Name: Eileen Johnson
Occupation: Director, Little Missionary’s Day Nursery
Location: 93 St. Marks Place
Time: 1:45 pm on Feb. 4
I’m from Dublin. I came in 1980. Part of it was to get away. I was teaching over there but I was frustrated with living at home with my parents. I had also been here in 1970 as a student. I never forgot it. I really was in love with New York and I always felt like I would come back.
When I moved here I lived in a women's hotel on Lexington and 57th Street in the beginning. Oh my goodness. It was one tiny little room and the bathroom was in the hallway. It was kind of sad. Some of these ladies were kind of old and had nowhere else to go.
Then I started subletting around the city. I ended up subletting in the East Village and I loved it. I remember back in 1980, people used to be out in the street with the big barrel on fire, singing and playing guitars and everything. I don’t know what it was but there was something. Maybe it was because it was like Dublin, because the buildings were old and because of this type of building. I liked the feeling — I can’t even explain it.
I moved here for good in 1982. My husband was living in an apartment on Avenue C. We had people pulling swords and everything on the street. Swords. So then he moved in with me and then when we had kids we moved to Stuyvesant Town.
I’ve always been a teacher. In Ireland, I taught in high school and then 6th grade, but when I came here I was illegal [at first] so I did coat checking. It was easy to be illegal then ... I then got into teaching this age group and it’s very creative. [Getting a job for Little Missionary] was just luck. I stayed home with my kids when they were little and then I started looking around for work. I got another job and somebody said, ‘Oh you should go look at that Little Missionary, but it’s probably falling apart. They probably won’t survive. Things are bad over there.’ So I opened the door and I walked in ... I could see that it was a treasure. I just wanted to be part of it. When I started here as a teacher in 2001 we only used one floor. There were only eight kids left when I started. Now we have 80.
The building itself has been here since the mid 1800s, I think. It was somebody’s home and then it was a boarding house and then it went into foreclosure. Then they donated the building to Sara Curry, who was an incredible person. I was so impressed with her and her kindness and her goodness. She was born in Long Island to a big family. They were orphaned when the parents died. She and her brother went to Utica and she became an activist at the factories there. She started organizing women and taking care of the women’s children. Then she came to the city. She started out on Avenue C in a little apartment and she saw the way that kids were left on their own on the street.
She used to feed the neighborhood. She would have huge Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and it was said that she would give her own shoes away. I don’t know how she hooked up with these wealthy people but she got this house in 1901. There were 200 kids a day here.
We actually expanded this year. Tenants had to leave, so we renovated the upper floors. [The school's] board is amazing. The board is made up of local people and parents, which we could use more of. They let me bring my own philosophy in here, and that is about listening to children and letting them have their feelings. I didn’t grow up that way so I really feel that’s important for kids. You can stop everything that you’re doing and listen to what they’re saying and what they’re feeling. It’s very fulfilling. You go home at the end of the day feeling that you did something good.
Property manager Debora Angelico said the nests were removed so that the air conditioning unit could be repaired. The owner of the seventh-floor condo ordered the repair, she said, but only after months of research, which included outreach to the Audubon Society, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the condominium board, she said.
Although some the birders expressed concern that nest removal was illegal under federal laws protecting birds, Angelico said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the owner he was allowed to remove the nest from September through April because the raptors do not mate at that time.
The ultimate destination to pick up the latest in Nike sneakers. Performance and style take over at the Zoom City SNKRS Station.
Located at 348 Bowery (at Great Jones Street), the Zoom City SNKRS Station will feature exclusive Nike footwear, apparel and accessories.
High heat. One spot. RSVP now for your spot at #zoomcity SNKRS Station 2.12 and 2.13. http://t.co/rBO6XEJBvz pic.twitter.com/NIhBpVOzJ4
— Nike NYC (@NikeNYC) February 10, 2015
If the co-op owner, management company or a construction crew had a legitimate reason to remove the nest, their recent actions haven't dissuaded the hawks from moving. So, will the building just torture the hawks by removing the nesting materials each week until spring? That certainly would be cruel.
Let's hope that either the building is forced to let the hawks continue nesting on the Christodora House or if the hawks are to be evicted, that old nest site is properly prepared so the hawks begin to find an alternate nesting location as soon as possible.
A 6-story boutique condominium will rise on 64 E 1st St between 1st Ave and 2nd Ave designed by GF55 Partners Architects and developed by MGM Property Group. The new building will be situated in a tree lined mostly residential block near the F train with street level shops and a playground.
The design envisions a façade with a contemporary industrial feel with large casement windows and metal details. The plan for the development is 6 light-filled residences each averaging 1,900 sq ft. The lower duplex will occupy the cellar and 1st floor with a private rear yard. Floors 2-5 are floor-through units with rear balconies. The upper duplex on the 6th and penthouse levels offer a rooftop terrace. Each unit will have two bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms. Both baths and powder room will be outfitted with waterworks fittings and accessories. The floor plan will have a high end kitchen open to the living and dining areas.
Amenities include a workout room on the first floor and a shared rooftop with a barbeque. The site sits between a 10 unit condo building built in 2007 and a boiler and welding shop that has been there for over 50 years.
The galleria is a colorful crafts store with jewelry, pottery, handbags and even doggy costumes peppering the walls and display cases. An artists cooperative, the galleria was located on Christopher St. from 1979 to 1989. After a 15-year hiatus when the store’s founding artist and namesake, Jose Antonio, died of AIDS in 1989, the shop reopened in 2000 at its present location on Avenue A and E. Fourth St.
190 Bowery from Digital Destinations on Vimeo.
On August 16, 1977, the morning after Elvis Presley theoretically met his end on the toilet in Graceland, a chubby man in a white linen suit and an ill-fitting blonde wig bought a one way ticket from Memphis to Istanbul. He paid in cash and used the name John Burrows.
Once he arrived in Turkey, he bounced around the hippie trail, hitchhiking from Tehran to Peshawar, Kabul to Lahore, Delhi to Goa, Kathmandu to Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Instead of staying in the finest hotels, where he would have certainly been noticed, he bunked in guesthouses, small lodgings run by local families and foreign Heads.
In 1979, political changes in the Middle East put an end to the hippie trail. John had grown tired of his nomadic lifestyle and settled on the outskirts of Kathmandu, where he opened a small bar inspired by his years spent in guesthouses. He named it ELVIS GUESTHOUSE.
After the place had been open for a year, John disappeared one day. A gin soaked journalist claimed to have spotted him on the beach in Occupied Cambodia, and others said that he had made his way into the ethnic minority areas of Southwest China. Eventually, the building was demolished to make way for a shopping mall. But a few photos of the bar survived, and we have created its exact replica here.
To all our loyal patrons, it is with much sadness that we announce we will not be reopening in the near future. We can't thank you all enough for the support over the years; it meant the world to us. It was a great ride indeed.
The Post got a first tour of the downtown pad, which features a sunken living room and exposed brick — and piles of clothes littering the floor.
They’re there for a reason, McMillan explained, in case he has to “get out in a hurry.”
He owes more than $18,000 in rent, the landlord claims.
McMillan claims he tried to pay his rent, but Judge Laurie Lau refused to accept his payments and Lisco Holdings returned his checks.
McMillan insists there is a conflict of interest because lawyers from the landlord’s law firm sit on a committee to select Housing Court judges.
[T]he owners plan to keep as much of the store’s original architectural elements intact, including its tin ceiling and hand-cut penny tile floors.
“Where we can, we’re going to preserve [the architecture] and where we can’t, we’re going to build to match the historic elements,” [co-owner Noah] Bernamoff said.
