New York Songlines: Crosby Street

East:

Bayard-Condict Building

65: NYC's only Louis Sullivan building (1899). An important building in the development of the skyscraper. Carl Condit, architectural historian, said of it, "Who would expect an aesthetic experience on Bleecker Street?" Angels were placed on the cornice over Sullivan's objections at the insistence of client Silas Alden Condict.

West:

Corner (58 Bleecker): Bleecker Corner Grocery

Block (610 Broad- way): The Adidas Build- ing 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.

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East:

Corner (58 Bleecker): Bleecker Street Bar. Note that the address is the same as the grocery across Crosby. The building was once owned by Franklin Roosevelt's great-great-grandfather.

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 (11 E Houston): Now a parking lot, this address was once the site of The National, the top venue in Yiddish theater.

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

126: Used bookstore that raises money for the AIDS support and advocacy organization, noted for fighting City Hall--and winning. It's a beautiful, high-ceilinged space; FAIR used to have a speaker series here.

Corner (568-578 Broadway): Armani Exchange is in an 1890s Renaissance Eclectic building by George B. Post, architect of the New York Stock Exchange. This was built on the site of Niblo's Garden, one of New York's longest-standing theaters--built in 1827 as the Sans Souci, it was rebuilt after several fires and was finally demolished in 1895. It featured actors like Edwin Forrest and orators like Daniel Webster (who spoke here in 1837), but it is most famous for the 1866 premier of The Black Crook, which some consider to be the first musical. It was a huge hit, being the first Broadway show to run more than a year.

After 1852, the theater was part of the Metro- politan Hotel, one of the city's most luxurious; Japanese Crown Prince Tateish Onojero stayed here in 1860. The hotel bartender, Professor Jerry Thomas, is immortalized as the creator of the Tom and Jerry cocktail.

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East:

Corner: Gaseteria station, a local brand now almost extinct, was replaced by a high-tech BP Connect.

JERSEY ST         ===> E

Corner (67 Prince): Kent Gallery

West:

Corner (560-566 Broadway): An 1883 masonry building by Thomas Stent. The west end of this building houses this famous gourmet food store Dean & Deluca.

MoMA Design Store

Corner (81 Spring):
Like a museum of design, but every- thing's for sale.

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East:

Corner (70 Prince): Savoy, Mediterranean

101: Madonna and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat lived together here c. 1982.

95: Carpet Culture

93: MZ Wallace

Crosby Street Hotel

79: designer hotel

Corner (75 Spring): Sur La Table, kitchenware

West:

Balthazar

80 (corner): Opened in 1997, Keith McNalley's evo- cation of a Parisian bistro is one of New York's best-known restaurants. A balthazar is a giant bottle of champagne, as well as one of the three wise men.

66: Built 1900. Address of Henro Antiques.

56-62: From 1833-60, this was home to Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest synagogue in North America. It moved from here to 19th Street.

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East:

63: Brigitte NYC,
elegant bou- tique, com- plete with water- fall

Corner (430 Broome): L'Orange Bleu, brightly painted restaurant

West:

34: Musician Alicia Keys has lived here.

French Culinary Institute

Corner (462 Broad- way): Students here show off their skills at the restaurant here, L'Ecole. There's a Daffy's branch at the same address.

The building is an 1879 cast-iron design by John Correja, made for the linen and lace importing firm Mills & Gibb. Earlier, Brooks Brothers opened a store here in 1858; during the Civil War, the company supplied uniforms for Union troops, and was a target of draft rioters.

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East:

Corner (425-427 Broome): This striking 1874 building has a cast-iron facade facing Broome and a mostly brick one on Crosby. It was designed by Edward H. Kendall in the neo-Grecian style.

Corner (134-140 Grand): This cast-iron building went up in 1870, built by clothing maker Charles Hastings to a William Field & Son design on the site of the Grand Street Presbyterian Church. It's seen better days; in 1879, a fire across the street destroyed much of the Crosby Street facade, and the ornamentation was stripped off the mansard roof in the 1960s. A 1937 remodeling planned by Eli Jacques Kahn was never carried out. The building was seen by 2004 as a remainder of SoHo's funky, artist-friendly past. Until recently, Beau Labels printers were on the ground floor.

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Corner (133 Grand): Grand Food Market