New York Songlines: Mercer Street

West:

Corner (11 Waverly): Pizza Mercato, which claims to be the choice of Italian diplomats. Below is the pub Josie Woods, an NYU hangout. Formerly Boo Radley's, noted for crayon drawings by patrons.

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East:

Georgetown Plaza

Corner (60 E 8th): With 34 floors and 393 apartments, this 1967 building is way too big.

Corner (729 Broadway): Sculptor Ana Mendieta plunged to her death from this apartment tower during an argument with her husband and fellow artist Carl Andre on September 8, 1985; Andre was tried for murder and acquitted.

West:

285 (corner): Cafe Pane e Cioccolato ("Bread and Chocolate"). The 10-story building dates to 1911.

Corner (7 Washington Pl): A four-story building from 1900.

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East:

Tisch School of the Arts

Corner (715 Broad- way): NYU school named for media mogul Laurence Tisch. 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.

Corner (5 Wash- ington Pl): NYU's Phil- osophy Building is in an 1890 masonry building given a redesign by Steven Holl Architects--notable for its Wittgenstein-inspired prismatic staircase.

West:

Corner (8 Washington Pl:) Part of NYU's Student Services Block

269: NYU's departments of economics, sociology, Africana and American studies

Corner (15 E 4th): Was the Bottom Line, legendary music club driven out of business by NYU's rents, which needed to be raised to help cover the school president's 7-figure salary. Bruce Springsteen did a legendary set of 10 shows in one week here in August 1975. Earlier here was the Red Garter, recalled as "a sing-a-long bar where Marines and Army soldiers would brawl over which song to do."

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East:

Corner (6 Washington Pl): NYU's Department of Psychology

Brookdale Center

Corner (1 W 4th): Hebrew Union College's Brookdale Center houses the Jewish Institute of Religion. Built 1979.

West:

251 (block): Courant Institute/Warren Weaver Hall (1966). In May 1970, 200 students protesting NYU's ties to the nuclear industry held the $3.5 million computer here hostage, demanding $100,000 for the Black Panthers' jail fund. When NYU refused to pay up, students from SDS tried to blow the computer up, but their Molotov cocktails were extinguished before any damage was done.

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East:

Corner (14 W 4th St): Dojo's, very affordable Asian-y diner, is on the ground floor of an eclectic 1890s building.

Corner: Gristedes, local supermarket chain

West:

Washington Square Village

Block (561 LaGuardia): Massive NYU housing project. Construction of these behemoths in 1956-58 helped inspire the preservation movement.

Henry McCarty, better known as Billy the Kid, was born in New York City in 1859--perhaps at 210 Greene, a defunct address now built over by these apartment buildings.

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East:

Block (667-677 Broadway): 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 this side of the block. A performance space called The Kitchen opened there in 1971 in the hotel's former kitchen; still continuing though now in Chelsea, it's nutured such artists as Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Elizabeth Streb and Bill T. Jones.

West:

This corner was reportedly the site of the African Grove Theater, the first African-American theater; it moved here (or hereabouts) in 1821 with a production of Richard III. It's said that the theater had the first production of Othello with a black actor, James Hewlett, playing the lead. The theater folded around 1830, after having been repeatedly shut down by the night watch at the behest of white competitors.

Coles Sports Center

Corner: An NYU athletic facility, where the school's basketball, volleyball, swimming, wrestling and fencing teams compete.

Mercer-Houston Dog Run Association

Corner: Private dog park--hard to get into.

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East:

Cable Building

Corner (18 W Houston): Angelika Film Center, popular art-house cinema, is on the ground floor of a building designed in 1894 by Stanford White for the Broadway Cable Traction Co., cable car operators. Theaters are in basement, where machines once pulled cable cars from as far away as 36th Street.

West:

165: Cast-iron building. In 1882, at the height of the bison slaughter, the firm of Joseph Ullman at this address bought more than $200,000 worth of hides and robes.

163: Marc Jacobs, designer

155: Built in 1854 as Firemen's Hall, a hangout for volunteer firefighters. Walt Whitman took Ralph Waldo Emerson here for a beer in December 1855. It later served as the firehouse for Hook & Ladder No. 20. Greatly altered from its original ornate state.

Corner (99 Prince): The Mercer is a hotel in an 1888 building designed by William Schickel & Co. for John Jacob Astor's fur-coat factory. Includes Mercer Kitchen and a J. Crew outlet. In 1974, David Mancuso moved the dance space known as The Loft here in 1974, where it helped spark the disco movement.

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East:

158: Vera Wang, designer. Actor Mike Myers has lived in this building.

142 (corner): Lure Fishbar, voted best new seafood of 2005 by Time Out readers; was Canteen, "retro-futuristic"

West:

Fanelli's Cafe

Corner (94 Prince): The second-oldest bar in New York, serving since 1847 (though the present brick building dates to 1857). The name above the door, Nicholas Gerdes, was the owner from 1878-1902; the Fanelli family owned it from 1922-82. A classic.

133: Agent Prov- ocateur, lingerie outlet known for its provocative window displays.

121: Cast-iron building from 1879, designed by D. & J. Jardine.

119: Fanny White, one of New York's most prominent madams, had a brothel at this address c. 1851. Daniel Sickles, a prominent politician and later a Civil War general, scandalized New York by his open affair with White.

115: 3.1 Phillip Lim, designer

111: A five-story cast-iron building designed by Henry Fernbach and built in 1878-79.

105: A madam named Cinderella Marshall ran a house of pleasure in this three-story 1819 building.

103: An 1859 brothel guide described a "creole" establishment run here by Virginia Henriques as "one of the best conducted houses of its kind in New York," with "six pretty brunette boarders who ... adhere strictly to the rules of good breeding."

Corner (107 Spring): This three-story building, built by 1808, is the oldest in SoHo. Houses Solstice Sunglass Boutique.

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East:

116: Cast-iron building

112: An 1869 cast-iron building designed by Charles Mettam in the neo-classical style. It's 541 Broadway on the other side.

108-110: Cast-iron building, home to the boutique Seven New York.

Corner (101 Spring): The Guide to the Metropolis calls this 1870 building by Nicholas Whyte an "outstanding example" of cast-iron architecture.

West:

Corner (106 Spring): Burton Snowboards on the ground floor.

85-87: Cast-iron building

83: 1872 cast-iron building by John B. Snook

73-77: An 1875-76 cast-iron building built by Jesse W. Powers, a founder of the Merchants Exchange Bank at 256 Broadway, who served as commissioner of parks from 1884-88, and represented Harlem and the Bronx in the City Council as a member of Tammany Hall. Photographer Hans Neleman has a studio here.

69: Cast-iron building houses Helen Wang, designer

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East:

76: This was the short-lived Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC, opened in 2009 with a special focus on New York's rock history.

West:

Corner (453-455 Broome): The Hitchcock Silk Building is an elaborate cast-iron Griffith Thomas building from 1872-73, noted for its Corinthian columns. Houses Gourmet Garage, upscale grocery; upstairs is the hip clothing store Temperley London.

55: Five-story cast-iron building. From 1969 to 2008 this was home to the 55 Mercer Gallery, now relocated to Long Island City and calling itself M55. Now houses the Manhattan Ensemble Theater.

47-49: This cast-iron building, built in 1873 to a Joseph M. Dunn design, was a store for famed cabinet-maker Alexander Roux. The AIA Guide calls it "crisp and lusty."

Corner (104 Grand): Facial Index, avant-garde eyewear

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East:

50-52: Cast-iron warehouse building built by H.W. Smiths and Sons in 1869-70. From the east, it's 477-479 Broadway.

40 (corner): A 2009 condo devel- opment designed by Jean Nouvel reportedly used "the largest sheets of glass ever used on a residential project." Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe invested in a unit here.

West:

Corner (103 Grand): Yohji Yamamoto, "starkly elegant clothing that blurs the line between fashion and sculpture"

31: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts

15-17: Cast-iron building houses Maximus Day Spa.

9-13: Cast-iron building

Corner (313 Canal): Electric Trading Co., "serving industry since 1903." Putting "electric" in your name in 1903 must have been like putting ".com" in your name in 1999.

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East:

Corner (107 Grand): A 1915 building that houses Ted Baker London, quirky men's clothing. On the third floor used to be the offices of Razorfish, interactive ad agency, now a subsidiary of Microsoft.

18: This 1861 building by John Kellum is an early example of cast-iron architecture; unfortunately, it's been stripped of most of its ornamentation, and an awkward sixth story has been added on top.

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Arnold Constable Building

Block (307-311 Canal): This was home to Arnold Constable, one of New York's most prestigious stores, founded by Aaron Arnold near this site in 1825; son-in-law James Constable became a partner in 1837. This building dates to 1857. It offered "Everything From Cradle to Grave"; Mary Todd Lincoln was a frequent customer. Southern sympathizers urged a boycott because of its abolitionist sympathies. The store moved uptown to Ladies Mile in 1869.

Until recently, it housed Indus- trial Plastics, described as "a treasure chest of cool things, supplying all manner of useful and not-so-useful items like 20-inch mirror disco balls, giant plastic bananas, sparkly holographic paper and inflatable globes."