[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.

City issues Stop Work Permit for sidewalk shed on Seventh Street and Avenue B

After reading our post on the sidewalk shed outside Vazac's/7B, Councilmember Rosie Mendez's office contacted the Department of Buildings to have a look. A Mendez aide told us that by the end of the day yesterday, the DOB inspected the site and issued a Stop Work Order for work without a permit erecting a sidewalk shed.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Bobby Williams]

Union Square is 'now the very model of a modern major police state' (Gothamist)

E.V. Day and Kembra Pfahler bring a little Monet to the Bowery (DNAinfo)

Alan Moore on the collective spirit of artists in the 1970s-80s NYC (The Brooklyn Rail)

More development for Bond and Lafayete (Curbed)

185-191 Bowery next to fall (BoweryBoogie)

Politicos want the July 4 fireworks back on the East River (The Lo-Down)

Super PAC takes aim at 3 NYC incumbents, including Nydia Velazquez (The Wall Street Journal)

Gutting the classic Manganaro’s (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

St. Mark's sidewalk shed celebrates fourth anniversary

A longtime resident of St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue wonders how much longer this strip of sidewalk shed will remain in place...

[Bobby Williams]

As far as they reader can tell, no work has ever been done on the building that it's sort of attached to — 32 St. Mark's Place. (Or 34 St. Mark's Place.)

According to the DOB, the city issued the permit for the sidewalk shed in February 2008. We couldn't find any permits on file for work on the building's exterior — just a few complaints about cracks in the facade.

In addition, the permits expired for the two sidewalk sheds ...

[BW]

However, as the DOB website shows, the city renewed the sidewalk shed permit for 32 St. Mark's Place on March 23 for one more year. And the new sign arrived late last week.

Remember to buy the sidewalk shed the traditional gift of wood for its 5th anniversary next year.

A Holy Week salute to Grace Church

Meanwhile, our Holy Week coverage continues.

[Pauses for people to say, 'What Holy Week coverage?"]

Late Sunday afternoon, we went inside the historic Grace Church in New York on the corner of Broadway and East 10th Street to escape the cloudburst to look around.

A little history via New York Architecture...

As the earliest example of Gothic Architecture in New York City, The Grace Church of New York provides a stunning introductory example. Designed by the then unproven young architect, James Renwick Jr., just 24 years old, it served as the beginning of his highly successful career. The church has stood for over 150 years, undergoing several additions as its congregation grew, and is currently undergoing a renovation that will restore the church to its full beauty.

The original Grace Church was incorporated in 1809, in a much smaller and plainer building some 2 miles away from the current address. In 1843, having out grown its current housings, plans were prepared for the construction of a new church further north to keep up with the expanding city.

The building was completed in 1846; however, it was a much plainer than it is today. The steeple was built out of plain wood to save expense, and would remain so for nearly twenty years until it was replaces with the marble one that stands today.

It turns out that on Sunday, the Church celebrated the reopening of the choir and sanctuary. Per the program that day: "We last saw the Te Deum stained glass window rising above the high altar in June of 2011. Since then we have removed and restored every piece of glass, and replaced the deteriorated marble tracery with newly carved limestone."

And here it is...

And, via the Church's website, here's the earliest photograph of the church interior circa the 1860s ... looking in the same direction...

And we'll leave you with a little more history... Circus star Tom Thumb married Lavinia Warren here in 1863. Per the Church website: "Despite loud professions of distaste for the alleged grotesqueness of the coming spectacle, most of the fashionable world contrived to be there, to jostle each other and even stand on the seats, in order to get a glimpse of it."

No mention that David Duchovny married Tea Leoni in the backyard here in 1997. (Via NY Songlines.)

Check out the Church website for more history and news.

Actual work being done at the long-stalled Hotel Ludlow site

Dave on 7th sent along the above photo yesterday... work has resumed at 180 Ludlow, a four-plus-years-in-the-making eyesore.

Back in October, Curbed reported that BD Hotels — the team involved with the Maritime, Chambers, Greenwich, Jane and Bowery hotels — bought the stalled site for $25 million.

The city has issued or reissued several permits in recent weeks for work to restart here...

Of course, nothing has been easy here. There are already two partial stop work orders on file from the last few days, including one for "NO ELECTRICAL PERMIT FOR EXISTING HOIST." Anyway, once the hotel scenesters arrive in a few years, you won't even remember any of this ...

For more on the background here, you can check out BoweryBoogie and The Lo-Down.

Life behind IHOP: 'the situation hasn't gotten much better'

Last Thursday, a reader asked if residents who lived behind the IHOP on East 14th Street still had problems with bacon fumes.

We heard from two residents via the comments.

Short answer: yes.

I live in one of the buildings behind the 14th Street IHOP, and no, the situation hasn't gotten much better. Several days will go by without much of a problem, and then the stench will begin again. Sometimes, like this morning, it will just be for an hour or two, but then there will be a couple of days when it is just never-ending. Right now, it's a low-level stale smell. My neighbors and I have repeatedly contacted CB6, the DEP, Rosie Mendez's office, you name it - IHOP is still stinking up the neighborhood. Please, please don't go to IHOP.

And...

I am an owner of one of the apartments that get's the brunt of the smell. I literally had to move out and find someone to rent the apartment too. No one would buy it. Everybody said it smells like bacon. The new tenant says it doesn't bother him so much, but I don't think he is home too much — plus he's been there for winter only, we'll see what happens when he starts opening his windows.

In case you wanted to see Shalom Harlow flash her breasts on the Bowery

And now, turing to other important news stories... a reader sent us a link to Egostatic, which noted that model Shalom Harlow (who used to live on the Bowery) flashed the camera during a photoshoot ... on the corner of the Bowery and East Third Street...

As if the Bowery didn't have enough boobs these days... of course, a few of the shots are NSFW, depending on where you work...

The rooftop addition of 315 E. 10th St.

There's a lot of interest in the circa-1847 building at 315 E. 10th St. that faces Tompkins Square Park. As you'll recall, the city OK'd a one-floor rooftop addition here in January hours before the Landmarks Preservation Committee approved the East 10th Street Historic District.

Some nearby residents are curious how the new addition will fit in with the rest of the block. And we've heard from a few people who want to know just how tall that one-floor addition will be... Here's looking at the building from Tompkins Square Park... a few different angles...

There are two complaints on file with the DOB noting "ADDITIONAL STORY ADDED BEYOND THE SCOPE OF APPROPVED PLANS."

And it wouldn't be the first time that there has been controversy around developer Ben Shaoul, who owns 315 E. 10th St., and roof-top additions.

East 10th Street neighbor Jose Garcia heard the extra-floor rumors too. However, via the site manager: "It certainly looks like another floor, but because there is an elevator going in the bulkhead, the roof has to be tall enough to accommodate the elevator housing."

Diagrams on file with the DOB show that the residential conversion of the building, previously owned by The Educational Alliance, includes an elevator.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A bid to protect the integrity of 315 E. 10th St.

Landmarks Preservation Commission expedites hearing on East 10th Street Historic District

Workers quickly start dismantling roof of historic 315 E. 10th St.