[EVG repost] Then and now: The Provident Loan Society of New York

Yesterday, BoweryBoogie noted a potentially troubling sign at the old Provident Loan Society building at East Houston and Essex... Workers had delivered a Davey Drill to the site, as BB pointed out, generally employed before a huge construction/demolition project. One Boogie commenter heard the mega-CVS rumor coming here... (Read his whole post here.) We'll stay tuned for further developments...

Meanwhile, it's a good time to trot out this EVG post from November 2010...

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I've lost track of how many clubs this space has been in the last 15 or so years... The space was originally The Provident Loan Society of New York, which opened here in 1912... the space served as a studio for Jasper Johns in the 1970s...

Amazingly enough, the classic revival brick building has retained its look through the years... Here are some photos from the NYPL Digital Gallery..... the first photo isn't dated...



from 1936...



from 1935...


and today...


I wonder if, in 1912, locals were annoyed that another bank branch was opening...

Reminders: Say hi to Ben Stiller today!

As we posted and stuff last week, Ben Stiller's remake of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" will be filming around here today... on East 10th Street between Avenue C and Avenue D and elsewhere in the immediate vicinity... (If you see him, then don't ask about a possible "Along Came Polly" sequel!)

Also, wonder if the studio found a kid to play Kristen Wiig's son yet...


[Image via]

Park day

Photo of Tompkins Square Park taken yesterday by Ex Vacuo.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor owner among the new CB3 members

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer today announced new members to Manhattan's 12 Community Boards.

The office's news release notes the following new member at CB3:

• A new member of Community Board 3, Wilson Tang, a 33 year old native New Yorker is the current owner of Nom Wah Tea Parlor – a 90 year old Chinatown establishment that his family has owned for 37 years. His father began working at Nom Wah in the 1950s when he was 16, became a manager at 20, and bought the restaurant in 1974. Previously, Wilson worked in finance and owned and operated a bakery on the LES for five years.

The news release includes a link to the full list of Community Board members.

[Photo via Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.]

Full Stop Work Order at Schwimmer Manor

It is quiet outside David Schwimmer's incoming estate at 331 E. Sixth St. this morning. As DNAinfo reported yesterday afternoon, a piece of debris "caromed off a scaffold" and struck a passerby, who EMTs took to Bellevue with a minor arm injury.

Meanwhile, the DOB immediately issued a Stop Work Order on the property.

In the DOB's all-cap style: "FULL SWO ISSUED FOR MISSING GUARDRAILS, OPENINGS AT EGRESS, HOUSEKEEPING, AND INTERIOR SCAFFOLD NO PERMITS."

The city issued a Stop Work Order here back on Nov. 10: "CALLER STATES THE EXCAVATION WORK AT THE LOCATION IS UNDERMINING THE ADJACENT PROPERTY AT 329 6 ST CAUSING IT TO SHAKE."

BoweryBoogie has photos from yesterday right here.

Is Wafels & Dinges opening a café on Second Street and Avenue B?

[209 E. Second St. from April 2011]

There is activity in the storefront at 209 E. Second St., the renovated building at the southeast corner of Avenue B. In recent weeks, workers have put up paper over the windows. The retail space had been for rent starting last spring.

[Monday]

A reliable tipster says that Thomas DeGeest, founder of Wafels & Dinges, will open his first café based on the same concept as his popular food trucks in circulation around the city.

DeGeest didn't respond to a message that we sent via Facebook asking for comment.

Anyway, years back, as Andrew Roth pointed out in "Infamous Manhattan," the intersection of East Second Street and Avenue B "probably saw more heroin retailing than any other spot on Earth." Until the NYPD launched Operation Pressure Point in early 1984.

A quick East Village 7-Eleven inventory

Yesterday we took a look inside the 7-Eleven coming soon to St. Mark's Place near Second Avenue... in the former J.A.S. Mart space...

A recap of what's in store.

As we reported on Feb. 24, there's a 7-Eleven in the works for 813 Broadway near 12th Street ... the cheap-o DVD shop recently packed up and moved across the street...

And as we first reported on Jan. 18, a 7-Eleven will open next to IHOP on East 14th Street ... at the site of the shuttered Exquisite DVD Video store ...

Anyway, to the diagram map ... into the 7-Eleven zone...

Soon, you won't have to walk down to the Bowery 7-Eleven for your Cheeseburger Bites...

[Photo by EV Grieve reader William Klayer]

This is what the northwest corner of the Bowery and Great Jones looked like on April 1, 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...

About the 'is a bitch' messages at Cooper Union

In case you were curious about the "is a bitch" messages on the windows of Cooper Union...

It's part of a student art exhibit that opened yesterday... this particular work is by Sarah Crowe and titled "A BITCH IS A BITCH IS A BITCH IS A BITCH."

Details here.

Photos by Bobby Williams.

[Updated] Meanwhile, on First Avenue...

Near Sixth Street. Via EV Grieve reader Duke... who notes, at 9 p.m., "situation normal." ConEd is on the scene.

And now with sound...

At El Jardín del Paraíso today

El Jardín del Paraíso ... between Fourth Street and Fifth Street, Avenue C and Avenue D... More info on the community garden's history here. Photos by Bobby Williams.

Report: Falling debris from the Schwimmer estate injures pedestrian

[331 E. Sixth St. around 6 p.m.]

As DNAinfo reported earlier this afternoon, a piece of debris fell from the under-construction David Schwimmer mansion at 331 E. Sixth St. and struck a pedestrian.

Per DNA's report: "The debris caromed off a scaffold and struck the person, the FDNY said. They were taken to Bellevue Hospital with a minor arm injury."

A 37-year resident of this block between First Avenue and Second Avenue said, "Mr. Bigshot made a mistake tearing down this building. He paid a pretty penny and built some shiny silver thing. He's like a wart on the block. He doesn't belong here."

BoweryBoogie has photos from the scene right here.