This street in the East Village has a lot to offer, so let's jump right in. Midway up the block are two theaters, each in a historic building. Here's a look facing uptown towards Astor Place:
To the left is Colonnade Row, built in 1831.
These four houses are what remain of the original nine that were built here. They were made in the Greek Revival style.
To the far right of Colonnade Row is the Astor Place Theater, which has been showing the Blue Man Group since 1991.
The theater opened in January 1968 with a play called The Indian Wants the Bronx. It starred a young actor named Al Pacino. As far as I know that is his only acting credit.
The Blue Man Group bought the theater in 2001. They now have shows throughout the country and internationally. The group formed in 1991 on the Lower East Side based on the work of 3 friends. I haven't seen the Blue Man Group perform in person but I've seen them on YouTube and enjoyed it. I've also seen Arrested Development:
I admit that if I saw the Blue Man Group just starting out in the Lower East Side in 1991 I never would have predicted mainstream success for them around the country. It just seems like a quirky downtown type of thing. But they do it well, and that's awesome for them.
Directly across the street is the Public Theater:
It was renamed the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1991, after the death of the man who founded the organization in 1954 as The Shakespeare Workshop. It opened in this building in 1967 with the world premiere of Hair, and has always been about featuring new and emerging talent and productions.
Inside the building are actually 5 separate theaters plus Joe's Pub, which is a music space and restaurant that opened in 1998. Many famous artists have performed there, including Lou Reed and Pete Townshend together, and the U.S. debuts of Adele and Amy Winehouse.
The building's lobby is beautiful with a nice old-fashioned vibe:
Near the entrance to Joe's Pub was a big wall of photos that I assumed to be from performances at the Public Theater.
There were many famous actors on the wall, but here's just a couple of photos, first Philip Seymour Hoffman and Natalie Portman:
And Meryl Streep with... is that Sam Waterston? I think it is.
The building's history actually goes back to the mid-1800's when it was the Astor Library. A plaque on the outside gives more info:
Here is a photo from about 1870 which not only shows the building but some more of the block as well:
And here are some present-day looks facing downtown:
Some of today's buildings on the block are taller but at least none of them are big skyscrapers. It would be nice to still have those trees, but overall the vibe isn't as different as I might have expected. Especially compared to how much other blocks have probably changed in the last 145 or so years.
Random note: Here's a cartoon about the Astor Library from a January 1892 Life magazine. The artist's name is Chip and apparently there were some complaints about the library:
I guess you couldn't take out an e-book back then.
After the building's use as a library, it housed for several decades the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has been doing important work since the 19th century:
I never realized all of the history to this building. I'm glad it's still around and continuing to have cultural relevance.
Also on the block are two parking lots! One on each side of the block! Yes!
Enough parking excitement, I need to calm down. Let's look at the Astor Place intersection and get back to the real New York.
Of course, by 'real New York' I mean a Chase bank, a Kmart, and a Starbucks. Oh yeah, and just out of the photo to the left is a Walgreens:
At least it's in a beautiful red and white building.
Next to the modern glass building on the other side of the street is a small patch of green where you can see through to Cooper Square, if you're into that sort of thing.
Back towards East 4th is a restaurant called Asia de Cuba. It's in a section with scaffolding but here's a wide shot that also shows some other nice buildings on this street:
I was confused by the name Asia de Cuba but apparently it's a fusion place that mixes Asian and Cuban influences. I'm intrigued by what that would be, and now the name makes a lot more sense.
Next to Asia de Cuba is Colors, a gluten-free restaurant. I was going to joke about the trendiness of fusion and gluten-free restaurants being next to each other, but I learned that Colors was founded by survivors of 9/11 and today is operated by a nonprofit group called Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United.
ROC originally helped displaced restaurant workers after the World Trade Center 9/11 attacks, and now advocates nationally for the rights of restaurant workers. So that's pretty great. The restaurant also uses local, non-GMO products.
Here's a look at the front of Colors under the scaffolding, on the left:
To the right is a company selling hand-made rugs. Even though the front says Tibet Home, I believe it is actually called Dolma. I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy, maybe they changed the name.
Across the street is a building that houses some NYU Athletics. I guess that's not surprising since NYU is rather ubiquitous in this general area.
On the same side of the street I saw this old sign for a fallout shelter:
Even if it's from a past era, it's still a bit disconcerting.
There are a lot of gyms in this area. There was a David Barton Gym above the Walgreens on the Astor Place corner. There is also Barry's Bootcamp just next to the mid-block restaurants, complete with its own 'Fuel Bar' which seems to offer juices and smoothies and such.
Then there's more exercising at the East 4th Street corner, with a Blink Fitness and Soul Cycle. They're just across from a cafe called La Colombe. Here's a look at that area, facing downtown:
I guess this block really has it all. Check out some history, then go to the gym and have a post-workout smoothie. Then get ready for a night at the theater by going to Kmart to make sure you look your best. And after taking in a live production, wrap things up at a cafe.
A pretty full day on just one block. Enjoy! And thanks for reading. Here's one last view from East 4th Street:
Union Square West runs along the west edge of Union Square Park from 14th Street to 17th Street.
Thanks. Near 14th Street, nestled in the southwest corner of the park, is a statue of Mohandas Ghandi.
There are many statues in the city that I have not seen, but of those that I have seen this is one of my favorites. I love that it's in a garden, and also that it's fittingly humble and unassuming.
Here's a view of the statue with some of Union Square West behind it:
Meditate by the Ghandi statue, contemplate the power of nonviolence, and then pick up some office supplies. Here's some of the block, facing uptown:
Some days there are green markets with many stands set up along this block. There was a market there on this day, but it was mainly around the northwest corner of the park, in the more distant area in the photo. During warmer months the market extends down to all that foreground area, and wraps around along the northern edge of the park too. But there was still plenty of good stuff when I was there.
One of the stands was selling ostrich meat. No thanks. Ostriches freak me out, mainly because of their long necks. Emus too. However I do like giraffes. Hmm.
You might be able to see in the above photo that the red building in the background is a Barnes & Noble, which is this antiquated thing called a "bookstore."
If the fresh, quality food options in the market don't do it for you, there's a McDonald's lurking just behind it. Don't give in.
A bit hyperbolic, perhaps, but I agree that bread tastes really good. There are several plaques along the ground on this block which are pretty interesting. This one is an old map of the area:
Credit to the artists:
One of the streets on the map is called Dead Man's Curve:
I guess you should be careful around there. For some reason, I never connected the name Union Square with unions, but this plaque depicts the first Labor Day Parade:
Here's some closeups where you can read some of the signs:
Here's two more interesting plaques on the block, related to the Statue of Liberty and a statue for Abraham Lincoln:
Then there's this plaque, which confused me a little:
In case you can't read the caption at the bottom, it says: "By the 1870's, there were many hotels around Union Square." No offense to hotels, and I know this is part of the area's history, but isn't this topic a little less inspiring than the others? Did they make this one first and then realize they might have more impressive subjects for the other plaques? Just wondering. As I was walking along this block I noticed one of the buildings was called the Spingler Building:
I immediately remembered the name Spingler from the post I wrote about East 10th Street, which had a memorial for a woman named Elizabeth Spingler Van Beuren. As I mentioned in that post, her family lived in the Union Square area from the late 1700's into the early 20th century. I was pretty excited to see the name Spingler and make that connection. Go history! It's amazing to think that in the early years of the country, the Union Square area was still rural land and it was only the farthest downtown part of Manhattan that was considered the actual city.
While I was on this block I met a nice guy who asked me about all my photo-taking and I told him about this blog. He said he had some photos of rats that he'd seen in Union Square and asked if I wanted to use any for my blog. I said no thanks, mainly because I couldn't tell if he wanted some money for using them, though part of me was very curious to see the pics. But don't worry, hopefully I'll come across a rat soon enough on one of these blocks and be able to share a nice rat photo with you. If that isn't incentive to keep reading, I don't know what is.
