some of the other vehicles in the lot. A garden and chickens were in the lot next to all the vehicles.

-----





Lot Between 8th Street and 9th Street
This lot was massive! It was between 8th and 9th streets and Avenues C to D. It was a combination dumping yard and shanty town. The little shacks were made out of items collected in the lot. People were growing small vegetable gardens and I even saw a chicken or two.

I took this shot from the 5th floor of Serenity Squat. This would have been around 1994. On this day the lot clean up by the city began. All of the people that lived in the tents and shanties were evicted. The city came through with bulldozers and just crushed everything in the way. It was very chaotic as people ran around trying to grab pets and possessions.

Construction for new housing began. This construction lasted the whole spring and summer of 1994. At one point a pile driver took up residence and banged four-story metal rods into the ground. Serenity Squat would shake from the impact! We monkey wrenched it a few times just to get some peace and quiet.

And one more thing about St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue

[Via Urban Metaphysics]

One more thing on this corner, St. Mark's and Second Avenue... the St. Marks Cinema, which we have mentioned here. According to Cinema Treasures, a theater was in operation at this location from 1914 to the spring of 1985. (Jeremiah had a Jim Jarmusch-related post on the Cinema in July 2008 that you should read.)

And "Mask" and "Sixteen Candles" on the same bill in the photo circa 1984?

East Village history, now more interactive

[Click to enlarge]

Marc H. Miller told us yesterday about his new website for the comic-style pictorial maps that he has published at Ephemera Press since 2001. The East Village map now has a new scroll-over effect ... (Look at the site here to figure out what we're talking about...)

Illustrators James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook created the original East Village map, which features a walking-tour guide to the neighborhood's historic sites. The itinerary includes 68 East Village spots, each briefly described, and located on a secondary map specifically designed for those visiting the area. (Those who care about the history and not the bars...) For instance, the map lists all six addresses that Alan Ginsberg had in the neighborhood... as well as the location of Andy Warhol's first New York apartment on Avenue A ... among many other notable addresses...

Miller also has maps for other parts of the city, such as the Harlem Renaissance and Queens Jazz Trail, both illustrated by Tony Millionaire.

For further reading on EV Grieve about Marc H. Miller:
Life at 98 Bowery: 1969-1989

Revisiting Punk Art

Jim Jarmusch narrates audio walking tour of East Village poets and poetry

A reader sent us this last night via UnionDocs...

"Passing Stranger" is an audio walking tour of poets and poetry associated with the East Village, created by award-winning radio producer Pejk Malinovski. The tour – narrated by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, with music by new music pioneer John Zorn – provides an anecdotal, digressive tapestry of the poetry that lived and continues to live in the neighborhood.

The audio walk features commentary from key figures in the East Village poetry scene, including Richard Hell, Ron Padgett, Ed Sanders and Anne Waldman along with historical recordings of Joe Brainard, Allen Ginsberg and Kenneth Koch.

The walking tour ranges from the Bowery in the west to Avenue C in the east, Bleecker Street in the south and 12th street in the north. Stops include St. Mark's On-the-Bowery, W.H. Auden's old apartment building, Tompkins Square Park, Allen Ginsberg's old building, the Bowery Poetry Club and more. Each stop presents a montage of poetry, interviews and archival recordings relating to that particular place.

From March 10th to 11th, as a part of the Armory Arts Week's Downtown Satellite Event, "Passing Stranger" will be displayed at Audio Visual Arts Gallery in the East Village as a multimedia installation.

The Audio Visual Arts Gallery is at 34 First Ave., just east off Second Avenue. The reception is 7-9 p.m. on Friday.

Here's a lot more information about "Passing Stranger." You can also download the map and audio file here.

[EVG Flashback] When the Christodora House became a Greek house

Originally posted on Sept. 9, 2008...

[Photos by Charlie Kerman]

In 1983, when the Christodora House on Avenue B was still abandoned, members of the Tau Delta Phi, Delta Eta Chapter at Cooper Union, placed their Greek letters on the west side atop the 17-floor building. Don't have a lot of details, such as how long the letters remained there. Long enough for a photo opp, of course. Photos of the letters crew are below. (Note the condition of the Christodora...)

Meatballs coming to East Ninth Street

Two restaurants have quickly come and gone here at 424 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue ... (Olivia and Sintir.)

Now, a new tenant is taking over the space...

...and they provided a sneak preview Saturday during the block party. Zi Pep's Italian Sorry — we had the wrong name. It's Zi' Pep's Italian.

[Photo by Shawn Chittle]

Speaking of meatballs... a quick look at the Destino-backed Meatball Factory coming to the former Pizza Hut-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's combo on the northwest corner of 14th Street and Second Avenue ...

Enough is enough: 316 E. Sixth St. was the fourth pre-Civil War townhouse to be destroyed in the last year

While on the topic of 331 E. Sixth St., which is between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) noted, this is the fourth pre-Civil War building in the East Village to be demolished in the past year.

The others: 326 and 328 E. Fourth St. and 35 Cooper Square. Meanwhile, 316 E. Third St. is next on the kill list to make way for a luxury apartment building.

So let's send it right to GVSHP:

Enough is enough! The demolition of 331 East 6th Street only highlights the urgent need for landmark protections in the East Village. Several months ago the Landmarks Preservation Commission proposed two historic districts in the East Village, a critical first step in preserving the neighborhood's significant historic architecture. However, the Commission has given us no information as to when they will hold a public hearing on the proposed districts (the second of three official steps in the landmarking process). While we wait, more and more of the neighborhood's complex and colorful history is being destroyed.

How to Help:

Send a letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission urging them to hold a public hearing on the East Village Historic Districts and calendar 316 East 3rd Street. A sample letter may be found HERE. Please send copies of all letters to gvshp@gvshp.org.

Tonight: East Village Flashback

And here's a snippet from "7th Street" (2003) ...

That overarching feeling of nostalgia

Back in February in February 2010, we came across the Flickr page of East Village resident Michael Sean Edwards, who had uploaded an array of neighborhood photos from the late 1970s and early 1980s...

Michael, who still lives in the neighborhood, let us know that he now has a website with various galleries of his work. You can find his site here.

As he wrote: "This gallery is fairly eclectic. Between what seemed very brief periods of being gainfully employed, I roamed around the Village taking photos, day and night. If I had to describe the overarching feeling that inhabited me, I would call it nostalgia."

Meanwhile, here are a few of the photos that you'll find...

Like this one of Ray's...



...the Gem Spa...



the East Village Fruit Exchange, Seventh Street and First Avenue circa 1979 ...



Avenue A and St. Mark's Place, circa 1979...



and my favorite... our favorite bar owner circa 1985...



For more EVG posts featuring Michael's photos... you can go here ... and here

Avenue A and Tompkins Square Park in the rain — circa 1967

A reader passed along a link to these James Jower photos from the George Eastman House Collection on Flickr... rain photos circa 1967 in Tompkins Square Park...

...and Seventh Street and Avenue A...

Spend the rest of this rainy day looking at the 1,000-plus set of photos here.