Massey Knakal added
the listing today:
The subject properties are two well-managed adjacent mixed-use buildings located on the North side of East 2nd Street, between Avenues A & B. 170-172 East 2nd Street has 3 retail stores and 34 residential units; 27 Free market, 6 Rent Stabilized and 1 Rent Controlled. 174 East 2nd Street has 1 retail store and 9 residential units; 8 Free Market and 1 Rent Stabilized. The buildings share a boiler that burns #2 oil from a 4,000 gallon tank. The electrical systems/wiring were upgraded in 2008 and tenants pay their own electricity.
And No. 174 has nearly 3,600 square feet of air rights available. Total price: $16.5 million.
Anyway, you may have seen the plaque out front of No. 170 showing that Allen Ginsberg lived in apartment 16 from August 1958-March 1961 ... this was one of the many places he lived in the East Village until his death in 1997
In
a Habitats feature from August 2000,
The New York Times ran a feature on the apartment where Ginsberg wrote "Kaddish" — "a mournful elegy for his mother, Naomi, that is considered one of his best works."
(
New York Songlines also noted that Ginsberg edited "Naked Lunch" while living here... as well as "where Ginsberg and Timothy Leary began planning the psychedelic revolution.")
As the
Times said of this block, "Not long ago, this was major drug territory, and landlords had to defend their turf assiduously; now it is being infiltrated by students from New York University."
The
Times reported that two NYU students were living in the two-bedroom apartment, paying $2,000 a month in rent.
To the article:
When the plaque went up on the East Village building saying that it was where Allen Ginsberg once lived, the two young men who now occupy the poet's old apartment had only this to say:
Who was he?
