The charmingly shabby interiors of 104 E. 10th St.

I've mentioned this neo-classical townhouse at 104 E. 10th St. before ... where playwright, poet and performance artist Edgar Oliver once lived, as Jeremiah wrote at Vanishing New York here.

The house has been on the market this time around for more than three months, with an asking price of $3.9 million, per Streeteasy. (The price started at $6 million back in March 2011 before it disappeared from the listings.)

We didn't see interior photos of the house on our previous visits to the listings... At some point, the broker added some shots to Streeteasy ... and it looks kind of like I thought it might...

While I rather like the dilapidated, well-worn look and feel ... the house is certainly in for a makeover. Here's the listing:

Built in 1879, this magnificent, sun-drenched residence is a restoration enthusiast's dream project.

The building offers an unparalleled opportunity to design the home you've always wanted. Its current features include four floors, eight fireplaces, skylight, original moldings, a quaint south-facing garden, an English basement with a separate street entrance, plus a basement below. With additional air rights, this building is primed for vertical expansion, offering opportunities for a roof deck, duplex unit, and more.

This distinctive residence occupies a unique place in New York's history, having served as a community hub and boarding house for East Village artists since the early 1900s. A Landmarked building located on one of the city's finest blocks, it offers easy access to public transportation, as well as some of the city's best cafes, restaurants, bookstores, and universities.

I'm imagining the spirits of these East Village artists of days gone by congregating in that front room with the paint chips on the floor and the weed working its way inside the window... and wondering, What in the hell happened to the neighborhood.

Going back to Jeremiah's post on the building from last September:

Now I suppose some god-awful heiress will move in with her zombie husband and hollow-eyed children to fill the place with their flat-screen lives. This is how it goes.

Reader reports: Bar on A has closed

We've now heard from various tipsters and Avenue A sources that Bar on A has closed. (We're told that Sunday was its last day.)

Owner Bob Scarrano passed away in March 2010.

Since then, a few regulars felt as if the low-key bar, going on its 17th year, didn't quite have the same spirit ... the bar was also for sale last summer, though one regular told us that a deal never materialized for the ample, 1,500-square-foot-space at East 11th Street.

A memorial on Avenue B: 'I hope you will have a good time in heaven'

Several weeks ago, we spotted a notice about the passing of Elisa Martinez, a longtime resident at 28 Avenue B ...

Amazingly, given the weather, film shoots and hordes of nightlifers along this corridor, a memorial remains today outside the door to her building ... and her friends and loved ones have left several cards and letters in her honor ...

We did not know her. She obviously meant a lot to many people... Here's one from Chris and his family that starts "I hope you will have a good time in heaven ... ."

No James Bond tonight; Films in Tompkins series over for the summer

The weather on July 26 forced the cancellation of the free screening of "Goldfinger" in Tompkins Square Park. Afterwards, reps for the Films in Tompkins series said that the James Bond actioner would be rescheduled for tonight.

Unfortunately, that is no longer happening. The rep said yesterday that the organizers have "concluded the series for this summer."

So console yourself with this discussion about Dame Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" theme song...

This is what the corner of First Avenue and East Fifth Street looked like on Aug. 17, 2012

This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...

Tompkins Square Park rat population thinned by 1

This after our earlier post about people noticing more rats in Tompkins Square Park... Bobby Williams spotted a read-tailed hawk dining on one a little while ago...

Trash can trouble in Tompkins Square Park

Word circulating in Tompkins Square Park is that a feud between two crusties ...

... resulted in one of them getting whacked in the head with a trash can lid...

The general sentiment is that this group of crusties are more violent than groups seen in previous summers...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Report: Boozier Beagle reopens Saturday

The Beagle on Avenue A closed for renovations back in July ... Grub Street reports this afternoon that the 15-month-old Beagle reopens on Saturday.

Per Grub Street: "The spot has gotten even more into booze in the time away, so look for an expanded sherry list and updated cocktails. The food menu from new chef Jeffery Ryan Creager (formerly of 'inoteca) has been pared down."

Eater has more on the new menu here.

[Image via @TheBeagleNYC]

Restocking shelves at Fares Deli on Avenue A

Last week, we noted that Fares Deli was reopening on Avenue A...

Earlier today, our friends at the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop saw workers restocking the store's shelves...

No word just yet on a reopening date...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Bobby Williams]

City Planning Commission OKs SPURA plan (The Lo-Down)

Some history of The Claremount on East 12th Street (Off the Grid)

Mama's owner Jeremiah Clancy on the new, "very homogenous" East Village (The Atlantic)

10 "great punk songs about New York City" (Prefix)

Other Music's new record label (The Village Voice)

The trip wire atop 118 East 4th St. (Occupy East 4th Street)

What would Bloomy's big soda ban do to EV bubble tea shops? (DNAinfo)

A history of NYC's push carts (BoweryBoogie)

New music venue for Coney Island (Curbed)

Jeremiah Moss writes a High Line op-ed today for the Times titled "Disney World on the Hudson" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Bonus excerpt:

It’s easy to forget that until very recently, even with the proliferation of art galleries near the West Side Highway, West Chelsea was a mix of working-class residents and light-industrial businesses.

But the High Line is washing all that away.

[From the EVG High Line Collection]

'Eleanor Rigby' filming: Day 19

OK. Today is just the second day this week for "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" crews here on this portion of Seventh Street ... (they were on Seventh at Cooper Union a few weeks back...)

... per the signs, they'll be filming from approximately 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. today... and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. tomorrow... not sure how approximate this is...

As BoweryBoogie noted, they've also been filming along Avenue B between East Second Street and Third Street this week (they were using the interiors of the former Zaitzeff space on Monday) ... and they'll be back here on B all of next week.

The film tells the story of a troubled marriage, in two installments, from the husband's and the wife's perspective ... it stars Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy ... as well as Viola Davis, Bill Hader, Isabelle Huppert and William Hurt.

McAvoy makes his triumphant return to the East Village, where he hung with Angelina Jolie on the side of the now-demolished Nevada Smiths on Third Avenue in June 2008...

An update on sand, bread and rats in Tompkins Square Park

Several readers have asked us what was happening with the sandbox in the playground on Avenue A and East Ninth Street in Tompkins Square Park... the sandbox has been closed in recent weeks...

We didn't hear back from anyone at the Parks Department... we also asked Chad Marlow, who helped launch the Tompkins Square Park & Playgrounds Parents' Association (TSP3A) in 2011 to address such issues...

Marlow confirmed that the Parks Department had closed the sandbox because of a recurring problem — the sharp lip is exposed when the sand level gets too low ... kids are apparently removing the sand for various reasons...

Marlow said that the parents lobbied to have a sign placed next to the sandbox ...

"The jagged edge in the sandbox and its proximity to the sprinklers are serious design flaws, but they are manageable if parents and caregivers enforce the rules for their own kids and others," said Marlow, who noted that the sand is on order.

In other Park matters, we asked Marlow for an update on the ratstravaganza... that made headlines this time last summer... TSP3A first raised concerns of the growing rat population last summer.

[Last night, photo by Bobby Williams]

Back in March, The Villager reported that Park officials had brought Ratstravaganza under control.

However, as you may have noticed, there seem to be more rats around... not quite a return to the bad old days of July 2011. Still.

"Sadly, moronic actions like when people are dumping mass quantities of bread for the pigeons — and rats — to eat undermines our efforts," Marlow said.

"Contrary to popular opinion, these old bread dumps are not being done by the food charities but by the restaurants across Avenue A," Marlow said. "It takes a year to improve things and a few weeks to ruin them again. So sad."

Previously.

[Photos courtesy of Chad Marlow]

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.

By James Maher

Name: Patrice Suncircle
Occupation: Caretaker, Student
Location: The Creative Little Garden, East Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B
Time: 12:19 on Friday, Aug. 17

"I’ve lived around here for the last two years. I spent most of my life in San Francisco and would still be living there except I have an elderly aunt who’s been living in this neighborhood for about 40 years who needs help. So I moved from the Bay Area to take care of her and I also go to school online at the University of Maine. When I was young, she used to warn me about going right where I am now. And now it’s where everybody goes.

A lot of work goes into keeping this garden up. I’ve been volunteering here for about a month. I’m one of many neighbors who volunteer here; I think maybe there are a dozen of us. I started volunteering because I would come here and sit and they said they needed someone to help since a lot of people were leaving. It’s a bird sanctuary, so they have to change the feeders and the water and we have to do a lot of watering. It’s open everyday from 11 a.m. until sundown."

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

185 Avenue B is nearly gone

Demolition crews arrived at 185-193 Avenue B on July 25 ... Bobby Williams stopped by yesterday for an update... and there doesn't appear to be much left of the building ...

There are plans pending city approval for a 7-story apartment building that will include community space and the new home for the Elim Pentecostal Church.

The address was a movie theater for many years, first the Bijou in 1926, then the Charles. (The theater closed in 1975, and a church took over the space.) A fire broke out in the building in October 2006.

Here's the Charles in 1966. (Via.)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Revival planned for church and theater on Avenue B

Inside the Charles

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

7-story building in the works to replace former countercultural theater/church on Avenue B

Here's the Mother of all bendy things

We've seen the concrete pumps bendy things here at 21 E. First St. in the past... but not like this one that Goggla spotted yesterday...

Here's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square: 9-story dormitory

After months of waiting, we finally know what's coming to the former 35 Cooper Square — dorms. Today, reps for developer Arun Bhatia pre-filed paperwork with the DOB for 200 E. Sixth St.

Here's what we learned from the pre-filing.

The proposed plans call for a 9-story dormitory with 43 rooms ... plus retail on the ground floor. In total, the building will be nearly 35,000 square feet (at a height of 117 feet). The paperwork lists Debra Kossar of Kossar & Garry Architects as the architect of record.

No indication just yet who the dorms are for — NYU and Cooper Union would have to top the list of guesses, of course.

The closing of the Asian Pub in January 2011 at 35 Cooper Square set in motion a sequence of events that led to the demolition of the 185-year-old, Federal-style house.

The Arun Bhatia Development Organization has developed dorms for the New School and Marymount Manhattan College, among others, through the years.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Doom and doomer: More of Cooper Square primed for development

Cooper 35 Asian Pub part of development deal on Cooper Square

Cooper 35 Asian Pub putting up a fight before being torn down

Another tree lost in Tompkins Square Park

Ugh. Bobby Williams reports that workers removed a tree today in Tompkins Square Park... this one close to the Avenue B/East Ninth Street entrance...

... and later...

We hope to hear from a Parks official about why workers had to remove the tree... we seem to be losing far too many trees/limbs ...

[Updated] Has the Lyric Diner closed on Third Avenue?

[Image via @McCollumAshley]

EVG reader @Sheba passed along word earlier today that the Lyric Diner on Third Avenue at 22nd Street appears closed... Several other people have tweeted this... there is brown paper over the windows and a large CLOSED sign. We called, though no one answered the phone... it's possible that this is just a late-summer clean up/renovation, though you'd think they'd leave a note ...

I haven't been here in a few years... I heard that the quality had slipped... I recall that they served egg creams and had something on the menu called the Twin Tower ice cream soda...

Updated: Per KB in the comments... the Lyric is only closed for renovations...