New York Songlines: Broadway

West:

2547: La Vera pizzeria; formerly was an outpost of Alphabet City's Two Boots Pizza.

2541 (corner): AKA 251 W 95th, this building was home to Damon Runyon from 1911-19, when he was a leading writer for the New York Journal. Now Charlotte Cafe, formerly Filicori Zecchini Coffee, is on the ground floor.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

West:

Corner (255 W 94th Street): The Lyric, 23-story luxury apartment building from 2000.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2536 (corner): La Nueva Victoria, Cuban Chinese, in the 1980s was Duck Heaven, whose awning reportedly read in Chinese, "Celebration Party Following Success in the Local Civil Service Examination." In 1970 it was Pepper's Szechuan Restaurant. The handsome Renaissance Revival building here dates to 1887.

2532: Manhattan Diner was the Key West Diner; has the same owner as the Metro Diner and City Diner.

Corner (215 W 94th): The 12-story Night Hotel Broadway opened in 1914 as the Apthorp Hotel; as that name was already claimed by William Waldorf's Apthorp Apartments, it was changed in 1916 to the Hotel Monterey. A flophouse by the 1960s, Chantal Akerman made a documentary about its residents in 1973 called Hotel Monterey. It became a Quality Inn in the early 2000s, later a Days Inn, and in 2021 took on its present branding.

West:

2511 (corner): The Stanton, a 1925 15-story E-shaped apartment building. Among its notable residents were atom bomb scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, Polaroid inventor Edwin Land and actor Joan Allen. Novelist Norman Mailer stabbed his wife in their apartment here on November 19, 1960, while he was running for mayor.

The building had no name until 2008, when it was named after suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who died on October 25, 1902, in the Stuart Apartment House, an earlier building on the site.

2517: Gotham Wine & Liquors

2501 (corner): 4 Corners Marketplace, deli, was Han's Fruit & Vegetable Market.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2518 (corner): 94 Corner Cafe

2504 (corner): Advent Lutheran Church. "We believe God's love is for absolutely everyone, just as they are, without any conditions."

West:

Corner (250 W 93rd): The Melar, 20-story building from 2007, designed by Costas Kondylis.

2485: Was Cleopatra's Needle, Mediterranean jazz club.

2479: Village Square Pizza was Perfecto Pizza.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2496: The Coffee Place

2488: Shishi boutique

2486: Fillup Coffee

West:

2469: Novelist Sinclair Lewis lived at this now-defunct address.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2476 (corner): Little Italy Pizza

West:

2451: Barzini's, gourmet groceries since 1980. The store got into a legal battle with the health department in early 2025 over pests and expired cheese.

2449: Upper West Side Shoe & Leather Repair

2441 (corner): City Diner, since 1982; it had been the Argo Restaurant, and before that Starks. Has the same owner as the Metro Diner and Manhattan Diner.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2454 (corner): Dagon, Israeli restaurant named for the Philistine god of agriculture (often misrepresented in popular culture as a fish god). Was Big Daddy's, retro diner.

2450: This is the first location of Carmine's, a mini-chain of family-style Italian restaurants; it opened in 1990, but it feels more old school than that.

Franklin Roosevelt Jr.—FDR's son and a congressmember from 1949-55—lived in an earlier building at this address.

2446: Tal Bagels, since 1988.

2442: By the Way Bakery

West:

Corner (250 W 90th): New West, 22-story condo from 1986, designed by Philip Birnbaum & Associates; houses Artistic New Directions (ANDtheatre Co.).

Built on the site of the Standard Theater, a 1914 design by Thomas Lamb.

2425: Ollie's to Go, Chinese

2421 (corner): The Admaston, a 12-story yellow brick building from 1910. From 1993 through 2020, this was home to Gary Null's Uptown Whole Foods— Gary Null being a prominent health food proponent, known for his anti-vaccination views and his denial that HIV causes AIDS.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Astor Court

Block (210 W 90th): A 12-story apartment building developed in 1916 by Vincent Astor and designed by Charles Platt; it was Astor's first major project after his father's death on the Titanic left him in charge of the family's real estate empire. The building, known for its landscaped courtyard, has been home to numerous figures from the entertainment world, including Ziegfield girl Kay Laurell, opera (and silent movie) star Geraldine Ferrar and her unfaithful actor husband Lou Tellegen, producer Archibald Selwyn, blacklisted actor/director Stanley Prager and The View's Joy Behar.

West:

Corner (250 W 89th): The Savannah is an 18-story apartment building from 1987, built on the site of the New Yorker movie theater. The cinema was built in 1914 as the Adelphi Theatre and reconstructed as the Yorktown in 1933. In 1960, Dan and Toby Talbot turned it into perhaps Manhattan's premier revival house, drawing directors and critics like Martin Scorsese, Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael, Susan Sontag and Vincent Canby. This is where Woody Allen pulls out Marshall McLuhan to deflate a movie-line know-it-all in Annie Hall.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2418 (corner): Water & Wheat, Italian, was Cibo e Vino ("Food and Wine"), Northern Italian

2412: West Side Judaica & Bookstore, opened in 1934 and located here since the 1980s.

West:

2395: Savory Marketplace

2393: Mimi's Pizza

2385: Las Reinas del Sabor, breakfast restaurant

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Block (247 W 87th): The Montana is a 27-story twin-towered apartment building, an homage to Central Park West's classic spires. It was built in 1984 to Gruzen Partnership design.

2394: La Farine Patisserie et Cafe

West:

2373 (corner): The Boulevard, 22-story apartment building from 1988.

86TH STREET (IRT BROADWAY) STATION:

1 to 79th Street

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

The Belnord

Block (225 W 86th): A 13-story block-filling apartment building from 1909, designed in the Italian Renaissance style by Hiss & Weekes. It was said to be the nation's largest apartment building upon its completion, with the world's largest interior courtyard. The apartments were originally decorated in the Louis XVI style, with silk tapestries and mahogany doors.

Notable residents have included writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, actors like Walter Matthau and Zero Mostel, jazz impressario Art D'Lugoff, photographer Bruce Davidson and lifestyle maven Martha Stewart. Acting teacher Lee Strasberg lived here, where Marilyn Monroe was his frequent visitor.

The Belnord plays the building in the TV series Only Murders in the Building, where it's called the Arconia.

86TH STREET (IRT BROADWAY) STATION:

1 to 96th Street

West:

Euclid Hall

2345 (block): This 1903 structure was "among the most ambitious apartment houses of its time," according to Christopher Gray. The building became an SRO and was taken over in 1980 by the West Side Federation for Supportive and Senior Housing.

On the ground floor are Mamma's Famous Ristorante; Ray's Pizza.

2341 (corner): Another wing of Euclid Hall. Broadway Farm groceries is on the ground floor.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2350 (block): Bretton Hall was designed as a hotel by Harry Mulliken in 1902. A beautiful building unfortunately missing its cornice.

Cafe 86 is on the ground floor.

2340 (corner): French Roast cafe, in the same building, had a Greenwich Village sibling that closed in 2017.

West:

2333 (corner): The Antwerp, 15-story apartment building from 1922, AKA 250 West 85th Street. Doug Henwood, left-wing economics writer, lived here from 1979-2008—with labor writer Liza Featherstone from 2000.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2330: Broadway Family Pharmacy

2326 (corner): Eagle Court, four-story apartment building from 1925.

West:

2315 (corner): The Broadway Fashion Building is an outstanding example of Art Deco commercial architecture, built 1931 to a design by M. Henry Sugarman and A. G. Berger, architects of the New Yorker Hotel. Contemporary tenants include Harry's Shoes for Kids, Maison Pickle (American) and a branch of the 5 Napkin Burger mini-chain.

2307: A three-story Colonial Revival building erected in 1897 as the West Side Republican Club. The club still around—on 57th Street—now supporting Trump instead of Teddy Roosevelt.

2301 (corner): A seven-story building with elaborate brickwork from 1901.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

AMC 84th Street 6

2310 (corner): Opened in 1985 to replace the Thomas Lamb-designed 83rd Street Theatre which was on the southern end of the same block. For a time it was the highest- grossing movie theater in the country, until the opening of Loews Lincoln Square in 1994.

2310 and 2300 are designed to look like one building, but they are two separate structures.

2300 (corner): The site of Loews 83rd Street Theatre, designed by Thomas Lamb and opened in 1921. It was multiplexed in 1976 and demolished in 1985, after its replacement on the other end of the block had opened.

West:

2299 (corner): Harry's Shoes has been on the Upper West Side since the 1930s. In the same building as Barnes & Noble.

2289 (corner): Barnes & Noble Bookstore outlet. From 1914 to 1928, this was the Schuyler Theatre, a silent movie house. It's said that the first color network TV broadcast originated from here in 1953, starring Jackie Gleason.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2282 (corner): AKA 221 West 82nd, which was the address of novelists JD Salinger when he lived in 10G here from 1928-32, when he was a middle-schooler. Cafe Eighty Two 82 is on the ground floor now.

West:

2275 (corner): The Saxony, a seven-story Beaux Arts building from 1899, was Emery Roth's first residential building.

2273: This was from 1937 to 2014 the location of Town Shop Lingerie.

Corner (251 W 81st): The Forres is a seven-story building by George F. Pelham. Early 20th century recording star Emilio de Gogorza lived here. Now home to Harmony by Karate, martial arts school.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2270: Town Shop Lingerie, known for individualized bra fittings. Founded in 1888 on Bleecker Street, the store moved to the Upper West Side in 1937 and moved across the street to this location in 2014.

Corner (219 W 81st): The Avonova, a 13-story building from 1912, designed by Gaetano Ajello.

West:

Zabar's

2245 (corner): Iconic Upper West Side gourmet grocery store founded in 1934 by Louis and Lillian Zabar. They claim to have introduced brie, sun-dried tomatoes and gnocchi to America. Featured in productions like Manhattan and You've Got Mail.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Former 81st Street Theatre

2248 (corner):
Built in 1913 as a vaudeville house, Keith's 81st Street Theatre, part of the Keith-Orpheum Circuit. Designed by Thomas Lamb, it was noted for a spectacular mural called Music & Dancing, above the proscenium. James Cagney made his acting debut here in 1919 as a chorus girl (!) in a show called Every Sailor. Later, as Keith-Orpheum became part of RKO, it was a movie house, the RKO 81st Street. It closed in 1953 to become a TV studio, CBS Studio 72, where Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella was broadcast live in 1957. It was later used to shoot such series as Sesame Street, Electric Company and Love, Sidney (a sitcom set in the neighborhood starring Tony Randall). It now serves as a grand lobby for The Broadway, a 23-story condo tower built in 1987.

2246: Westsider Rare & Used Books announced it was closing in January 2019, but was able to stay in business after an independent crowdfunding campaign raised $50,000. Opened here in 1984 as Gryphon Books, noted for out-of-print and unusual books. It was featured in the films Wonderstruck and Can You Ever Forgive Me?.

2244: Runaway Poppy, gift shop

2240 (corner): The ten-story building from 1905 comprises all the addresses to 2246.

West:

2233: Ikinari Steak, Japanese mini-chain. "This is the big steak, the big cut of steak."

2231: Canine Styles West, pet store

2221 (corner): The First Baptist Church in the City of New York was organized in 1762, with its first home at 35 Gold Street. Its first pastor, John Gano, was a chaplain in the Continental Army and allegedly baptized George Washington at Valley Forge. (He's also a founder of Brown University and an ancestor of Howard Hughes.) The congregation moved to 354 Broome Street and then to East 39th and Fourth Avenue before moving here in 1890.

George Keister, who later designed the Apollo Theater, was the architect of this building; its asymmetrical towers represent Jesus Christ and the church, incomplete until Jesus' return. With the addition of a balcony in 1903, the church can seat 1,000.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2220 (corner): This two-story building from 1932 (which houses a Designer Shoe Warehouse) is the site of a mural by Banksy, Hammer Boy, which appeared on October 20, 2013. The brothers who own Zabar's preserved it by covering it with plexiglass from their deli counter.

West:

The Apthorp

2209 (block): Block-spanning apartment complex built by the William Waldorph Astor from 1906-08, designed by Clinton & Russell with a central courtyard featuring two fountains.

Actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was an early tenant; he moved here from the Algonquin because he didn't want his son to be born in a hotel. Instead, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was born here December 9, 1909.

Other notable residents have included Joseph Heller, George Balanchine, Al Pacino, Conan O'Brien, Nora Ephron, Cyndi Lauper, Rosie O'Donnell and 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2200-2218 (block): Thirteen-story apartment building from 1905. Ground-floor retail includes Unique News, Blooming Couture, New Wave Cafe, Blossom Jewelry and Coco-Mat ("Sleep on Nature").

West:

2199 (corner): La Caridad 78, Chino-Cuban since 1972.

2197: Europan Bakery

2191: Bra Smyth, specialty lingerie mini-chain is the rival of Town Shop up the street.

Corner (233 W 77th): Fifteen-story building from 1924.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2184: A midblock lowrise built in 1913 which served as the 77th Street Theatre until 1950. Demolished 2011.

2182: The original home of Ruby Foo's, glitzy pan-Asian that opened in 1998 and closed in 2009. The Times Square incarnation lasted from 2000-2015.

Corner (227 W 77th): The Larstrand, 20 floors built in 2012.

West:

Hotel Belleclaire

Corner (250 W 77th): Belle Epoque landmark designed by Emery Roth and built from 1901-03. Russian author Maxim Gorky stayed here briefly in April 1906 when he was in town raising funds for the Revolution; he was asked to leave when it was discovered that his companion was not his wife but rather actor Maria Andreyeva, his long-time lover. Mystery writer SS Van Dine lived here from 1922-25, when he created his most famous character, detective Philo Vance. Mark Twain and Babe Ruth are also said to have stayed here.

2161 (corner): The Colorado, a 15-story red-brick building from 1925.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2178 (corner): This 1910 building has been a boutique hotel since at least 2000—first known as On the Ave, and then, after being bought by the NYLO group, going by NYLO New York City or the ArtHouse Hotel. Serafina Upper West Side, Italian, on the ground floor.

2170: RedFarm, Chinese, is the same building as Serafina.

2162: This 1930 building was home from 1969 to 2006 to the Promenade Theatre, an off-Broadway playhouse where Sam Shepard's Lie of the Mind debuted in 1985. Still operating is its tiny, 108-seat sibling, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, which showcases plays by the Women's Project and Second Stage.

West:

2159 (corner): This was an addition to the Astor Apartments, built 1914.

2141-2157 (corner): The Astor Apartments, built by William Waldorf Astor in 1901 to a Clinton & Russell design. Has a notable copper cornice.

This was the approximate site of Somerindyke House, a Dutch farmhouse. It was occupied by Hessians during the Revolutionary War, and future French king Louis-Philippe taught school here in the 1790s. It was torn down in 1868 to facilitate the widening of Broadway.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

2150 (corner): The Laureate, 20-story condo built in 2010. Noted for its rounded, ornate balconies on its Broadway angle.

West:

2135 (corner): Citarella Gourmet Market; founded in 1912 as seafood shop; bought in 1983 by Joe Gurrera, who turned it into an upscale grocery mini-empire.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Hotel Beacon

2130 (corner): The Hotel Beacon was built in 1928, designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager, the architect of the Roxy Theatre. It was built in conjunction with the theater next door; both were named for an actual airplane beacon that was on the roof, said to be visible by planes 70 miles away. It was turned off in 1931 when the Department of Commerce cracked down on unoffical beacons.

Residents have included Broadway producer Albert H. Woods and Paris Underground author Etta Shiber.

The Viand Cafe is on the ground floor.

Previously on this land were the Tilden Club House and the Dakota Stables.

Beacon Theatre

2124: Opened in 1929 as Warner's Beacon Theatre, a movie palace and vaudeville house, the Walter Ahlschlager-designed auditorium has an interior "second only to Radio City Music Hall," according to the AIA Guide. Seating 2,894, the venue switched from movies to live concerts in the 1970s; its been host to notable shows by the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, the Rolling Stones and Mariah Carey, among many others. (I've seen PJ Harvey and Lucinda Williams here, to name two more.)

2120 (corner): Beacon Wine & Spirits

West:

The Ansonia

In part because of its soundproof walls, the Ansonia counted an incredible array of musical talents among its early guests, including Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky Sergei Rachmaninoff, Gustave Mahler, Ezio Pinza, Lily Pons and Yehudi Menuhin. It has also attracted big names from stage and screen, like Sarah Bernhardt, Moss Hart, Tony Curtis, Paul Sorvino, Angelina Jolie, Macaulay Culkin and Natalie Portman.

From the literary world, Theodore Dreiser lived here (1931-35), as did Isaac Bashevitz Singer, Cornell Woolrich and cartoonist Walt Kelly.

Babe Ruth moved here in 1920 when he was signed by the Yankees, and stayed most of the decade; he was remembered for going down to the hotel barber in his bathrobe and playing the saxophone in the halls. Jack Dempsey lived here while training for the 1919 world heavyweight championship. The 1919 White Sox team plotted to throw the World Series here.

Bank robber Willie Sutton was arrested (for the sixth of eight times) at the Childs Restaurant on the ground floor in 1930.

The basement pool became the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse opened in 1968 that could reportedly accommodate 1,000 guests at a time. The baths featured an incredible array of entertainers—from Sarah Vaughan to the New York Dolls—but are best-known for launching the career of Bette Midler—sometimes accompanied on piano by a towel-clad Barry Manilow. They were reinvented as the co-ed sex club in 1977—shut down by Ed Koch during the AIDS crisis in 1980.

The Ansonia has been featured in numberous films, including The Sunshine Boys, Three Days of the Condor, Single White Female, The Paper and My Super Ex-Girlfriend. It played the demonic title location in the TV show 666 Park Avenue.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Central Savings Bank

A 1928 structure designed by York & Sawyer to look like an Italian Renaissance palazzo. The bank was founded in 1859, with its offices in Cooper Union, as the German Savings Bank; it changed its name during World War I. In 1981, it was bought by the Harlem Savings Bank, which in 1983 changed its name to the Apple Savings Bank; under that name it still operates out of this building.

West:

2095 (corner): The Rutgers Building, home of the Rutgers Presby- terian Church. The church was founded in 1798 at the corner of Henry and Rutgers streets in Lower Manhattan, where St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church is now. After a relatively brief stay at Madison and 29th (1863-87), it moved here to what was then an expanding part of the city, building a large Romanesque church in 1880. The present building, which combines a sanctuary, a church house and a commercial bank building, was dedicated in 1925.

2091: The Wood Dolson Building was built in 1922 for the Wood Dolson real estate company, which helped develop the Upper West Side.

2085 (corner): The Alexandria, 25-story apartment building from 1991. The AIA Guide calls this "consummate schmaltz" an "insult to ancient Egypt." But Carter Horsley called it "the most attractive new building on the Upper West Side in decades." There's a Bloomingdale's Outlet Store on the ground floor.

In 2003, a painting by Rufino Tamayo was found in the garbage here after being stolen for 20 years. It was later sold at auction for $1 million.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Verdi Square

In the 1960s and 1970s, the park's popularity with IV drug users gave it the nickname Needle Park, as featured in the 1971 movie Panic in Needle Park.

In the summer this is home to the Verdi Square Festival of the Arts.

The subway entrance here was added in 2002 to ease congestion on the platforms below. The station serves the 1, 2 and 3 IRT trains.

West:

Corner (200 W 72nd): The Corner, 19-story apartment building completed in 2010. It replaced the Colonial Club, an 1892 clubhouse designed by Henry F. Kilburn with a distinctive turreted corner. The club, whose name referred to an interest in pre-Revolutionary history, was one of the first in the city to admit women: "One of the elevating purposes of the club was to enjoy the society of pure and honorable women," the New York Times reported in 1893. They were only able to engage in this activity for a few years, however; the clubhouse was sold in 1903 and the club apparently disbanded.

2061 (corner): An eight-story co-op built in 1925. Cafe 71 is on the ground floor.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

AMSTERDAM AVE   ===> N

The Dorilton

Point (171 W 71st): A Beaux Arts landmark constructed in 1902, designed by Janes & Leo. New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has lived here, as has developer William Zeckendorf.

West:

2047: Little Italy pizza; Maoz, Israeli vegetarian

2039 (block): A 41-story highrise from 1971.

S <===   AMSTERDAM AVE

Sherman Square

A triangular piece of land acquired by the city in 1849 and named for Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in 1891, the year of his death. (Sherman had lived in the neighborhood.) Divided by Broadway into two pieces, neither one of which is much more than a glorified traffic island. Panic in Needle Park was supposedly filmed here.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

South Pierre

2054-2062 (corner): A 19-story 1923 building by Maynicke & Franke. Originally known as the Almanac Hotel; Yankees star Babe Ruth stayed here in 1929 before he married his girlfriend Claire Merritt Hodgson, who lived on 80th Street.

Tasty Cafe, Pinkyotto women's wear and the wine bar Le Pif are on the ground floor.

Corner (155 W 70th): The Coronado, a 21-story apartment building, features gargoyles despite being built in 1990. From 1922 into the 1950s, there was a Studebaker showroom on this corner.

West:

2025 (corner): A little bank building. Has the same address as the big building it's in front of.


On this land in 1806 was built the Bloomingdale Dutch Reformed Church, serving residents who had moved up the island to escape yellow fever. The community was originally called Harsenville after church founder Jacob Harsen. A nicer church was built by 1816 and stood until Broadway — then known in this stretch as The Boulevard — was widened in 1869. By 1885 the third and final church was built on this site, a limestone structure seating a thousand people, with a 160-foot spire. It was torn down in 1905 when the congregation moved further uptown to West End between 106th and 107th, where it disbanded in 1913.

2025 (corner): Nevada Towers, a 30-story building with an odd convex shape. It was built in 1974, replacing an earlier building with the same name.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

The Ormonde

2028 (corner): A wedge-shaped building to fit on a triangular lot, The Ormonde (aka 154 West 70th) was designed by Robert Maynicke in 1899. It later changed its name to the Embassy Hotel, then Embassy Tower, then back to Ormonde. Perhaps named after Ormonde, the horse that won the Triple Crown in 1886, considered "the horse of the century."

Albert Camus stayed here in 1946 during the first part of a three-month trip to New York. "It is beyond human power," said Camus, "to give an idea of the curious way in which 8 million bison live in this elevated amusement park that geographers call New York."

2028: Gina La Fornarina, pizza

2020 (corner): Eight neo-Renaissance stories, built 1896. Originally the Seminole Hotel, also known as the Lincoln View. Shakespeare & Co., beloved bookstore franchise, promises to move into the space vacated by Albertina's Fine Foods. Westside Restaurant, diner, is on the corner.

West:

Block (155 W 68th): Dorchester Towers, 34 stories of white brick from 1965. Includes the offices of John Kong, DDS, whose slogan is "Better Living through Dentistry."

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Corner (140 W 69th): Lincoln Spencer Arms, a 12-story Beaux Arts apartment building from 1903. Originally the Spencer Arms Hotel.

2014: Sole Bistro Italiano

2012: Nanoosh, Mediterranean

2000 (corner): The Copley, a 1987, 28-floor apartment building designed by Davis, Brody & Associates.

West:

1995 (corner): An 18-story building from 1974.

1991: Bel Canto, 27-story condo from 1986. On the ground floor is Sugar Factory, glitzy dessert-oriented diner. If you find the idea of cocktails filled with gummi bears appealing, this place is for you.

1981 (corner): Apple Upper West Side, a glass and marble building opened in 2009. This kind of free-standing retail, with no residential or commercial space above, is now very rare.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13

1998 (block): When Sony opened this cinema complex in 1994, it was the nations's busiest multiplex. The individual theaters bear the names of grand Loews movie palaces, many long gone: the Valencia, Kings, State, Capital, Paradise and Jersey. The plaster and fiberglass entrances evoke these cinemas' fanciful decor. The 876-seat main theater, called Loew's, with its Thai temple theme, is modeled on Loew�s 72nd Street theatre designed by Thomas Lamb and demolished in 1961. The classic movies featured in the lobby mural were released by Columbia, which is owned by Sony, the multiplex's original owner.

The Park Millennium, the 38-story condo tower above the theater, goes by the address 111 W 67th. Replaced the four-story Ansonia Post Office, built in 1955.

West:

1961 (block): Grand Millennium Condo, 32 floors that went up in 1997. Tower Records used to be on the ground floor.

This corner was once the Dauphin Hotel, built in 1903 to a CPH Gilbert design.

1961 (corner): The southeast corner of this block was the Marie Antoinette Hotel, an eight-story 1895 building by Julius Munckowitz. At some point it seems to have merged with the Dauphin.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Block (138-150 Columbus): A 30-story condo built 1995. Barnes & Noble used to be on the ground floor, replaced by Century 21. Sportcaster Marv Alpert, who was convicted of assault after being accused of sexually abusing two women, has lived here.

1970: The site of Frank E. Campbell's Funeral Chapel, New York City's most prestigious funeral home, from 1913 to 1938. A wake for Rudolph Valentino was held here from August 24-30, 1926, attracting 50,000 distraught fans. Other notables who lay in state here include Frank Woolworth (1919), Enrico Caruso (1921), Bat Masterson (1921), Fatty Arbuckle (1933) and George Gershwin (1938).

West:

Juilliard School

Sometimes considered the world's leading performing arts school, Juilliard traces its history to the Institute of Musical Art, founded in 1905 in Greenwich Village and soon relocated to Morningside Heights. It merged in 1926 with the Juilliard Graduate School, a new institution endowed by the estate of textile merchant Augustus Juilliard.

In 1969 it moved to its current home, part of the Lincoln Square re- development project. The building—which includes the concert space Alice Tully Hall—was designed by Pietro Belluschi, architect of the Pan Am Building.

Musicians and composers trained here include Chick Corea, Philip Glass, Marvin Hamlisch, Bernard Herrmann, Nina Simone, Tito Puente, Wynton Marsalis, Henry Mancini and Yo-Yo Ma.

Acting alumni include Jessica Chastain, Adam Driver, Kelsey Grammer, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Val Kilmer, Laura Linney, Patti LuPone, Elizabeth McGovern, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Reeve, Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams. (Also Phillipa Soo, who went to the same high school I did.)

Paul Taylor danced here, and Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan studied the clarinet.

Notable faculty members include John Houseman, Maria Callas, Tony Kushner, Wynton Marsalis, Terrence McNally and Itzhak Perlman.

There are also studios for public TV stations WNET and WLIW here.

SE Corner: Here was the Lincoln Arcade Building, a 1902 studio building that provided work space for artists like George Bellows (who shared his studio with Eugene O'Neill), Thomas Hart Benton, Marcel Duchamp and Rockwell Kent. Robert Henri taught art here to such students as Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. The structure was destroyed by fire in 1931, but a rebuilt version lasted for another two decades.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Tucker Square

Though often thought of as Lincoln Square, this triangular plaza is actually named for Opera star Richard Tucker, who sang at the Met from 1945 until his death in 1975. There's a bust of him here by Milton Hebald. Before being named for Tucker, the official name was Empire Square North.

I wonder if neither triangle at Lincoln Square actually being named Lincoln Square has to do with the mystery over Lincoln Square's name—there's no record of why the neighborhood was given that designation in 1906, and the speculation is that this lacuna had something to do with the fact that then-Mayor George B. McClellan was the son of Abraham Lincoln's bitter rival, Gen. George B. McClellan Sr.

There's a farmers market here twice a week.

66th Street/Lincoln Center Station:

A local stop on the IRT's 1 line, opened 1904.

COLUMBUS AVE         ===> N

LDS Manhattan New York Temple

Corner (125 Columbus): A temple of the Church of Latter Day Saints, or Mormon Church. Roughly equivalent to a Catholic cathedral, there are about 150 LDS temples in the world. The Mormons built here in 1975, but it was not turned into a temple until 2004.

Atop the temple is the traditional statue of the angel Moroni, who Mormons believe gave the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith.

1940 (corner): Previously on this corner was the Hotel Sidney. In 1927 the proprietor, along with six others ("all well-dressed") was arrested here by the Society for the Suppresion of Vice for running "one of the most substantial policy games in existence." "It supplied tickets to negroes, althought many white people played the game as well," the New York Times reported. Along with "adding machines, checkbooks and other paraphernalia" on "green-covered tables," there was said to be found "some alleged whiskey in five-gallon cans."

West:

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Conceived in 1955 by the Mayor's Slum Clearance Committee (chaired by Robert Moses) as the enterpiece of efforts to remake the then-impoverished Lincoln Square neighborhood (the West Side of West Side Story). The Center's first president was John D. Rockefeller III; President Dwight Eisenhower broke ground for it in 1959, with its first building, Philharmonic Hall, opening in 1962 as the home of the New York Philharmonic.

The hall, on the corner here of 65th Street, Broadway and Columbus Avenue, was designed by Max Abramovitz of Harrison & Abramovitz. It was renamed Avery Fisher Hall in 1973 after the founder of Fisher Electronics gave the orchestra here $10 million. In 2015 it was renamed David Geffen after the Geffen Records exec gave Lincoln Center $100 million.

The acoustics of the hall remain problematic despite repeated attempts to fix them. It's the home of the Mostly Mozart Festival, launched in 1966, as well as PBS's Great Performances series.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1930 (block): The Grand Tier, a 30-story Costas Kondylis building from 2005.

As No. 1926, this was the site of the Goelet Garage, built in 1906-07, designed by Maynicke & Franke along with Frank M. Andrews. In the 1920s, it became the Macfadden Building, where Bernarr Macfadden published magazines like Liberty, True Story, Physical Culture and The New York Graphic. National Cash Register operated a service center here, and ABC at one point rented two-thirds of the building; the DJ Cousin Brucie broadcast from there. Dustin Hoffman later had his film company here. The building housed a number of restaurants serving Lincoln Center audiences, including the Ginger Man (later Lincoln Tavern), Magic Flute (which became Saloon), Sfuzzi and Opera Espresso.

West:

Dante Park

Also here is TimeSculpture (1999) by architect Philip Johnson.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

One Lincoln Plaza

Block (20 W 64th): Forty-three floors built in 1974, this apartment complex designed by Philip Birnbaum was the first major construction following the development of Lincoln Center, and it still dominates the area. The AIA Guide calls it a "behemoth" with "no redeeming social or architectural significance.... What an urbanistic mistake!� On the other hand, while acknowledging that its looks are "a bit prosaic," Carter Horsley says it has "excellent" form that "holds the angled street-line of Broadway very well." The arcade along Broadway features the restaurants Boulud Epicerie, Boulud Bar, Fiorello and The Smith.

The building was home to jazz great Lionel Hampton, whose apartment was gutted by a 1997 fire. Other residents have included actor Ben Vereen and Linda Lavin, sportscaster Frank Gifford and journalist Hendrik Hertzberg.

Commercial tenants at One Lincoln Plaza include Sesame Workshop, the producers of Sesame Street; the actors union SAG-AFTRA; and the musical copyright enforcer ASCAP, which has been headquartered here since 1974.

West:

Empire Hotel

1889 (corner): The original Empire Hotel on this site was an 1889 building bought by hotelier Herbert DuPuy in 1908. In 1923, DuPuy opened a new 15-story building here, complete with iconic rooftop neon sign.

Composer Aaron Copland lived here from 1936-47, where he wrote Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring. Lyricist Al Dubin (1891-1945), who wrote the words for such standards as "42nd Street," "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," "We're in the Money," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Lullaby of Broaday," spent the last few years of his life here.

In the TV show Gossip Girl, the hotel is owned by one of the main characters.

1887: The David Rubenstein Atrium is a visitors and ticketing center for Lincoln Center, named for the co-founder of the Carlyle Group. It's in the space once occupied by the Colonial Theatre, opened in 1905, playing mostly vaudeville. Silent film legends Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel made their US debut on stage together here in 1910; other performers here included Harry Houdini, Buster Keaton, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and Ethel Barrymore. In the early 1920s it became a venue for African-American musical revues, one of which introduced the Charleston dance craze in 1923.

Starting in 1932, it showed movies as the RKO Colonial; Walter Winchell broadcast his radio show from here in the 1940s. Later it became a TV studio for NBC and later ABC. As the Harkness in 1974, it had a brief rebirth as a legitimate theater before being torn down in 1977.

1881 (corner): The AAA office here started out as a Cadillac dealership when this was Automobile Row.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1890 (block): 30 Lincoln Plaza, also known as 30 W 63rd, is a 33-story apartment building from 1978— designed, like its next-door neighbor up Broadway, by Philip Birnbaum.

From 1981 to 2018, the basement was home to Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, which showcased art house fare, both international (Fellini's City of Women opened the theater) and domestic (Thin Blue Line and Mulholland Drive both premiered here). The building's owner, who declined to renew the Lincoln Plaza's lease, promised a cinema of some sort would return after renovations.

The building previously on this corner was used in the movie Taxi Driver as the Palantine campaign headquarters, where Cybill Shepherd works.

Breads Bakery here features the Concord Cake, a recreation of the mousse/meringue cake the owner grew up having for birthdays from Soutine on 70th Street, which closed in 2012.

West:

1871 (corner): The Allegro, 27-story apartment building from 1987. NYIT's Auditorium on Broadway is in this building — as is Melissa's Gourmet Deli.

1865 (corner): A 33-story building completed in 2018 to a Skidmore, Owings & Merrill design. It replaced another building by the same firm, the 1966 American Bible Society Building. The American Bible Society was founded in New York City in 1816; John Jay was among its first presidents, and Francis Scott Key a long-time vice president. It sold its headquarters and moved to Philadelphia amidst financial difficulties in 2015. The Museum of Biblical Art was located in the ABS's building.

Earlier on this corner was a Packard Motor Car Co. showroom.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1880 (corner): Was the New York Guild for the Jewish Blind

15 Central Park West

Block (15 CPW): A 2008 building designed by Robert Stern to look pre-war, it immediately became one of the most prestigious addresses in New York City and a template for high-end development. Residents include Robert De Niro, Sting, Norman Lear, Denzel Washington, Bob Costas and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

1860 (corner): Formerly on this side of the block was 1860 Broadway, a 17-story Emory Roth building from 1927, demolished 1986.

West:

New York Institute of Technology

Corner (1855 Broadway): A college founded in 1955 to focus on technology and applied science; this is one of its two main campuses, the other being at Old Westbury on Long Island.

Earlier on this corner was the Hotel Midtown.

1849: NYIT's Metro Cafe

1845: Sapphire, Indian, is in an 1883 building designed by Henry Harden- bergh, architect of the Dakota and the Plaza Hotel. Around 1910, this building housed the Cafe de la Paix, owned by the Bustanoby�s restaurant family. The Cafe was a dance salon that helped spark a society craze for the tango and turkey trot. A young Rudolph Valentino may (or may not) have been paid to dance with lonely ladies here.

1841 (corner): A 12-story building from 1924.

W <===         W 60TH ST

Time Warner Center

Corner (10 Columbus Circle): This 2003 megastructure, a home for the media giant, was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The first major skyscraper built after September 11, it features twin towers— with 55 stories, half of the World Trade Center's reach. The massive complex includes a a performance space for Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a hotel, the Mandarin Oriental that boasts such guests as Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver and I.M. Pei—and probably no longer boasts about Lance Armstrong and Kevin Spacey. Also some of the most expensive restaurants in New York City, including Masa ($300-a-plate sushi), per se and V Steakhouse.

Built on the site of the New York Coliseum, Robert Moses' 1954 convention center (Leon and Lionel Levy, 1954), widely viewed as an eyesore—and as a white elephant after the Javits Center opened in 1986. Demolished 2000.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Trump International Hotel

The building was the setting of the movie Tower Heist.

Directly south of the building is a 40-foot chrome-plated globe, seemingly inspired by Queens' Unisphere. Below the globe is the entrance to the Columbus Circle subway station.










































59th Street/Columbus Circle Station:

Opened in 1904 as a stop on the IRT's 1 line; in 1932 it was expanded to include the IND's 8th Avenue line, and now serves the A, B, C and D trains as well.

West:

2 Columbus Circle

990 (block): In 1964, a 12-story concave tower designed by Edward Durell Stone was built here to house the Gallery of Modern Art, the collection of A & P heir Huntington Hartford. Known as the Lollipop Building for its distinctive ground-floor columns, it was noted for its almost windowless white marble facade, which attracted both ridicule and affection.

After being owned by Fairleigh Dickinson University and Gulf + Western, the building became home to the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau from 1980 until 1998. The city transferred the property to the Museum of Arts & Design, which embarked on a highly controversial redesign of the building.

Despite vocal calls to preserve the building as a historically important example of Modernism, the Landmark Commission stubbornly refused to even hold hearings on the matter. The new look was unveiled in 2008.

From 1874 until 1960, this was the site of the Pabst Grand Circle Hotel, a seven-story brownstone with a mansard roof. Actors Equity was founded there in 1913.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1802 (block): This 1941 apartment building, designed by Mayer & Whittlesley, was home to Antoine de Saint-Exupery when he was in exile from Nazi-occupied France. He spent his time here researching an Allied invasion of France and writing The Little Prince. Lois Lane lives here in the film Superman. This is said to be the first New York apartment building to make extensive use of balconies.

On the Broadway side of the building (better known as 240 Central Park South) are Dino Shoe Repair, Columbus Circle Wines and Grom gelato.

West:

Columbus Tower

Block: Also known as the Newsweek Building, for its most prominent tenant (since 1994), the first three stories of this 25-story building went up in 1921 as the Collonade Building, noted for its Ionic columns (William Welles Bosworth, architect). The Broadway side was leased to the Hudson Motor Car Company for an Essex showroom, a space that from 1974 to 2003 was home to Coliseum Books, one of New York's most storied bookstores. The northern corner is the Cosmic Coffee House. In 1926, Shreve & Lamb added 22 stories to the building, which became General Motors' East Coast headquarters; the building was known as the General Motors Building until 1968, when the company moved to 5th Avenue. The current owner decided to reclad the building in glass in 2008, an aesthetically dubious move. It's also being renamed, inanely, 3 Columbus Circle, despite not being on Columbus Circle.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1790 (corner): The 20-story US Rubber Company Building was built as HQ for the company that became Uniroyal and is now owned by Michelin. Faced in marble, it was designed in the Modern French style by Carrere & Hastings, who had just finished the NYPL.

This was the address of the NAACP, where on October 25, 1976, the pardon of the last surviving Scottsboro Boy, Clarence Norris, was announced.

1780 (corner): Lazarus Building houses the Perfect Picture Store, Pax Wholesome Foods.

West:

Corner (250 W 57th): The Fisk Building is a 26-story office building from 1921, designed by Car�rre & Hastings and Shreve, Lamb & Blake for the Fisk Tire and Rubber Company. It has its own entrance to the Columbus Circle subway station. Once a hub for auto industry offices, it now specializes in entertainment; David Bowie had his offices here in the 1980s, and it's currently home to RZO, which provides business services to a roster of rock stars like Bowie, the Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna, etc.

The Fisk Building where supervillain Wilson Fisk (aka The Kingpin) works seems to be an entirely different building—though it is somewhere in Midtown.

Corner (235 W 56th): Symphony House Apartments, 43-story building from 1986

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Corner (211 W 56th): Carnegie Mews Apartments, a 37-story high-rise designed by Emery Roth & Sons (1979), used to house the only Manhattan branch of Hooters; it's since moved to Chelsea. From 1905-69, this was the site of the French-Gothic Broadway Tabernacle, a United Church of Christ congregation that now shares a home with Advent Lutheran on Broadway and 93rd.

West:

Random House Tower

1745 (block): The headquarters of the publishing giant, built in 2003. The triple slab tower atop the trapezoidal base, which is residential, resembles a trio of giant books. The residences here are known as the Park Imperial; Sean "Puffy" Combs was one of the first tenants.

Random House was founded in 1925 by Bennett Cerf, who intended to publish a random assortment of books—which turned out to include works by Faulkner, Truman Capote, Ayn Rand and Dr. Seuss, and the first complete edition of Joyce's Ulysses.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

MONY Building

1740 (block): Built in 1950 as the 25-story headquarters of the Mutual Life Insurance Co. (Shreve, Lamb and Harmon were the architects), the building was known for the MONY logo at the top that inspired the Shondells song "Mony Mony." MONY moved out after a 2004 merger with AXA, and the logo was replaced with a "1740" in 2008.

West:

1727 (corner): Applejack Diner is on the site of the Hotsy Totsy Club (then numbered 1721), Jack "Legs" Diamond's speakeasy and the headquarters of his rackets. A gangster named Red Cassidy was murdered here on July 13, 1929, but the case against Diamond was dropped when some eight witnesses died or disappeared.

Corner: 54 Broadway Cafe

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Corner (210 W 55th): Dream Hotel (formerly the Majestic, originally the Woodward Hotel) is in a Beaux Arts building from 1895, given an ethereal blue lighting scheme. Serafina, Italian, on the ground floor.

1710: Bad Boy Worldwide, Sean "Diddy" Combs' management company

1708 (corner): International Ladies Garment Workers Union

West:

Corner: Ameritania Hotel (formerly Bryant Hotel) has scary online reviews. Twist Lounge on ground floor.

Ed Sullivan Theatre

1697 (corner): Built in 1927 as Hammer- stein's Theater, Arthur Hammerstein's tribute to his father Oscar, it was later known as the Manhattan Theater and Billy Rose's Music Hall. In 1936, CBS began radio broadcasts from here, and it was converted to a TV studio in 1950. It was home to the classic show The Honeymooners and The Merv Griffin Show and such game shows as What's My Line?, To Tell the Truth, Password and The $20,000 Pyramid.

But it was most famously home to the The Ed Sullivan Show, which aired from here until its 1971 cancellation. It was here that Elvis Presley performed on September 9, 1956, the camera famously avoiding his swiveling hips, and the Beatles made their U.S. television debut on February 9, 1964. Since David Letterman moved to CBS in 1993, it's been the studio for his Late Show.

The building is also home, at No. 1695, to Omido, sleek sushi restaurant designed by AvroKO.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1700 (block): A 42-floor Emery Roth building from 1969 that has been home since 1996 to DC Comics and Mad magazine (which Bart visited when The Simpsons came to New York). Europa Cafe is on the ground floor.

1698: This was the address of the Palladium Ballroom, a second-floor dancehall that was one of New York's leading venues for Latin music from 1948 until 1966. It hosted the likes of Tito Puente, Arsenio Rodr�guez and Celia Cruz. This was ground zero for the mambo craze.

West:

Broadway Theatre

1685 (corner): Built in 1924 to a Eugene DeRosa design, it was originally the Colony Theatre, where "Steamboat Willie," the first talking cartoon, debuted in 1928. (Mickey Mouse had been introduced in "Plane Crazy" six months earlier.) After being renamed the Broadway, it saw the premiere of Fantasia in 1939. My Fair Lady, The Music Man and South Pacific all had their Broadway debuts here, as did My Sister Eileen. It's also been home to such successful musicals as The Wiz Evita, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and The Color Purple.

1675 (corner): A green granite office tower, designed by Fox & Fowle and built 1986-89, wraps around the Broadway Theatre.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1678 (corner): Earle Building was the original home of Birdland, Charlie Parker's legendary jazz club from 1949-65. After such incarnations as Ubangi, Ebony and Clicque, it most recently housed Flash Dancers, a topless club. Also in the building are Leone Pizza and Gourmet Deli & Hot Bagel.

West:

1657 (corner): Novotel New York Times Square is part of a French hotel chain; includes the Broadway Bar. Art Cafe, Broadway Deli are on the ground floor.

1653: Phantom of Broadway, souvenirs

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Sheraton Manhattan at Times Square

Block (790 7th Ave): This was the Loews City Squire, built in 1962, bought by Sheraton in 1979 and given its current name in 1989. The hotel takes up the entire block, but the businesses on the Broadway side have their own addresses:

1666: Zan Boutique

1662: This was the site of Warners' Theater, where the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, had its premiere in 1927. The cinema was built as the Piccadilly Theater in 1924; in 1936, it was Minsky's Oriental, a high-end burlesque house that was shut down by Mayor LaGuardia.

1658: Georgi-oh!, women's clothing, is at the address of the original Roseland Ballroom— a popular dancehall where the phrase "taxi dancer" is said to have originated. Bandleaders like Harry James, Louis Armstrong and Glenn Miller played here; Count Basie wrote "The Roseland Shuffle" about it. The space had opened in 1916 as the Iceland skating rink; Joseph Crater (not yet a judge) was one of the original incorporators. When the venue here was torn down in 1956, the Roseland moved to another former Iceland space on 52nd Street.

West:

Paramount Plaza

Now houses the U.S. offices of Hachette Filipacchi, the world's largest magazine publisher; several of their American magazines are based here, such as Elle, Woman's Day and Premiere. Located in the sunken courtyard is Din Tai Fung, the largest branch of an acclaimed Taiwanese dumpling chain. Formerly in the space was Mars 2112, a touristy sci-fi-themed restaurant thar ran from 1999 until 2012.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1650 (corner): Ellen's Stardust Diner features 1950s nostalgia and a singing waitstaff. Below is the Iridium Jazz Club. In the film Pat and Mike, the Spencer Tracy character's office is on this corner—though out his window you can see the I. Miller Building, at 7th and 46th. In the mid-20th Century, this was the address of the Havana-Madrid Club, a Latin music venue.

1638: Was Hawaii Kai, a Polynesian-themed restaurant from the 1950s through the 1980s. The scene in Goodfellas with Joe Pesci and the waiter was shot here.

Winter Garden Theater

1634 (corner): Starting Life in 1885 as the American Horse Exchange Building, it was largely rebuilt as the Winter Garden in 1911 and remodeled by Herbert J. Krapp in 1923. Its debut production included the Broadway premiere of Al Jolson. Here were the Broadway bows of Wonderful Town, West Side Story, Funny Girl, Mame, Steven Sondheim's Follies and Pacific Overtures, Beatlemania and 42nd Street. Cats set a Broadway record by playing here 7,485 performances between 1982 and 2000. The Twyla Tharp/David Byrne collaboration The Catherine Wheel was performed here in 1981.

West:

Corner (210 W 50th): Snapple Theater Center, an Off- Broadway house owned by the iced-tea company. Perfect Crime moved here after playing since 1987 at the Duffy Theater, making it the longest-running play on Broadway. Also at this address is Emmett O'Lunney's Harmony View, a pub; Emmett's father owns O'Lunney's on 45th Street.

Brill Building

1619 (corner): Built in 1931 by developer Abraham Lefcourt, it was soon taken over and renamed by the Brill Brothers clothing store. In 1932, Southern Music Publishing Company moved here, starting the building's role as a center of music publishing that would last until 1974. (Buddy Holly met his soon-to-be wife, Maria Elena Santiago, at Southern Music, where she was a secretary.) Almost a third of the songs played on Your Hit Parade from 1935 until 1958 were published by Brill Building companies. Songwriters like Carole King, Burt Bacharach, Neil Diamond and Neil Sedaka got their starts here. Big Bands like the Dorsey Brothers, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway were also headquartered here.

On the ground floor, the Colony Music Center, with vintage vinyl and a great sheet music collection, is a reminder of the building's glory days.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

750 7th Avenue

Block (750 7th Ave): This 35-story 1989 ziggurat was designed by Kevin Roche. Houses the Majestic Delicatessen, opened in 1972, and Martinique Jewelers, founded 1963.

Junior's

1626: One of two Times Square outposts of a beloved Brooklyn diner, famous for its cheesecake; this one opened in 2016. Formerly this was Ruby Foo's, a glitzy pan-Asian whose Times Square incarnation lasted from 1999 to 2015.

Caroline's

1626: Opened in 1981 in Chelsea, this famous comedy club has featured big names like Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno and Rosie O'Donnell.

It's on the site of the original Lindy's, immortalized in Damon Runyon's stories as "Mindy's." The late-night diner was opened August 20, 1921, by Leo Lindermann. Gambler Arnold Rothstein used it as his office, with a table no one else could sit at after 9 p.m.; he was Runyon's model for Nathan Detroit. Lindy's latter-day chain incarnations were regarded as charmless and overpriced; the last one closed in February 2018.

1620: The site of the Rivoli Theatre, New York's grandest movie palace, designed by Thomas Lamb for Paramount with 2,092 seats. Torn down in 1988 after being defaced to avoid landmarking.

West:

Crowne Plaza Manhattan

1605 (block): This 1989 building by Alan Lapidus stands out for its purplish glass and curved concrete corners.

1593 (corner): On the southeast corner of the hotel is Hershey's Times Square, a chocolate store with a 215-foot multimedia facade. Spot any broken lights? It's supposed to look like that.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1604 (corner): Spotlight Live, karaoke-themed restaurant with a live back-up band.

1600 (corner): The site of the Studebaker Building, built in 1902 as an auto showroom. In the 1930s it was Joseph Hilton & Sons suits, in 1939 the Ripley Believe It or Not! Odditorium ("Curioddities From 200 Countries"), in the 1940s-60s Howard Clothes, and more recently Tony Roma's A Place for Ribs. Before the Renaissance Hotel was built, it was one of the most visible spots in Times Square, bringing the rooftop memorable signage from Maxwell House to Sony. Torn down in 2005, it's being replaced by a high-rise apartment building designed by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Achitecture & Engineering.

West:

Morgan Stanley

1585 (block): Headquarters of the financial firm co-founded in 1935 by J.P. Morgan's grandson, this building's post-modern facade features rolling financial quotes. As a result of the financial crisis of 2008, it got out of investment banking and allowed Mitsubishi to buy a 21 percent stake.

In 1914, this block became the site of The Strand, the first Times Square theater designed specifically for movies.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Ramada Renaissance

1580 (block): This wedge-shaped building, put up in 1989, is most famous for its signage— Coca-Cola has had a sign here almost continuously since 1936. The site has a storied history: In the 1920s it was the Palais Royale, with the Moulin Rouge in the basement; then from 1936 to 1940 it was the Cotton Club's post-Harlem home, featuring stars like Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Lena Horne. From 1942 to 1969, it was the Latin Quarter nightclub—run by Lou Walters, Barbara Walters' father.

West:

W New York-Times Square

1567 (corner): This luxury hotel opened in 2001 featuring "almost hallucinatory public spaces" (Access NYC). Includes the Whiskey bar and the restaurant Blue Fin. Planet Hollywood had threatened to build a hotel here.

1565: Roxy Delicatessen; the name recalls the great Times Square movie palace.

1557: This building was the site of Horn and Hardart's first New York City Automat, opening in 1912 (a decade after the coin-operated dining concept was launched in Philadelphia). It closed in the mid-1970s.

1553: Duffy Theatre, an off-Broadway theater right on Broadway. "Perfect Crime" has been playing here since 1987.

Howard Johnson's

1551 (corner): This was not only the last HoJo's in New York—it was one of the last in the entire country. Missed for its cocktails and Americana. It was once a Child's.

Upstairs was the Gaiety, a gay burlesque house. Earlier it was the New Paris, with live sex shows; before that, from 1917-64, it was the Orpheum Dance Palace, New York's most famous dime-a-dance joint. Here in 1923, when it was known as Wilson's Dancing Studio, novelist Henry Miller met his second wife, June Mansfield, working as a taxi dancer.

Rheba Brown, the Salvation Army's "Angel of Broadway" who was the inspiration for Guys and Dolls' Sarah Brown, used to hold her street rallies at this corner.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Duffy Square

At the north end of this triangular traffic island is the TKTS booth, offering half-priced tickets to selected plays on the day of the show. The old canvas-and-pipe structure was quite attractive, but it's been replaced by a more Blade Runnerish form whose roof is a red staircase-to-nowhere with a great view of Times Square.

Standing in front of the staircase is a statue of the square's namesake, Father Francis P. Duffy, who after serving as chaplain to the "Fighting 69th" Division in World War I helped to clean up Hell's Kitchen. He was also Broadway's spiritual advisor, which is why he can be found here, backed by a Celtic cross.

Also here is George M. Cohan, forever giving his regards to Broadway.

In 1909, a 50-foot statue of Purity was erected here. It lasted two months.

West:

New York Marriott Marquis

1535 (block): When this glitzy mammoth was built in 1981-85—the first major new hotel in Times Square in 75 years—it destroyed five classic theaters: the Astor, Bijou, Gaiety, Morosco and the old Helen Hayes. (It did add one new one—the Marquis.) This wanton destruction led to a wave of landmarking in the Theater District.

The design is by John Portman, noted for similar hotels around the country. The atrium/elevator column is pretty spectacular, I have to admit.

The facade of the hotel features a huge electronic sign for Bank of America, and an enormous ad for Kodak. See a 360-degree panoramic photo.

In the movie True Lies, Arnold Schwarzenegger rides a horse on this building and almost falls off the edge.

1537 (corner): The Astor Theatre, which opened on this corner in 1906, showed both films and legit theater. Gone With the Wind premiered here in 1939; other films that debuted here include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, On the Waterfront, Rebel Without a Cause and The Apartment. In 1948, Babe Ruth made his final public appearance here, to attend the premiere of The Babe Ruth Story.

T
I
M
E
S

S
Q
U
A
R
E

East:

1550 (corner): Digital Cameras & Computers

Bertelsmann Building

North of the Megastore, from 2000-02, was Bar Code, a combination club/video arcade.

At the southwest corner of the Bertelsmann Building is the Times Square branch of Planet Hollywood. Formerly the Official All Star Cafe, a sports-themed restaurant.

West:

Astor Plaza

1515 (block): Best known as the location of MTV's studios, this 1969 Kahn & Jacobs building was allowed to grow to 50 floors because it added theatrical space—The Minskoff, named for the skyscraper's developer. (Pippin, Sunset Boulevard and The Scarlet Pimpernel had their debuts here.) On the ground floor are Element clothing, Billabong Surf Shop and the MTV Store.

The building replaced its namesake, the Astor Hotel, a well-loved Times Square landmark. Built in 1904 by William Waldorf Astor, the hotel housed such celebrity residents as Toscanini, Will Rogers, Jimmy Durante and Carmen Miranda. It was here, according to Cole Porter, that Mimsie Starr got pinched in the Astor Bar.

T
I
M
E
S

S
Q
U
A
R
E

East:

1528 (corner): A Swatch outlet

This block has long been famous for its signage— from 1936 until 1942, Wrigley's had a block-long sign here featuring giant neon fish and the "Wrigley's Spearman." This was replaced, from 1948 to 1954, by the Bond Clothiers sign, a neon spectacular that featured two 7-story nude figures (later clothed in neon after complaints from the Hotel Astor) and an actual waterfall with 50,000 gallons of recirculating water. Pepsi took over the spot, turning the giants into giant bottles, and an illuminated clock into a bottlecap. Today the site features relatively mundane ads for Liz Claiborne and Jockey underwear.

The building below the sign has been known as the Bond Building (after the clothing store) and the Bow-Tie Building (for its peculiar Times Square shape). In the 1980s, there was a large disco called Bond's here.

From 1895 until 1935, this was the site of Oscar Hammerstein's Olympia Theater, the first theater above 42nd Street. The huge complex sat 6,000 people—too big to survive being too early for Times Square's heyday. The rooftop garden, the Jardin de Paris, was the first home of the Ziegfeld Follies.

1520 (corner): Site of a Toys "R" Us superstore, noted for its interior ferris wheel and animatronic dinosaur. See images. It replaced the Criterion Theater (at 1514 Broadway), a movie palace that hosted the premieres of blockbusters like The Ten Commandments, Lawrence of Arabia and Patton. Demolished in 2000 to make room for the toy store, which itself moved out in 2015, replaced by Gap and Old Navy.

West:

Paramount Building

1501 (block): Built for the film company in 1927; the step-like setbacks are intended to resemble the mountain on the Paramount logo. Here was the Paramount Theater, which was Frank Sinatra's home base in the early 1940s, and a Beatles venue in 1964; the space was later the WWE New York, a wrestling-themed restaurant. It's now the Hard Rock Cafe, the theme restaurant that started them all; this one was christened in 2005 with the smashing of 100 guitars. On the northern end of the block is the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., named for the business in Forrest Gump. (Boy, I hated that movie.)

The superhero Captain Marvel was born on the 22nd floor here in 1940, in the offices of Fawcett Comics.

This was earlier the site of the Putnam Building, which was used as a base by racketeer Kid Dropper. Involved in a gang war with another mob leader, the Kid was shot and killed while being sent out of town with an escort of 80 cops.

The Paramount Building has pre-recorded chimes that play "Give My Regards to Broadway" at 7:45 p.m. every day to remind theatergoers that it's 15 minutes until curtain.

T
I
M
E
S

S
Q
U
A
R
E

East:

Times Square Studios

1500 (block): This holds the set of ABC's Good Morning America, and for Dick Clark's New Year's Eve broadcasts. ABC News runs a zipper here.

Corner: The northern end of the block used to be the Hotel Rector, later known as the Hotel Claridge. From 1941 to 1966, it displayed the famous Camel sign that blew real smoke rings. The hotel was home and office for a time to mob boss Lucky Luciano; it also housed director D.W. Griffith while his upstate estate was being built. The music-writers group ASCAP was founded here in 1914 with members like John Philip Sousa, Irving Berlin and Victor Herbert. John Voight and Dustin Hoffman stayed there in Midnight Cowboy.

In the middle of the block was Rector's, a Gay '90s "lobster palace" that was a favorite with Diamond Jim Brady—Charles Rector called him his "best 25 customers." New York's first revolving door was installed here in 1899. Torn down in 1899 to make way for the hotel.

Corner: The southeast corner of the block (where the JVC globe is today) was the site of the Barrett House Hotel, where playwright Eugene O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888, while his father was in town playing The Count of Monte Cristo.

West:

At the tip of this block is a small NYPD substation.

One Times Square

It was Longacre Square until the New York Times shockingly moved its offices from Newspaper Row downtown to what was then the edge of town, suddenly made accessible by subway. (It replaced the Pabst Hotel on the site.) Building an Italian Renaissance castle on the spot, the paper got the city to rename first the subway stop and then the square after itself.

The paper celebrated moving in on New Year's Eve, 1904, with a fireworks display—starting the tradition of Times Square as the place to be on December 31. The ball, which used to drop from Trinity Church downtown, has been dropping from here since 1908. The Times moved off the Square in 1913, but the name stuck.

The world's first illuminated news ticker (dubbed the "Motogram") circles the building; it got its start reporting the 1928 election returns. (Hoover won.) Its announcement of Japan's surrender set off Times Square's famous celebration of the end of World War II.

The tower was modernized by new owners Allied Chemical, who moved out in 1975. Since then the building has mostly been a place to put giant signs. The ground floor was a Warner Brothers store for a while.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Conde Nast Building

1520 (block): This building, unhelpfully known as "4 Times Square," houses the offices of the Conde Nast publishing empire (Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Wired, etc.). The building, designed by Fox & Fowle and built from 1996-99, is praised for letting its freak flag fly on Times Square while presenting a more sober facade on the newly respectable 42nd Street.

The northwest corner of the building is the Blade Runner-esque NASDAQ display. The exchange, which is the successor to Wall Street's Curb Exchange, has a PR outpost here; its real headquarters are still downtown, at One Liberty Plaza.

The southwest corner is the ESPN Zone sports-themed restaurant.

The architect says he was inspired by Nathan's, which used to have an Art Deco restaurant on the northwest corner—originally Toffenetti's, built for the 1939 World's Fair.

West:

Times Square Subway Station

It features a large mural by Roy Liechtenstein, among other art. The Cricket in Times Square is set in a newsstand here.

Uptown:
1/9/A to 59th Street
2/3 to 72nd Street
N/R to 57th Street
C/E to 50th Street

Downtown:
1/2/3/9 to 34th Street
N/R to 34th Street
A/C/E to 34th Street

Crosstown:
7 to 5th Avenue
S to Grand Central

Times Square Tower

1459 (block): This 47-floor office building (2001-03) was supposed to house the headquarters of Arthur Andersen, but the Enron scandal scuttled the deal. Has the fake and confusing address of 7 Times Square.

The Times Square Brewery, a post-Disneyfication microbrewery, used to be on this site; it had a half-scale model of a Concorde on its roof.

Earlier it was the location of the Heidelberg Building, aka the Crossroads Building, a white elephant from its 1910 construction until its 1984 demolition. Built with an 11-story tower atop a seven-floor base, it was meant primarily as a platform for ads, but would-be advertisers pointed out that you had to be blocks from the crowds in Times Square to see the tower. Plans over the years to transform in into a hotel, an auto showroom or a taller office tower fizzled over the years. It had its greatest moment of glory in 1912, when Harry Houdini escaped from a straitjacket while being suspended over the edge of the building.

Prior to that, the Hotel Metropole was on this block.

1457: Also in the building was XS, a virtual reality and lazer tag arcade—now defunct.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Former Knickerbocker Hotel

1466 (corner): Built between 1901 and 1906 for John Jacob Astor IV, this Renaissance Eclectic structure was once one of the city's most fashionable hotels, housing celebreties like George M. Cohan and Enrico Caruso, who used to serenade fans from the balcony of his suite. The hotel's King Cole Bar was noted for its Maxfield Parrish mural, which now graces a bar of the same name at the St. Regis Hotel.

It later became known as the Newsweek Building when it housed the newsweekly's offices. Now I guess it's officially Six Times Square.

Monk Eastman, the famous gang leader, was captured here by police while having a shoot-out with a Pinkerton detective; the 10 years he got spelled the end of his power in the underworld.

1460 (corner): Siemens Building

West:

1441 (corner): Cool ziggurat-like building houses offices of the fashion company Liz Claiborne.

1431 (corner): The address of the Poodle Dog, a restaurant/cabaret opened in 1913.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1450 (corner): This 1931 building houses Walt Disney Theatrical Productions and Nederlander Producing, among other tenants. Cafe Duke is on the ground floor.

1440 (corner): Here Federated Department Stores, owners of Macy's, Bloomingdale's and other retail giants, has its headquarters. Here also for 79 years were the studios of WOR radio, a historic station founded in 1922 that launched Golden Age programs like The Lone Ranger and Superman. For 75 years the station (whose call letters stand for ''Orpheus Radio'') broadcast Rambling With Gambling, a morning show continued by its founder's son and grandson. Much of the station's airtime is now devoted to far-right hosts like Bob Grant and Michael Savage. The station moved downtown in 2005.

West:

1411 (block): This block was home to the Metropolitan Opera House from 1883 until 1966. Built by Gilded Age businessmen like William Vanderbilt who were denied boxes at the Academy of Music on 14th Street, it soon eclipsed the older venue as the central stage of New York society (as depicted in Edith Wharton's Custom of the Country). It saw the American debuts of Enrico Caruso (11/23/1903), who performed here 861 times, and Vaslav Nijinsky (4/12/1916). After Dorothy Parker was fired from Vanity Fair, she and Robert Benchley rented an office here for writing—so small, Benchley said, that one cubic foot less "would have constituted adultery."

Sculptor Karl Bitter was struck by a car and killed leaving the opera here on April 9, 1915, the day he completed the model for the Pulitzer Fountain.

The beloved house was doomed by the Metropolitan Opera company, which insisted, when it moved to Lincoln Center, that the building's buyer tear it down so that a rival opera company could not use it.

It was replaced with the World Apparel Center. With more than a million square feet of space, this block-spanning 1970 building is touted as the premier showroom for the Fashion District.

There's a triangular space in front of the current building called Golda Meir Square—with a bust of the Israeli prime minister at the southern end.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1430 (corner):

1418: The Kaiserhof Restaurant opened here in 1914.

1412: The Europa Cafe

1412 (corner): The Fashion Gallery Building has the Gotham Bank of New York on the ground floor.

West:

1407 (block): This building houses (among other things) the restaurant Abigael's on Broadway, Harrie's Delicatessen & Bakery, Peter's Flowers (since 1937) and Via Rossi shoes.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1410 (corner): Where the Andrews Coffee Shop is now was the Casino Theater (1882-1929), said to be the best example of Moorish architecture in the country. It was the first theater with a roof garden, the first to be entirely lit by electricity, and the first to feature a chorus line—the Floradora Girls, who included Evelyn Nesbit, over whom Harry K. Thaw murdered Stanford White.

The X-ray machine was demonstrated here in 1896— as a curiosity billed as the "Parisian Sensation."

The current building is the Bricken Casino Building, a 1929 effort by Eli Jacques Kahn noted for its inventive use of setbacks" and its "blade-like precision and grace."

1400 (corner): On the site of the old Knickerbocker Theater can be found the New Yankee Cafe and the Israel-based Leumi Bank (founded by Theodor Herzl). This building was also designed by Eli Jacques Kahn. In 1919 this was the address of Young India, the publication of the India Home Rule League of America.

West:

1385 (corner): Gideon's Drugs

1375 (corner): The home of Broadway's Jerusalem 2 Kosher Pizza & Falafel

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1384 (corner): Lefcourt Normandie Building, built by Garment District developer Abraham Lefcourt, on the site of the Hotel Normandie. Tchaikovsky stayed there in the spring of 1891 to inaugurate Carnegie Hall. Nick and Nora Charles also stayed here in the novel The Thin Man.

The Lefcourt Normandie National Bank of New York, founded in 1928, after a series of mergers and name changes became Chemical (now Chase) Bank.

Beads World, a Garment District supplier, can be found here now.

1372 (corner): Includes Mr. Broadway Glatt Kosher cafe and Another Good Location deli.

West:

1369 (corner): Showroom of Ecko Unltd., hip-hop clothing line with the rhino logo.

1359 (corner): Lefcourt Marlboro Building provides space for Kosher Delight, Eurovision Optical and Food Merchants.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1370 (corner): Rosenthal & Rosenthal, financial services for the apparel industry since 1938.

Haier Building

1356 (corner): Built 1922-24 for the Greenwich Savings Bank and later used by Republic National Bank, this striking landmark surrounded by Corinthian columns is now the New York headquarters of the Haier Group, China's leading refrigerator manufacturer. Inside is Gotham Hall, a dramatic domed space often used for fashion shows.

West:

1333 (block): The Johnson Building's ground floor is mostly occupied by Conway Herald Square, "some of Herald Square's cheapest threads"—Time Out. The Marlborough-Blenheim hotel used to be at No. 1353.

Corner: The site of the New York Aquarium from 1876 to 1883. Later there was a theater variously called the New Park, Harrigan's and the Herald Square.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1350 (corner): Herald Square Building contains an HSBC bank. The entire block was once the site of the New York Herald Building, a two-story Venetian palace built in 1893 by McKim, Mead and White and housing the paper that now lives on only in the International Herald Tribune. Demolished 1921, but its name remains in the square to its south.

The southern end of the block is a Florsheim shoe outlet.

West:

Macy's

Since 1902, this has been the location of the famous department store founded by Capt. Rowland Hussey Macy, a former whaling captain whose red star tattoo is still the store's symbol (and a whale is still used in sale ads). With expansions to take up (almost) the entire block, this still holds the record for the world's largest store.

Macy's claims credit for such innovations as standardized sizes (1934), colored bath towels (1932), the tea bag (1912), the baked potato (1926) and the department store Santa (1870)—the latter claim to fame cemented by the 1947 classic Miracle on 34th Street, set at the store.

Another holiday tradition is Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, first thrown in 1924 by immigrant employees in imitation of European street processions. (The balloons were added in 1927.) Macy's is also responsible for New York's July 4th fireworks.

The one part of the block not owned by Macy's is, ironically, the southeast corner with the enormous "Macy's" sign on it. When Macy's was buying up the block, competitor Henry Siegel of the Siegel-Cooper department store snatched up the corner— perhaps to leverage Macy's into selling Siegel-Cooper its old space on 14th Street. Macy's simply built around the holdout, and now leases the space above for its giant ad. Currently the corner itself is a Sunglasses Hut.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Herald Square

As in, "Remember me at..." Named for the New York Herald, a racist, antisemitic newspaper founded by James Gordon Bennett whose offices were directly to the north of this triangle. The paper introduced such features as the gossip column and stock market coverage. It later merged with the New York Tribune; the International Herald-Tribune is the surviving relic.

The clock and statuary, crafted in 1895 by Jean-Antonie Carles, are from the old Herald building; the goddess is Minerva, complete with owls, and the bellringers, which swing their hammers on the hour, are nicknamed Stuff and Guff.

West:

Herald Center

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Herald Towers

1300 (block): AKA McAlpin House; built as the Hotel McAlpin in 1913, at the time the largest hotel in New York; noted for its "silent floor" for the nocturnal. Converted to apartments in 1979; the murals of New York Harbor in the hotel's Marine Grill were removed and installed in the Fulton Street subway stop. Claims the dubious distinction of housing the highest-grossing Gap outlet in the country.

West:

Greeley Square

This triangular square is named for Horace Greeley, the founder of the New York Tribune. Though chiefly remembered as the guy who said "Go west, young man" (which was not actually his line), Greeley was actually one of the most influential journalists in American history.

An advocate of social reform (Karl Marx was a European correspodent), Greeley supported abolition, worker's rights and (yes) Western settlement. As a reporter covering Congress in 1855, he was given a concussion by the cane of pro-slavery House Speaker Albert Rust. He helped found the Republican Party and was instrumental in making Abraham Lincoln the 1860 candidate. Surprisingly, he was the 1872 Democratic candidate for president; he was trounced by U.S. Grant and died a month later.

The statue of Greeley in a chair is an 1890 work by Alexander Doyle. The square was dedicated in 1894.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1270-1280 (corner): The Wilson Building, 1912, houses Cambridge Members clothing store, founded 1966.

Hotel Martinique

1270 (corner): Built from 1897-1911 and named for its owner, William R.H. Martin. Designed in French Renaissance style by Henry Hardenbergh, architect of The Plaza and The Dakota.

It went through a bad spell in the 1970s and '80s as a forbidding homeless shelter; refurbished by the Holiday Inn chain, it's now part of the Radisson family. The restaurant on the corner, Diner on the Square, has closed.

West:

1271 (cor- ner): Speedy's deli restaurant

1265: Olden Camera

1255 (corner): Porox, wholesale outlet in a handsome 11-story building from 1909. This seems to have been the headquarters of the Empire State Bank.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1250 (block): Big oddly-angled glass tower housed Woori America, a Korean bank, from 1982 until 2015. (32nd Street is the heart of New York's Koreatown.) The building is being rebranded as Nomad Tower On the southwestern corner was Style & Smile, a large wholesale outlet.

Previously on this lot was the Imperial Hotel, very fashionable when it opened in 1890.

West:

1239: Fair Deal is on the site of the Brighton Theater, which opened in 1878; later the Bijou. Demolished and rebuilt in 1883; demolished and moved uptown in 1915. The present 17-story highrise dates to 1917.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1232-1238 (corner): Was the Grand Hotel (1868), once one of New York's grandest accomodations. Now home to wholesale joints like Design Time Watch Inc. Note the mansard roof, a French affectation that allowed Parisians, whose buildings were limited by stories, to pretend that their top floor was an attic. A thoughtless owner painted over the marble facade, in violation of the landmark law.

1226 (corner): Decent Trading Inc. is on the site of Wallack's Theater, which moved up from 13th Street in 1881.

West:

Virgin Hotel

1225: Thirty-eight stories of crazy cantilever, designed by Stantec and scheduled to be completed in 2020.

In 1930, this was the address of the monthly American Hatter.

1221: The address of Wood's Museum, an early burlesque house that featured Lydia Thompson and her British Blondes in 1868. Later Daly's Theater, a highly regarded company. Became a movie house in 1915, torn down in 1920.

1217: The address of Dick Darling's saloon, where on November 7, 1881, forger/thief Billy Tracey shot and killed Charles P. Miller, king of the bunco men. Miller had previously shot and wounded Tracey in Tracey's own saloon.

1205 (corner): Before demolition for the hotel, this was Tomato Import & Wholesale.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1216 (corner): Perfume Americana

1204: India Handicrafts and Jewelry is at the address of Shanley's, a popular ''lobster palace'' opened in 1912. Composer Victor Herbert sued the restaurant for playing his music without paying royalties, a case that went to the Supreme Court in 1917 and resulted in a victory for songwriters.

Gilsey House

1200 (corner): This beautifully restored cast-iron Second Empire landmark is a former grand hotel (1872-1911), the first to offer telephone service to guests. Noted for its bar made of silver dollars, it was a favorite of Diamond Jim Brady and Oscar Wilde. Converted to housing in 1979. The ground floor is now occupied by wholesalers like New York Sunglasses and Hair Accessories.

West:

1201 (corner): Building with Peace Trading and European Frangrances has a cool jungley bas relief strip.

Ritz-Carlton Nomad

1185 (corner): The first Ritz-Carlton was opened in the United States in 1911, at Madison and 46th — named for the Ritz in Paris and London's Carlton Hotel. It was demolished in 1951, but the brand returned to New York City in 1988, with two successive locations on Central Park South. This 40-story building, designed by Rafael Vinoly, will be the first hotel in New York built as a Ritz-Carlton since the original. Supposed to be ready by 2021.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Ace Hotel

1186 (corner): Opening in 1904 as the Hotel Breslin (designed by Clinton & Russell), it was noted in its heyday for attracting boxers like Joe Louis and Gene Tunney fighting at Madison Square Garden. In 1951, an 83-year-old W.E.B. du Bois was arrested here for running the anti-Korean War Peace Information Center. Later the Breslin Apartments, an SRO that fell victim to gentrification. Now a cool hotel with rooms ranging from shared bunks to high-end "loft suites."

Previously on this site was Sturtevant House, where on June 2, 1873, novelist (and accused Confederate spy) Mansfield Walworth was shot to death by his son for making threats against the son's mother.

1182-1184: Centurian Building houses Broadway Linen, Silver by Fenix.

1180: Designer's Mart, where you can get a string of pearls for $10.

1178: Young Town Jewelry

West:

1181 (corner): Clover Trading Corp. is in the Baudouine Building (1896); note Greek temple on roof.

This is the Wholesale District, where shops get their stuff from. Supposedly most of these places will sell to the public if you ask nicely, but do you really want to own this stuff?

1165-1175: Was the Coleman House Hotel, built 1907—note Chicago School-style bay windows. Housed such wholesale outlets as Fashion City, Lavish International, Manhattan Street Wear and Over Mars Ltd.—but after a 2019 renovation, it will likely have more upscale tenants.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

The NoMad

1170 (corner): Hotel named for the neighborhood North of Madison Square — a designation that was much less commonly used when the hotel opened in 2012. The building it occupies is the Johnston Building, a 1903 13-story structure by Schickel & Ditmars built for Caroline H. Johnston, a German lawyer. Note lions' heads, dome on roof.

1158 (corner): Cha Cha Matcha, selling a beverage made from pulverized green tea, is in a peculiar red-and-black vertically striped building. It used to hold wholesale shops like Source USA, Omi Perfume and Undefeated Wear—Lita Trading seems to be the last of these.

West:

1157 (corner): Broadway Plaza Hotel is in a fairly nondescript modern-looking building that actually dates to 1920; Broadway Pizza's on the ground floor.

1153: Three Kings Trading is on the site of Holland Brothers' Kinetoscope Parlor, the world's first movie house— where Edison's hand-cranked movies were first shown on April 6, 1894. Built on the site of the studio of John Rogers, a popular 19th Century sculptor.

1151: In front of this address, until 1880, stood the Varian Tree, named for the farm family whose land this once was. An old sign used to boast that the present building was once the nation's only distributer of Maxell batteries.

1149: Was Wallace & Co., according to the rusticated facade of this 1886 rowhouse by DeLemos & Cordes.

1147: Star Sportswear

1145: Lucky Trading/Broadway Boutique Trading

1141 (corner): Flatiron Hotel opened in 2011, run by Toshi Chan, an actor who became a pirate hotelier before going legit. Toshi's Penthouse is the rooftop bar; there used to be a live music venue, Toshi's Living Room, on the ground floor. But I think the future of the whole place is in doubt.

Before the hotel Zena Coffee Shop, Fortuna Jewelry were here.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1150 (corner): The Victoria Building is on the site of the Victoria Hotel, where President Grover Cleveland lived between his two separated terms of office. The present 19-story building, a 1914 effort by Schwartz & Gross, houses the X-Tensions wholesale hair dealer (formerly Sportique), and the National Tree Company (Christmas trees, that is).

1140 (corner): Ground floor of the 1915 Lowell Building has The Little Beet (mostly vegetarian), Vin Sur Vingt Wine Bar on the ground floor. (The wine bar's name is a pun on "vingt sur vingt," meaning 20 out of 20—a perfect score.) Arnold Joseph, a bookstore for railroad fans, used to be upstairs here.

West:

St. James Building

1133 (corner): This 1897 office building provided offices for architects, including its designer, Bruce Price, and the Flatiron's Daniel Burnham. Oscar F. Spate had his office here when in 1901 he made an ill-fated attempt to turn seating in Madison and Central parks into a for-profit enterprise. Future Israeli prime minister Golda Meir worked here for the Pioneer Women's Organization for Palestine (1932-34). From 1965 to 1968, this was the base of the Mattachine Society, the leading pre-Stonewall gay rights group.

Built on the site of the fashionable St. James Hotel, which Confederate saboteurs tried to burn down on November 25, 1864.

On the corner is La Pecora Bianca ("The White Sheep"), Italian cafe. Next door is Rizzoli Bookstore, a celebrated bookshop specializing in art books and foreign titles. It was on 5th Avenue from 1964 until 1989, and on 57th Street from 1985 until 2014. This branch has been open since 2015. The founder, Angelo Rizzoli, was a publisher and producer of films—notably La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2. The majority owner of the store now is the Berlusconi family.

Upstairs is Photo Village, a high-end camera boutique.

1123 (corner): The Townsend Building, a 12-story 1898 highrise designed by Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz, houses Hill Country Chicken. The Broadway Cafe, next door, is closed.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Corner (212 5th Ave): This 21-story neo-Gothic building, designed by Schwartz & Gross, went up in 1913; the FX cable channel was here in the 1990s. In 2019 the three-story penthouse was bought by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (along with two other apartments in the building), despite his cancellation of plans to build a second Amazon HQ in Queens.

1132: Dramatic bay windows and over-the-top detailing mark the Cross Chambers Building, a 1901 project of John B. Snook & Sons. On the ground floor is Wagamama, a British-based Asian fusion chain.

1130: Was Broadway Deals & Electronics, earlier Yedsonic, in a seven-story 1915 building

1126: Memories of New York, elaborate souvenir shop. On the 3rd floor of the 5-story red-brick building used to be Urban Angler, fishing gear.

1124: Most of the facade of this 1913 building is taken up by a larged arched window. Houses Pentagram, an international design company that has done work for the Public Theater, the Mesa Grill and the New York Times Magazine, among other clients. Used to be MK, a 1980s nightclub where Moby played his first live electronic gig in 1989.

1122 (corner): Showroom for Porcelanosa, Spanish ceramic tile maker founded in 1973. Was Commodore-Criterion, manufacturer of Christmas decorations—part of the Christmas District. The building, a Buchman & Kahn design from 1918, was earlier the flagship store (with Hall of Science) of the A.C. Gilbert Company, a toy company that made the Erector set, radioactive chemistry sets and American Flyer model trains. Built on the site of Worth House, a hotel that by 1900 housed the Berlitz School of Languages.

West:

1115 (corner): 40/40 Club, Jay-Z's sports-oriented nightclub, is named for the elite group of ballplayers who have hit 40 homeruns and stolen 40 bases in a season. Was Liu Imports, Chinese antiques. The building, which dates to 1912, is calling itself Toy Tower 25.

On this site was Hoffman House, elegant hotel whose bar shocked Victorian NYC by displaying Bouguereau's Nymphs and Satyr — which became a major tourist attraction. The painting belonged to Edward S. Stokes, an owner of the Hoffman, who had spent time in Sing-Sing for shooting financier Jim Fisk, his rival for singer Josie Mansfield's affections. Publisher William Randolph Hearst lived at the Hoffman when he first came to NYC in 1895. Other prominent guests included Buffalo Bill Cody and Sarah Bernhardt. In 1901, the bar posted private detectives at every entrance during ax-wielding prohibitionist Carry Nation's visit to New York.

1111: Kurt S. Adler, aka, Santa's World, Christmas wholesaler since 1946, moved to 34th Street in 2006.

Toy Center North

1107 (cor- ner): Note sky- walk con- necting to Toy Center South (see below). Built in 1911, replacing the Albemarle Hotel; Sarah Bernhardt stayed there when she made her U.S. debut in 1880, her room redecorated in Parisian style to remind her of home. Lillie Langtry stayed in the same suite on her first U.S. visit, in 1882, but on opening night watched the theater burn down through opera glasses from the hotel. ( See below.)

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Worth Square

Memorial to Gen. William Jenkins Worth, namesake of Ft. Worth, Texas and downtown's Worth Street. After fighting in the War of 1812, he became commandant of cadets at West Point. During the Seminole Wars, he pioneered the targeting of civilian populations and the use of starvation as a tool of warfare.

Fighting in the Mexican-American War, he led the capture of Mexico City, and was given command of the newly conquered territories of Texas and New Mexico. He died of cholera in San Antonio, 1849, and was buried here in 1857.

The rectangular structure leads to Water Tunnel No. 1, carrying water from the Catskills.

West:

International Toy Center

(Block (200 5th Ave): International Toy Center, since 1925 the center of U.S. toy business; note toy and holiday displays. The LA Cafe is on the ground floor. On the corner, you can still make out a sign for the Garfield National Bank, which was around from 1881-1929 before merging with the Chase National Bank.

In The Sweet Smell of Success, it serves as the offices of The New York Globe, J.J. Hunsecker's newspaper.

Replaced the Fifth Avenue Hotel (1858-1908), once the most exclusive hotel in NYC; presidents Grant and Arthur, as well as the Prince of Wales, stayed here. It was a gathering place for fat cats like Boss Tweed, Jay Gould, Jim Fisk and Commodore Vanderbilt, who would would trade stocks here after hours. A Republican bastion, it was here that the Democrats were first described as the party of "rum, Romanism and rebellion." But it was also a hangout for cultural figures like Mark Twain, O. Henry, Edwin Booth, Jenny Lind, William Cullen Bryant and Stanford White. It was used as the setting of Gore Vidal's 1876.

Earlier on this site was Franconi's Hippodrome (1852-59); before that was Corporal Thompson's Madison Cottage, a roadhouse described by the New York Herald as "one of the most agreeable spots for an afternoon's lounge in the suburbs of our city." It had been the house of John Horn, who used to own what is now Madison Square Park.

Note the 1909 side- walk clock, a once- common sight in the pre- wrist- watch era.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Madison Square Park

The 1807 plan set aside 240 acres in this vicinity as The Parade, to be used for military training. In that same year, the U.S. Arsenal was built here to defend the strategic intersection of the Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and the Eastern Post Road. By 1814, when the park was named Madison Square after the then-current president, it had been reduced to 90 acres. In 1847, when Madison Square Park was opened, less than seven acres remained.

The park, which was laid out in its current form in 1870, was the center of New York society in the 1860s and '70s. "The vicinity of Madison Square is the brightest, prettiest and liveliest portion of the great city," James McCabe wrote in 1872.

In July 1901, an attempt to turn seating in the park into a for-profit concession sparked rioting.

The park provides a setting for O. Henry short stories like "The Cop and the Anthem" and "The Sparrows in Madison Square").

The U.S. Arsenal was converted by 1824 to the House of Refuge of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents—the first such institution in the country.

Eternal Light

Statue of William Seward

An early abolitionist who became NY governor (1838-42) and a U.S. senator (1848-61), Seward served as secretary of state under Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He's most remembered for paying Russia $7 million for Alaska in 1867.

Making the statue in 1876, sculptor Randolph Rogers re-used his cast of Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation for the body; Seward was actually short with a large head.

West:

Flatiron Building

Built in 1903 as the Fuller Building, its unusual and striking shape (designed by Daniel Burhnam to match its triangular lot) quickly earned it its lasting nickname. It is not true that it is New York's first skyscraper— just one of its most memorable. A traditional publishing center, it's still home to St. Martin's Press. In 1910s, it housed the offices of the Socialist Labor Party, ancestor of most U.S. left parties. It features in the Spider-Man movies as the Daily Bugle building, and Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak are teleported here in Bell, Book and Candle.

The ground floor features parfumerie Jo Malone, and MAC, cosmetics chain worn by RuPaul and sung about by TLC.

The phrase "23 Skidoo" (supposedly) originated with a police officer chasing off loiterers at the 23rd Street corner hoping to catch a glimpse of stocking under a skirt blown up by the freakish Flatiron winds.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Madison Green

940 (block): This very large luxury condo building (with Benvenuto Cafe on the ground) was built after the Wonder Drugs Fire of October 17, 1966, which killed 12 firefighters—the worst disaster in FDNY history, until the World Trade Center attacks. An earlier fire (January 5, 1952) at No. 2 E. 23rd Street, which was then the address at this corner, destroyed the studio (and much of the work) of sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. The Bartholdi Hotel was found at the corner of 23rd and Broadway in 1911.

West:

Albert Building

935- 939 (cor- ner): The build- ing that houses Re- nais- sance Hard- ware was built in 1861-62 as the Glenham Hotel by architect Griffith Thomas. Also known as the Albert or Mortimer Building. On the Broadway side, remains of letters that once spelled out "ALBERT" can be seen. According to City Reads, this building once housed the saloon of Dr. Jerry Thomas, master mixologist (for whom the Tom and Jerry was named). Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., son of the Commodore, shot himself here on April 2, 1882, after a night of drinking and gambling.

929-933: Former site of M. Gordon Novelty Inc.—last remainder of Broadway's former Novelty District. These three-story tenements date from 1902.

927: Bang & Olufson, high-end audio and video, is in a 1910 building

921 (corner): Duxiana furniture was Victor Kamkin, Russian bookstore — in a 16-story building from 1918.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

936 (cor- ner): This was once the site of the Buck's Horn Tavern, which as long ago as 1816 was described as "an old and well-known tavern." Later the first bicycle-riding school opened on this site in 1868. Still later it was Abbey's Park Theater, where Lillie Langtry's American debut was scuttled by the theater burning down on October 30, 1882. Present building built for Brooks Brothers in 1883—it's been modernized since. Until recently housed Domain interiors, a casualty of the 2008 housing bust; Just Bulbs, which sold light bulbs, also used to be here, prompting a David Letterman routine where he tried to get them to sell him something that was not a bulb.

928: Obica Mozzarella Bar (formerly Bar Stuzzichini) is on the first of 12 floors from 1910, designed by William H. Birkmire.

924: Weirdly modernized black building used to house Eneslow, shoe store whose name seemed to spell something backwards, even though it didn't.

922 (corner): 21 Berry Deli's (formerly Shine Deli's) short, mansard-roofed building looks like it was built a lot earlier than 1925.

West:

915 (corner): A castle-like 20-story building from 1926, designed by Joseph Martine. On the ground is the restaurant/club Strata, formerly Metronome, swanky jazz restaurant that appeared as "Balzac" in the TV show Sex and the City. Upstairs is the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine's clinic. On this site was the Park & Tilford grocery house.

913: Punch Bar & Grill, snazzy bar with dangerous- looking sign, in a 1910 rowhouse. Upstairs bar, Wine Up, used to be Eau, a bar with a waterfall in the window.

911: Metropolitan Design Center was Ferdossi Rugs, 1905-2004. Expanded from No. 909 next door.

Warren Building

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

920 (corner): A 1916 building with 16 floors houses Flying Tiger, Lunetta, Italian-American (with a Brooklyn older sibling) that replaced the long-running neo-diner Mayrose. Also at this address is also Zaro's Bakery, local chain founded in 1927— formerly See interior design. Upstairs is the ICF Group, which stands for International Contract Furnishings—est. 1962.

906-908 (corner): Was B. Shackman & Co., a novelty company. Now houses Safavieh oriental rugs; the flagship of the Jennifer Convertibles sofabed chain is currently vacant. Previously at this corner was the Continental Hotel.

West:

Lord & Taylor Building

901 (Corner): A whimsical cast-iron Bohemian Renaissance building (James H. Giles, architect) that was Lord & Taylor's main store from 1873 to 1914. Current occupant Energie/Miss Sixty was Intermix, before that Villeroy & Boch china store. In the early 1990s, it housed a topless club.

895-899: ''Equinox Building'' houses the Equinox fitness club; it used to be part of the Lord & Taylor building, with the same cast-iron facade. It was redesigned by John H. Duncan to give it a neo-classical facade when Lord & Taylor moved to 38th Street in 1914.

893: Jennifer Leather sofas; Men's Suits New York

Gorham Building

889 (Corner): A somewhat spooky red-brick structure built in 1884 by the Gorham Manufacturing Co. as a silver factory, store and residences—an early example of mixed-use development. Owned by the Goelet family, whose mansion was up the block. Now houses Fishs Eddy, which sells virtually indestructible china—the name is an upstate town where the owners used to buy a lot of antiques.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Goelet Building

900 (corner): This orangish structure is another Stanford White design, erected in 1886 on the site of the old Goelet mansion, the last such house on Broadway—a gloomy place haunted by peacocks. The top five floors of the present building are an ill-conceived addition. Home of Beecher's Handmade Cheese — restaurant and artisanal factory. Was Bombay Co., Metropolitan Carpet Gallery; also houses craftbar, formerly the wine bar Morrells.

890-892 (corner): Lawrence A. Wein Center for Dance and Theater; houses American Ballet Theatre, a dance company founded 1939 whose artistic director from 1980 to 1990 was Mikhail Baryshnikov. (They're based here— they don't perform here.) Also home to Ballet Tech, the New York City Public School of Dance. Loews 19th Street cineplex is on the ground floor. From 1899 until c. 1920, No. 890 was the address of McLoughlin Bros., pioneering children's book and game company.

West:

Arnold Constable Building

881-887 (corner): ABC Carpets' rug department was the Arnold Constable department store (1869-1914), with a mansard roof worthy of the Addams Family; founded by Aaron Arnold and son-in-law James Constable, the old store offered "Everything From Cradle to Grave." Carnegies, Rockefellers and Morgans were frequent customers here.

By buying and renovating this building (designed by Griffith Thomas), ABC pioneered the revitalization of Ladies' Mile in the 1960s.

873 (corner): More of the Constable building, though a different color; houses Om Factory yoga (formerly Kundalini Yoga East), Sit Down New York (formerly Broadway Futon) and New Andy's Deli.

The Constable store was built on the site of actor Edwin Booth's home (1862-65) at No. 28 E. 18th Street; his brother, fellow actor and assassin John Wilkes Booth, often stayed with him here.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

ABC Carpets & Home

888 (corner): Fascinating furniture store in a beautiful red-brick-and-chocolate building; frequently featured on Sex and the City. Was W & J Sloane (1881- 1912), a carpet store that introduced oriental rugs to NYC; it carpeted the Waldorf-Astoria, the coronation of Czar Nicholas II and the homes of New York's elite. W(illiam) Sloane was the foreman of the jury that convicted Boss Tweed in 1873.

876: This quite lovely red-brick-and-cream building has fascinating detailing: workmen's tools—or Masonic symbols? Formerly ABC Carpets' annex, it's now home to Environment Furniture, which sells items made from recycled wood from Brazil's endangered Peroba tree.

McIntyre Building

874: Mattress Firm (formerly Sleepy's, Klein Sleep) is in this over-the-top 1892 tower by Robert H. Robertson; note name behind awning. When it was first built, until 1898, it was occupied by the children's publishers McLoughlin Bros. In the 1970s, the seventh floor was the illegal nightclub Cobra Club; for years, escaped snakes were found in the building.

West:

867-869: Paragon Sporting Goods, since 1908; the building, dating to 1882, was home to the pioneering sheet-music store Charles Ditson Co. In the crime novel Drowned Hope, Dortmunder buys scuba gear at Paragon to rob a submerged town.

865: J&S Imports—"Africa, India, Haiti, Spain"—is in a strongly detailed five-story.

863: True Religion

861: Steve Madden Shoes

859: Nicely restored three-story.

857 (corner): Pret a Manger branch was Tisserie, Venezuelan bakery/cafe; before that Union Square Deli. Painter Isabel Bishop's studio was on the fourth floor here (1934-44), helping to name the "14th Street School" of social realism.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

872 (corner): Hawes Building houses Fresh, organic soap chain; was Dynasty Deli.

870: Roast Kitchen was goodburger, local mini-chain; earlier Nicholas Reggae, Rastafarian paraphernalia (oils and such).

868: The Doc Martens store Was Java 'n' Jazz, cool coffeeshop.

866: Scotch & Soda, Amsterdam-based fashion

862: Was Errico Brothers, retailers of Florentine carved furniture.

860 (corner): Building that houses Petco was Andy Warhol's Factory from 1974 until the artist's 1987 death—though by this time he was calling it "the Office," having declared the "Factory" concept "too corny." From 1980-89, it also housed Underground, a new wave dance club featured in the movie Liquid Sky. (Around 1987, it changed its name to Union Square.)

The playground in Union Square is sometimes known as the Sand Playground. It underwent a revamping in 2008.

James Fountain

This 1881 work by Karl Adolph Donndorf, surmounted by a statue of Charity, was intended to promote temperance. ''Here's something else you can drink—water!'' was a popular anti-alcohol message.

Gandhi statue

This structure dates to 1932. There's been activism against "privatizing" this space, but there's been a for-profit business here for quite some time: In the warmer months, there's an outdoor cafe here called Luna Park, named for the legendary amusement park at Coney Island.

Abraham Lincoln Statue

Sponsored by the Union League Club and sculpted by Henry Kirke Brown in 1869. It used to be where the Gandhi statue is now, and it used to be surrounded by a fence inscribed ''with malice toward none; charity toward all'' from his Second Inaugural Address. Lincoln's body lay in state in Union Square on April 24, 1865, before being taken to City Hall.

Independence Flagstaff

Statue of Washington

Statue of Lafayette

By Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty; he made this statue to remind New York of Franco-American friendship as part of his campaign to raise money for Liberty's pedestal. Should be facing toward Washington, to whom Lafayette is offering his sword; as it is, he's more or less facing a tree.

West:

851 (corner): Shoe Mania is in a 29-story building from 1929 known as the Union Building. Previously here was the Union Place Hotel, later the Morton House and then the Hotel Churchill.

Earlier on this site was the home of Cornelius van Schaanck Roosevelt, Theodore's grandfather (and Eleanor's great-grandfather), who hosted celebrities like James Fennimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Louis Napoleon. Young Teddy watched Lincoln's funeral procession from a second-story window on April 25, 1865.

Roosevelt Building

839-841: Building with the Cosi cafe (formerly Xando Cosi) on the ground floor is named for Cornelius Roosevelt, who lived up the block. The rooftop was original site of Biograph Studios (1896-1908), which later made movie history on 14th Street. The building housed Cheap Jack's, a misnamed vintage clothing store.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

1 Union Square South

842 (block): Like most of the new buildings on this stretch of 14th, designed by Davis Brody Bond architects (1999). There was a Virgin Megastore here that was a key location in the zombie novel Monster Island; replaced by Nordstrom's. There was also a branch of the reprehensible Circuit City, bankrupted when the karma bill came— now a Best Buy.

The stuff on the wall, including steam and 24-hour clock (counting forward and backward), constitute an art piece called Metronome.

850: Site of Wallack's Theater, which Newland Archer attends in The Age of Innocence. Later at this site (as No. 842) were the offices of the Village Voice in the 1980s. The Union Square 14 multiplex is here now—in my experience, the cinema where movies are most likely to be sold out.

West:

835 (corner): This was the home of the Harvard Club of New York from 1866-87.

A strip of antique stores, including...

833: Universe Antiques

827-31: Howard Kaplan Antiques (bath fixtures a specialty) and Lions Antiques; the AIA Guide calls this "a truly magnificent pair of Italianate business buildings." Used to house Belle Epoque, a restaurant evoking the Gilded Age.

825: Chinese Art and Antiques— porcelain, jade, ivory. A century ago this was the address of the St. George Hotel.

821 (corner): No Difference shoes is in the former home of Forbidden Planet, when it was the greatest comic book store in town. Before 1981 it was the University Place Book Shop, which opened here in 1932. The 10-story building is an impressive prow-like red brick in the Rundbogenstil.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Forbidden Planet

840 (corner): Part of an international chain of comics stores. Gives out free boards-and-bags—for comic collecting. Used to have a great science-fiction section. Noted for its action figure selection. In a 12-story 1899 building.

836: Hyde Park Antiques, 18th Century English furniture is in a six-story mansard-roofed building.

832: Mavi Jeans (Turkish for "Blue") replaced Lawrence Michael Antiques, in an obsessively detailed building.

830: Detailing gets more hallucinatory as you go up. Used to house Philip Colleck of London. An automat opened here in 1902.

The Strand

828 (corner): Billed as the world's largest used bookstore with "18 miles of books," this store opened 1927 on 4th Avenue's Booksellers Row, and moved to this location in 1957. A recent renovation kept all that was cool about the place and removed much that was annoying.

West:

815: Abe's Antiques; Shala Yoga House, opened 2002

813: Simon Ross Antiques

Cast Iron Apartments

801 (corner): Was James McCreery & Co. dry goods, which opened here in 1869; it later moved to 23rd Street. Now Global Fine Repro, David Murray Collections.

799 (cor- ner): Was the St. Denis Hotel (1848- 1917), one of NYC's most elegant. Guests included Lincoln, Grant, P.T. Barnum, Sarah Bernhardt, Buffalo Bill Cody. Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone by calling Brooklyn from here in 1877. Now houses Far Eastern Antiques, Flores & Iva antiques, Bag House.

795: Was the offices of Grove Press, which helped fight censorship of literature by publishing Lady Chatterly's Lover and Tropic of Cancer.

791: Poet and art critic Frank O'Hara had an all-white loft here; this was his home when he was killed in 1966, run over by a beach buggy on Fire Island.

Brittany Hall

787: NYU dorm was formerly the Brittany Hotel, which has housed columnist Walter Winchell, actor Al Pacino and rocker Jerry Garcia. The penthouse, now a study lounge, was once a speakeasy. The ground floor features Broadway Windows, displays of often interesting student art.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

824 (corner): Proctor Galleries Fine Antiques is in Hewlett House, a 1963 white-brick building.

820: Bon Vivant Diner is in a building that was uglified in 2007.

818: The site of John Morrisey's Gambling Hall, noted for its imperviousness to raids, "thanks to an ingenious basement vault...that permitted all the gambling apparatus and the bank to be hidden rapidly behind a false wall."—Low Life.

816: Place de Vosges, named for an old square in Paris, is in a crumbling 3-1/2 story rowhouse from 1910.

814: Midtown Antiques is in a Greek Revival townhouse. Also here are Rafik Video and Digitpost.

812: Turbulence antiques, founded 1984, is in a c. 1900 building with layers of pillars.

810: Ariyoshi Sake Bar is in a seven-story neo-Gothic building, built 1907.

The Renwick

808: Halloween Adventure, a costume super- store, is on the ground floor of this 1888 build- ing intended to form a backdrop to James Renwick Jr.'s Grace Church. Formerly Agostino Antiques. The detective in the novel The Alienist had his office here.

Grace Church

800- 804: One of NYC's archi- tectur- al jewels, erected 1843-46. James Renwick, Jr.—a member of the Brevoort family, whose land this once was—won a contest to design it, his first professional work; Calvert Vaux, co-designer of Central Park, landscaped the garden in 1881. Circus star Tom Thumb mar- ried here, as did New- land Archer in The Age of Innocence; David Duchovny married Tea Leoni in the backyard here in 1997. The funeral for Commander Henry Honeychurch Gorridge, a naval officer who became a celebrity for transporting Cleopatra's Needle to New York, was held here in 1885.

Corner: The church yard was once Fleischmann's Vienna Model Bakery, whose daily donations of unsold bread gave rise to the term "breadline."

West:

785 (corner): Was Mathew Brady's daguerreotype studio, where he took his famous photograph of Abraham Lincoln. The image, taken February 27, 1860, the day of Lincoln's Cooper Union address, was credited with changing the candidate's image and helping him win the election.

Randall House

771 (block): Apartments named for Capt. Robert Richard Randall, an old sea captain whose house was where Silver Spurs burger joint is now. Randall owned most of the land from 10th St to Waverly Place between 5th and 4th avenues; in his will, written by Alexander Hamilton and said to be unbreakable, he left it to establish Sailor's Snug Harbor, an old folks' home for sailors; the trust still owns 21 acres of prime Manhattan real estate. Snug Harbor used to be in Staten Island (1833-1975), and is now in North Carolina.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Stewart House

786: Apartments built on the site of (and named for) A.T. Stewart's Cast-Iron Palace (1862), the first large store on Ladies' Mile, of which it was the southern endpoint. Stewart, called "one of the meanest men that ever lived," died in 1876, and his body was kidnapped from St. Marks' graveyard in 1878 and held for ransom; they were returned by parties unknown in 1881 in exchange for $20,000.

The store, purchased by John Wanamaker in 1896, closed in 1954 and burned down two years later in an inferno that injured 208 firefighters.

These apartments were home to Leon Klinghoffer, the man in a wheelchair on the Achille Lauro cruise ship who was shot and pushed overboard by Palestine Liberation Front terrorists, October 8, 1985.

Corner:Prior to being bought by Stewart, the 9th Street corner was owned by the art dealers Goupil & Co.

West:

757 (corner): Sbarro, Italian fast food, had Village-themed murals. Site of F.A.O. Schwartz's first toy store.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Wanamaker's

770: Ann Taylor Loft and Chase branch are in a famous former department store (1907-1954) designed by Daniel Burnham, Flatiron's architect; it was the center of New York shopping in the early 20th Century. (It's on the sailor's must-see list in On the Town.) It was famous enough to get the name of this block of 9th Street changed.

David Sarnoff, future president of RCA, manned the American Marconi radio station atop this building, where he relayed news of the 1912 Titanic disaster to the Hearst papers. (Sarnoff later falsely claimed to have been the first person in the U.S. to receive word of the shipwreck.)

764: Before Wanamaker's, this was the Descombe Rooms, where in 1857 Paul Charles Morphy won an international chess tournament, a first for an American. He sparked a chess craze and had a cigar and a hat named after him.

754 (corner): This defunct address was the Sinclair Hotel c. 1903.

West:

755 (corner): Perfumania

753: Hudson News

745: Was Star Magic, space agEew age gifts

739: The Famous Cozy Soup & Burger is noted for its enormous burgers and omelettes.

735: Warehouse Wines & Spirits. Good bargains; I bought my wedding champagne here.

729 (corner): Delion Deli & Grocery. Sculptor Ana Mendieta landed on the roof of this business on September 8, 1985, when she plunged to her death from the adjacent apartment tower during an argument with her husband and fellow artist Carl Andre; Andre was tried for murder and acquitted.

Tisch School of the Arts

715: NYU school named for media mogul Laurence Tisch is arguably the country's top film school; among its alums are directors Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Joel Coen, Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee and George C. Wolfe; actors Alec Baldwin, Billy Crystal, John Leguisamo and Adam Sandler; and playwright Tony Kushner.

Built on the site of the New York Hotel (1844-95), believed to be a hotbed of Confederate spies during the Civil War. It introduced room service and the ala carte menu. Bookseller August Brentano got his start with a newsstand here in 1853.

NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Named for Albert Gallatin, Jefferson's treasury secretary, who helped found NYU. My friend Kimberly Phillips-Fein teaches here.

713: Writer Bret Harte took an apartment at this address in 1875.

Corner: NYU's Meyer Hall of Physics. At one point the plan was to have all of NYU's buildings be this reddish color.

Corner (1 W 4th): Hebrew Union College's Brookdale Center, housing the Jewish Institute of Religion (founded 1922) and the School of Sacred Music (1948).

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Astor Place Building

740 (corner): Vitamin Shoppe, a chain with an eye for good architecture. Also houses Papa Beard Sweets, an Asian cream-puff franchise.

This area, stretching east to what is now Cooper Square, was from 1806-55 the Vauxhall Garden, a popular amusement center featuring "mead booths, flying horses, fireworks, concerts, etc." (Historical Tour of... Broadway). In 1942, the newly formed Manhattan Savings Bank was headquartered here.

742: Village Tannery

740: Rubber Sole shoes, part of the Yellow Rat Bastard alterno-clothing complex

738: The Beez Neez clothes, one of many sportswear outlets along this stretch of Broadway

736: Tempo clothes, owned by Yellow Rat Bastard. At this address and its two neighbors to the south lived Mary Mason Jones—the inspiration for Mrs. Mingott in The Age of Innocence— and her two sisters, who between them had married two brothers and the brothers' cousin. The houses had separate entrances but with grand interiors that could be combined.

732: This 1882 building says ''Treffurth's'' near the cornice, marking the former home of a noted restaurant. More recently it housed XOXO clothes. Upstairs is Otakuden, an anime shop.

730: Headquarters of labor-owned Amalgamated Life Insurance; note the brass cockatrices above the doors. The building is on the site of the Broadway Atheneum, a theater converted from the Unitarian Church of the Messiah by A.T. Stewart in 1865. It also ran under the names Daly's New Fifth-Avenue Theater, Fox's Broadway Theater, The Globe and Harrigan & Hart's New Theatre Comique. Burned down in 1884.

724: The address of the Medical College for Women and Hospital for Women and Children, a homeopathic institution opened in 1862 with support from Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Also the address of the Church of the Messiah.

720: Jimmy Jazz clothes

718: The new home of Canal Jeans, which was the cool place to shop for clothes in the 1980s. In 1980, Unique Clothing Warehouse opened here, marking the rebirth of this stretch of Broadway as a hip retail zone; artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was an employee here. (It went bankrupt in 1991.)

716: An 1891 building by Alfred Zucker houses Shakespeare & Co., a great independent bookstore mini-chain, named for a famous Parisian bookshop. Look for the terra cotta devil's heads.

712-714: Was Antique Boutique, a vintage clothing store whose surreal window displays sometimes got it in trouble. In the 1970s, there was a "smoke-easy" here, a clandestine clearinghouse for the city's pot dealers.

708: Dome Boutique

704: Le Chateau clothes; formerly Bayamo, Chino-Latino restaurant that had a full-size 3-D dragon on the ceiling.

700 (corner): French Connection UK and Aldo shoes are on ground floor of the Audubon Building, HQ of the environmental society, a building supposed to be model of energy efficiency. Was the Schermerhorn Building.

West:

693 (corner): Merchants Building has Bath & Bodyworks on ground floor. Note scary owls on 4th floor.

691: Was Andy's Chee-pees, vintage clothing chain. The site used to be the headquarters of the Union Club, New York's oldest social club, until 1855. In 1870 the state established a school for teachers here, the Female Normal and High School, under the leadership of Thomas Hunter; it moved to the Upper East Side in 1873 and was renamed Hunter College in 1914.

683 (corner): Le Basket, cafeteria, was Pamela's Cafe.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

Silk Building

692 (corner): Tower Records was on the ground floor of this luxury apartment building, which has been home to Cher, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Keith Richards, Britney Spears and other celebs.

New York established its first "Normal and High School on this site in 1869, under the leadership of Thomas Hunter.

Next to the Silk Building is a weekend flea market.

684 (corner): Au Bon Pain; note lions on cornice.

West:

667-677 (corner): NYU dorms built on site of Metropolitan Hall, aka Tripler's Hall, which from 1850 to 1859 featured performers like Jenny Lind and Adelina Patti (only 10 when she sang here in 1852). That same year a memorial service for author James Fenimore Cooper was held here, conducted by Daniel Webster and featuring addresses by Washington Irving and William Cullen Bryant. In 1853, the theater hosted the World's Temperence Convention, featuring Susan B. Anthony, Horace Greeley and P.T. Barnum.

After fire destroyed the hall in 1859, the Winter Garden Theater was built here (originally called the New York Theatre and later Burton's Theater). On November 25, 1864 theatrical brothers Edwin, Junius and John Wilkes Booth performed here together for the only time in their careers, as a benefit to raise money for the statue of Shakespeare in Central Park—in Julius Caesar, a play about an assassination.

The theater was replaced by the Grand Central Hotel (aka the Broadway Central Hotel), on whose staircase on January 6, 1872, Edward Stokes fatally shot financier Jim Fisk, his rival for the affections of singer Josie Mansfield. It was also the home of Arnold Rothstein, a gangster who is said to be the inspiration for The Great Gatsby's Meyer Wolfsheim and Guys & Dolls' Nathan Detroit. Renamed the University Hotel, it collapsed in 1973, killing four tenants and destroying the Mercer Arts Center, which was in the same building on the other side of the block.

675: Herman Melville's family moved to this address in 1828, when he was about nine.

667: Was the address of the Bay State Hotel.

Transit

665: The best sneaker store in New York, according to Time Out New York. People come from as far away as Italy and Japan to buy shoes here. Was the address (along with No. 663) of the Marble Houses, which attracted great curiosity for being faced with that material. The two later became the Tremont Hotel.

663: The National Academy of Design, founded in 1826 by telegraph inventor Samuel Morse, opened its first building at this address in 1850. Louis Comfort Tiffany and Augustus Saint-Gaudens studied here. Later this was the address of a theater that was variously called the Old Stuyvesant, Academy Hall, Donaldson's Opera House, The Canterbury and Mozart Hall.

661: This 1891 building with a dramatically peaked roof was designed by Brunner & Tryon in the French Renaissance Revival style. Was the address of publisher G.P. Putnam & Son from 1866-70.

657-659: Blades, Board and Skate is at the address of the city's first YMCA, opened 1852—at that time more focused on Bible classes than on athletics. The current building is an Italianate cast-iron building from 1867, possibly designed by Griffith Thomas. One of a series of quite stunning and well-preserved cast-iron buildings on this stretch of Broadway, all reconstructed in 1979-81 after a fire.

655: Another 1867 Italianate cast-iron that might be by Thomas.

653: This Italianate cast-iron is from 1883 and is by Henry Fernbach. Starting in 1975, it Infinity, a pioneering gay/straight disco, gutted by fire in 1979.

649-651: Watch World is in the last of this Italianate cast-iron row, this one from 1872 and more confidently attributed to Griffith Thomas.

Pfaff's Beer Hall

647: The basement of what is now Mikai clothing was a hangout for pre-Civil War bohemians like Walt Whitman; satirist Artemus Ward; actress Ada Clare, the "Queen of Bohemia"; Henry Clapp, editor of the New York Saturday Press, the first U.S. countercultural newspaper; cartoonist Thomas Nast. Closed 1870, replaced by present building, originally a W. and J. Sloane carpet store (see above). On February 14, 1970, David Mancuso threw the first of a series of Love Saves the Day dance parties in his loft here—a space that came to be known as The Loft, a harbinger of the disco era. The parties continued here until 1974, when they moved to 99 Prince Street.

643: VG Restaurant; Mathew Brady briefly had his daguerreotype studio on this site.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

682 (corner): General Nutrition Center is on the site of the house of Philip Hone, mayor of NYC in 1826-27. He lived here from 1837-51.

680: Make 10 clothing

678: Upstairs from Paper House is The Cutting Room, a recording studio used by Wu-Tang Clan, Queen Latifah, Beastie Boys, Missy Elliott, etc. Also in this building is USA Shaolin Temple, a dojo run by a Shaolin monk who defected in 1992, who claims to have trained the Wu-Tang Clan in martial arts. Was Marap Leather, distributor.

676: Upstairs from Lighting Plus, on the fifth floor, was Keith Haring's studio, now the offices of his foundation.

670 (corner): Leica Galleries, Wet Seal clothing are in the former Brooks Brothers store (1874-1884); built on site of the Samuel Ward mansion, art patron (his private gallery here was said to be 1st in U.S.) and father of Julie Ward Howe, who composed "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

666 (corner): 666 Broadway, current home to Harper's Magazine, Center for Constitutional Rights; first offices of the media watch group FAIR.

654: Co-Pilot Shoes. This was at one point the site of the Astor mansion, and later an address of the Broadway Atheneum.

648: Fat Jeans, owned by Yellow Rat Bastard. The Manhattan Savings Institute was founded here as a working-class bank in 1850.

644 (corner): This beautiful building was once the offices of the Manhattan Savings Institution; note MSI monogram. Atrium clothing complex on ground floor; was the Blue Willow Restaurant, opened in 1983. Scenes from Ghostbusters and Hannah and Her Sisters were shot here. An earlier MSI building was the site of the 19th Century's biggest bank robbery. Carried out by the King of the Bank Robbers, George Leonidas Leslie, on October 27, 1878, with a gang that included such notables as Jimmy Hope, Shang Draper, Red Leary, Johnny Dobbs, Worcester Sam Perris, Banjo Pete Emerson and Eddie Goodie Gearing. They made off with over $2.7 million; unfortunately for them, all but $12,000 was in non-negotiable bonds.

West:

641: Infinity Haircut

639 1/2: B&B News

627: Noho Building houses Stereo Exchange, Time Out New York's former offices

625: Gonzalez y Gonzalez, ironic Mexican. The modeling agency Clear is based here, as is the record label Matador—which has released some great music, like Guided By Voices, Belle & Sebastian and Cat Power.

623: Crunch Fitness. From 1886 until 1892, this was the address of the pioneering children's book and game publisher McLoughlin Bros.

Cable Building

611-621 (corner): Designed in 1894 by Stanford White for Broadway Cable Traction Co., cable car operators. Ground floor now houses Manhattan Deli & Pizza, Crate & Barrel. Theaters Angelika Film Center, a popular art-house cinema, are in the basement, where machines once pulled cable cars from as far away as 36th Street. Also in the building is A to Z Music Services, CD-presser for indie labels.

Before the Cable Building, this was the site of St. Thomas Church, built 1824. John Jacob Astor was put to rest in the Astor family crypt here in 1848; Washington Irving was an honorary pallbearer. Astor was relocated in 1851 to Trinity Church Cemetery at 155th Street. The congregation moved to 5th Avenue and West 53rd in 1866.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y

East:

640 (corner): Underneath the Swatch outlet is a secret store called Nom de Guerre. Behind a door marked with a sign for a copy shop is a black staircase that leads to two subterranean stories of really expensive streetwear. The building dates to 1897, was designed by Macy's architects De Lemos & Cordes, and was the first structure to be named the Empire State Building (after the Empire State Bank on the ground floor).

632: Was Looking Glass Studios, a recording facility used by a remarkable array of artists: David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, David Byrne, Patti Smith, Philip Glass, Grace Jones, Bjork, Beck, etc.

628-630: Urban Outfitters; built for New York Mercantile Exchange. (Note name on facade.) Later was home to Commercial Plastics.

622-626: Fiorucci is on site of Laura Keene's Varieties Theater (1856); Keene played in Our American Cousin the night Lincoln was assassinated. Later the Olympic; destroyed by fire, 1880. Current building from 1882; heavily modernized.

620: David Z shoes is in an outstanding (and early) cast-iron building from 1858, designed by John Butler Snook.

Corner: The Adidas Building is on the former site of "Whale of a Wash," a car wash that mostly served taxis. It had the one billboard on Houston that I actually liked.

BROADWAY/LAFAYETTE STATION: B/D/F/Q trains to West 4th
F train to 2nd Avenue
B/D/Q trains to Grand Street

In the 1980s, as many as 200 people were living in the subway tunnels between this and the 2nd Avenue station.

West:

Corner: This building's north wall featured a 1972 art installation called The Wall, by Forrest Myers, consisting of blue girders arranged in a grid. The owner of the building had it removed in 2003 so that he could sell the wall as ad space, but after a long legal struggle it was replaced in 2007— spiffed up and moved up somewhat so an ad can fit underneath.

599: Was The Flamingo—pioneering gay disco.

597: This 1867 building looks cast-iron, but is actually marble. Houses Kenneth Cole shoes.

Museum for African Art

593: The Classical-style building dates to 1860; the interior, redone for the museum's 1993 move, is by Maya Lin, architect of D.C.'s Vietnam Memorial. Also the address of The Lounge boutique.

591: Eastern Mountain Sports, gear for rock-climbing, yoga and the like

585: Tony Pastor, the inventor of Vaudeville, moved his theater here from The Bowery in 1873. Lillian Russell debuted here November 22, 1880, a year before Pastor moved his theater to Tammany Hall on 14th Street.

583: The Astor Building, designed by Cleverdon & Putzel in 1896, was built on the site of the house where John Jacob Astor, the richest man in the U.S., died March 29, 1848. His last regret: not buying "every foot of land on the island of Manhattan." In 1983, it became the home of the New Museum of Contemporary Art— which is now building a new home on The Bowery.

579: ALDO shoes is at the address where Stanwix Hall once stood, a fancy saloon that witnessed the February 24, 1855 shooting of Know-Nothing leader Bill ''The Butcher'' Poole, which inspired the Gangs of New York film.

575 (corner): What was in the 1990s the Guggenheim Museum Soho, the downtown branch of the uptown museum, is now a futuristic Prada outlet. Carrie spends her book advance here on Sex and the City. The structure itself was built in 1882 (to a Thomas Stent design) for the Rogers Peet clothing store, which helped intro- duce such inno- vations as the price tag, the fabric label, the money-back guarantee and the illustrated advertisement. It had moved out of this location by 1904.

B
R
O
A
D
W
A
Y