East Village, Avenue C at 14th Street

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Standing on the eastern end of 14th Street at Avenue C, there's nowhere to go that makes sense but back where I came from.

Across the street is a view.of a corner of Stuyvesant Town, looking like any other housing project.  There are 35 of these buildings, containing 8,757 apartments, making this development much larger than an Illinois town I once lived in with a population of 7,000.  That was a grim two years of my life, and I imagine living here would be equally grim.  For me, anyway.  I know it has its fans.

Please enlarge the map below to get an idea of how truly huge it is. You have to click the View Larger Map link and then click the plus sign a few times.  I know it's a few steps more than you want to take, but believe me, it's worth it.


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East Village, Avenue C at 14th Street

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …..……………….. click to enlarge

My map shows 14th Street continuing to Avenue D and ending at the FDR Drive, so I was surprised to be stopped by the blue fence.  I learned from a guard who stopped me from photographing behind the blue fence, that it was closed off for security reasons after 9/11.

East Village, 14th Street Between Avenues B and C

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………..........………….. click to enlarge

I was taken by the rhythm of those cornices.




Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Here's the straight-on shot.

See map.

East Village, 14th Street Between Avenues B and C

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

This is a small piece of Stuyvesant Town, much in the news lately.

East Village, 14th Street Between Avenues A and B

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …….............…………….. click to enlarge

And sometimes it takes two people wearing turquoise shirts to make the picture.

East Village, 14th Street Between Avenues A and B

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ……...................…………….. click to enlarge

I didn't know until tonight that these two stores plus the three adjoining were destroyed by a fire in May.  It seems someone was installing a fire door (see the irony?) when his welding torch "apparently set some grease on fire."  And now the neighbors lament the loss of the only good pizza in the East Village.

East Village, 14th Street at Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Sometimes you just don't want people in a shot.

Back from Maine, and, you will not be surprised to hear, it was beautiful, the weather was blissful and the lobster was plentiful, cheap and good.  We had boiled lobster, lobster salad, lobster rolls, lobster in a seafood pot pie, and lobster omelet.  The last night, I had a steak and red wine.  It was strangely satisfying.

East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

 X

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LAST POST UNTIL NEXT TUESDAY. IT'S VACATION TIME! MAINE AND LOBSTERS! 

Use your time well.  Maybe browse the archives.


Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …………........……….. click to enlarge

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East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …………….........…….. click to enlarge

A Hallmark card for you.

East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

I apologize for the erratic postings lately.  As soon as my life gets less erratic, so will my postings.  Rest assured, this Project will be done (if I live long enough), and some day, maybe soon, I will get to that block you've been waiting for.

Meanwhile, the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office is apparently badly run, if one can believe two complaints posted at Complaint.com.  This is a fairly strange website, as it seems posting a complaint has no more effect than if you'd written it in your diary.  Anyone up for submitting a complaint about Complaint.com?

East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………...........… ………………….. click to enlarge

This church began life in 1896 as Grace Chapel and Hospital, an Episcopal mission for Grace Church in the West Village.  In 1943,it became the Immaculate Conception Church, a Catholic church.  Do you know what Immaculate Conception refers to?  Wrong!  It's not the Virgin birth.  It's that Mary was born without original sin.  If anyone desires to see a baptism in this very church, you can find one right here.

East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …….........…………….. click to enlarge

East Village, 14th Street at First Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Sunday evening, I went downtown to East 14th Street to the Booker Prize Book Club where we were discussing The White Hotel, a most demanding book.  But good.  Afterwards, I walked 14th Street to the river, or so I thought.  I was looking at an old map.  Since my map was made in the 80's, 14th Street from Avenue C to D has been demapped.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  This is the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue.

The East Village is on the south side of 14th Street and Stuyvesant Town is on the north side.  We'll be looking mostly at the south side.

I started at about 7:15 on a pleasant summer evening.

East Village, Fourth Avenue Between 12th and 13th Streets

And now to conclude this walk, I give you three rooftop shots. The first one was taken from the block between 11th and 12th, but who's counting?



Mary Sargent © 2009 ………… click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 ………… click to enlarge

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……….. click to enlarge


It looks like tomorrow is a beautiful day. Maybe I'll get that long walk I've been longing for. Craving spring.

See map.

East Village, Fourth Avenue at 11th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………… click to enlarge


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East Village, Fourth Avenue at 11th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This is what the Cooper Station Post Office looks like to the 21st Century stroller.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I cropped the photograph to cut down the influence of the tall buildings around the post office and I'm imagining this is more what it looked like when it was built in the 1930s.

Does it surprise you that you can find reviews and stories of experiences at this post office on Yelp?

See map.

East Village, Fourth Avenue Between Wanamaker Place and 10th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Does something seem to be terribly wrong at 65 Fourth Avenue? In case you can't see what that godawful mess of a façade is made of, here's a closeup.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


I googled 65 Fourth Avenue and discovered that it is the home of Hakata Ippudo, apparently a famous and widely admired Japanese ramen chain. According to Rameniac, Ippudo is the John Coltrane of ramen. (If mediocre ramen is smooth jazz.)





I must say, the reviews and excitement about this noodle shop have got me ready to go right back down there.

Back to the visual mess. Since it's a chain, I guess they wanted to make it look like the shops in Japan, so they slapped these wooden slats onto a totally inappropriate building and walked away.

Actually, I was more interested in Lam's Garden when I took this and several other photographs, although it is probably not the John Coltrane of Chinese takeout, and is certainly not beautiful. What it does have is a certain East Village visual integrity.



BUT if this ramen is as good as they say it is, I'm prepared to breeze right past those wooden slats without a word of complaint.

See map.

Alphabet City, Avenue A Between 2nd and Houston Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And so, skipping over a few blocks, we come to the last block of our East Village walk, just before crossing into the Lower East Side.

The most you could say about the Best Hou keeping sign is that it seems misplaced. In fact, Nice Guy Eddie could probably teach GE a thing or two about housekeeping.

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

See map.

Alphabet City, 11th Street Between Avenues B and A

Mary Sargent © 2008 ….. click to enlarge

Here we are, as promised at Luka's first apartment house in New York. Possibly the most boring building of the entire blog. She went on to better things.




Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Right next door is the unused former Public Bath, bringing a little architectural class to the block. But how about a little color?



Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Okay, here's some. This is AAA Glass Plus. When I enlarged this photo, look what I found.

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

See map.

Alphabet City, 7th Street Between Avenues A and B

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This is the entrance to Tompkins Square Park, and if I read this correctly, this lady is a couple of moves away from a checkmate and is leaning back, enjoying the situation. Unless I'm wrong.

The link above is the official City Parks link, but you may prefer this New York Times article, which is about a walk taken in the East Village with Clayton Patterson, apparently a well-known documentarian of this area.

If you have no time to be following links, just know that this park hosts the Howl Festival, during which Wigstock has appeared, but not this year, and the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. Keep these in mind for next year; they've come and gone this year.

See map.