The Corner

The Corner circa 1998.

The Corner being renovated as The Corner Cafe in October 2009.

The Corner Cafe in May 2011.

A closeup of the cornice in 1986.

The plaques on the side of the building.

The building in the '30s, with the 6th Avenue elevated train being taken down.

The Corner's interior in 1892.

The Corner in 1892.

The plaque commemorating Edison's presentation of the motion picture by the front door of Macy's.

The front door of Macy's on 34th Street.

A side door that once led to the theatre is long cemented over.

The interior of the theater on 23rd Street in the 1890s.

Another view of the long-sealed side door on 24th Street.

Whenever I'm walking down lower 6th Avenue, I always stop to take a look at a building on the corner of 24th Street with a colorful history.  Koster & Bial's "The Corner" was built in 1887 as a beer hall annex to the concert hall a block south.  The building is mostly unnoticed by passers-by today, but the upper levels have just recently received some renovations and cleaning, revealing it's original bright-orange brick color. 

Bryant's Opera House, built in 1870 next to the French Catholic Church of St. Vincent de Paul (where singer Edith Piaff married in the the 1960s), was one of the most popular nightlife spots on 23rd Street, which was the theatre district at that time, and featured the highly elaborate Bryant's Minstrels, who were known mostly for introducing New York City to many Stephen Foster songs such as "Dixie".  The concert venue was put up for sale in 1878 and bought by German-born business partners Albert Bial and John Koster, who previously ran a German-style beer garden and concert hall next store.  From the beginning, Koster and Bial were interested in the alcohol-distributing business, and side-stepped a law prohibiting its sale in theaters by replacing the curtain in front of the stage with a folding screen, thus making the place a restaurant that offered entertainment rather than a theatre that served alcohol.  Their business grew in popularity, and they hired German architects Herman J. Schwarzman and Albert Buchman to build a beer hall annex to the theatre a block north, which opened on January 25, 1887.  The four-story building with brownstone and terra cotta trim was dubbed "The Corner" and ornamented with a cornice on top and plaques with whimsical late-Victorian lettering that doubled as street signs.  They began running into trouble, though, when police busted a prostitution ring in the "cork room", an after-hours lounge that connected the theater to The Corner and only served champaign. 

The theater was forced to close in 1893, but by teaming up with Oscar Hammerstein that same year, their new music hall was opened on 34th Street and Broadway, in a more fashionable area.  The prominent duo's successful formula of variety acts and alcoholic beverages was once again a hit uptown, and in April of 1896 Thomas Edison introduced the United States to the motion picture in the new theater with the unveiling of his Vitascope.

However, Koster & Bial's Music Hall closed in 1902, and as the city's shopping district migrated uptown, Macy's latest building went up, and remains to this day the largest store in the world.  However, a plaque commemorating Edison's demonstration in 1896 can be seen by the door.  The old theatre on 23rd Street was demolished in 1924 and a Chase Bank now stands in its place, but the beer hall annex on 24th Street has quietly remained, with a number of businesses moving in and out, the most famous of these being Billy's Topless from 1970-2001.  It's featured in the 1998 movie "Rounders", where Ed Norton gets beat up by a former business partner (after Matt Damon gets into a fight with his girlfriend outside of McSorley's).  I added a link below.  Historians nostalgic for old New York remember the place as being a Chelsea fixture that never had any complaints from neighbors, didn't have a cover charge, and catered to regular girls who might not get hired in the city's more upscale clubs.  But Mayor Giuliani called the city's adult entertainment market a "corrosive institution", and worked hard to shut down these places, mainly in Times Square, but also holdovers in other parts of the city like this one.  A law was passed stating that an adult establishment could not be within 500 feet of an apartment building, school, or house of worship.

Now it houses The Corner Cafe, a bagel and pizza shop that pays tribute to the building's original name.  Next time you're in the Chelsea area, stop and check out this quaint old building with a very rich history.

The Jefferson Market Library

The Jefferson Market Library today.

The Jefferson Market Courthouse and the Women's House of Detention in the '40s.

The 6th Avenue elevated line in front of the courthouse in the '30s.

Walking along lower Sixth Avenue, it's hard to miss the striking Jefferson Market Library and Garden, at the intersection of West 10th Street and 6th Avenue, a masterpiece in architecture built from 1873-7 that has just recently reopened after some renovations inside, but is still covered in scaffolding.  Walking down there to take a few pictures, I saw it was open for business again and took a look around inside.  The building really is a work of art, inside and out, and as I walked up the spiral staircase to the upper floors I saw inscribed on the circular wall quotes about justice and the law written in intricate gothic lettering.  On the upper and ground floors are ornately carved wooden entrances.  What's now the children's book room, with picture books, a group reading area and computers for teens only, were once the police courts where sensational trials of the likes of Henry K. Thaw and Mae West were held in the early twentieth century; Thaw for the murder of his wife's former lover, architect Stanford White, West for obscenity.  In the basement, there are a couple of arched castle-like entranceways to the former civil court, where the adult computers  and periodicals are.  Sherlock Holmes did his research down there in 1971's "They Might Be Giants".

Several merchants' sheds were set up on the land in 1832, along with the Jefferson Market Assembly Rooms that held trials, named for the late President, and, the following year, a large, octagon-shaped wooden fire tower in the center of the triangular plot formed by the intersection of West 10th Street, 6th and Greenwich Avenues.  Remaining for only a few decades, in 1873 new red-brick, richly decorated victorian structures began to be built in it's place, completed in ten years.  Of the nicely matching picturesque group that consisted of a courthouse, jail and merchants' sheds, only the courthouse remains.  The new, imposing tower and surrounding buildings were based on Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, built for King Ludwig II from 1869 to 1886.  (Only a few blocks away, oddly enough, on the southeast corner of 17th and 7th, directly across from a bank I used to always go to when I worked at Alger, was the last home of Lola Montez, who's catch-phrase inspired the song "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets".  She was Ludwig II's grandfather's mistress and was once made a countess, but died on that corner in poverty in 1861.)  The old jail was torn down by the end of the 1920s, and with Art Deco masterpieces such as the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, a new Art Deco-style female prison, the Women's House of Detention, went up in 1932.  Supposedly, it was the only Art Deco prison ever built, and with it's walls and windows close to street level, the female prisoners could easily heckle passers-by.  Ruth E. Collins, the prison's first warden, called the completion of the structure "a new era in penology", and believed firmly in rehabilitation as well as punishment, and treating the women with dignity and as individuals.  She commissioned a number of works of art, most famously Lucienne Blotch's mural "Cycle of a Woman's Life from Childhood to Womanhood".  David Duchovny's directorial and writing debut, House of D, about his childhood growing up in Greenwich Village in the 1970s, is named for the prison and features it prominently.

Despite Collins' philosophy, the prison became notorious in it's final years over allegations of racial discrimination, abuse and mistreatment.  Black activist Angela Davis was outspoken about the cruel treatment she witnessed, and anti-porn feminist Angela Dworkin testified that she was assaulted by two doctors there.

The courthouse had it's last trial in 1945 and sat vacant until the late '60s, when it was slated for demolition, while contractors such as Robert Moses planned to build apartments there.  However, preservationist and Greenwich Village resident Margot Gayle enlisted the help of writer E.E. Cummings and historian Lewis Mumford and successfully persuaded the city to preserve the building and reuse it as a branch of the New York Public Library.

Instead of the courthouse, the prison, along with the famous mural was destroyed in 1974, mainly due to the bad reputation it had gained in its final years.  In its place a peaceful, well-cared-for park and garden was planted by community residents.  With benches, lush grass and healthy trees, it is one of the many intimate escapes that speckle the concrete city.  In 1996, after 135 years, the old bell in the clock tower rang out once again, putting, as the New York Times stated, "the 'Village' back in 'Greenwich Village'."  It rings every hour, on the hour, from 9AM to 9PM.

All in all, it's a relief for guys like me who appreciate the lost art form of a bygone era.  What a shame it would have been if this building had actually been demolished.  I walked around the Village a little more, and then headed home.  With Open House New York in November, I'll definitely get an early start to sign-ups and try to catch a more in-depth tour of this place.

Lucienne Blotch's "Cycle of a Woman's Life from Childhood to Adulthood".

Ladies' Mile

The Apex Technical School is in the former upscale Simpson-Crawford

 Department Store, built in 1900.

Bed,Bath, and Beyond is in the 1896 Siegel-Cooper "Big Store".

A sign for the new Limelight Marketplace on 6th and 20th.

The front entrance of the Limelight Marketplace.

On the 1900 Adams Dry Goods Store, from 21st-22nd on 6th, one can still see ADG at top.

The 1887 Hugh O'Neill Building on 20th and 6th is now a Men's Wearhouse.

This building on 20th and Broadway was built in 1872 for Lord & Taylor, the store's third location.

The 1887 Warren Building on 20th and Broadway.

The 1884 Gorham Building on 19th and 6th, now a Fishs Eddy.

The 1869 Arnold-Constable Department Store on 19th from 5th to Broadway.

An extension of Arnold-Constable was built on 18th and Broadway on the former home of Edwin Booth.

A sign for the new Limelight Marketplace.

This windows depicting Jesus were formerly behind the altar.

The rose window of the former Church of the Holy Communion remains intact.

Another preserved staind-glass window.

St. John the Baptist.

King David.

Moses.

St. Cecelia.

6th Avenue from 22nd-23rd, Erich Brothers Bargain Store, built 1889, now a Staples and Burlington Coat Factory.

This deli is in the early-20th-century Riker's Drug Store, originally built a jewelers.

The whimsical sign on the side of "The Corner" building, since 1886.

"Koster & Bial" is still carved at the peak of the building.

"The Corner", Koster & Bial's from 1886-1901, Billy's Topless from 1970-2001.

The front door of St. Sava's.

St. Sava's Cathedral, former Trinity Chapel.

Trinity Chapel, built 1851, became St. Sava's Cathedral in 1943.

When I was still working at my last real job down near Chelsea, I always took for granted that this neighborhood is a more picturesque area than further north, but only recently have I researched some of the stories of old buildings I used to walk past everyday. Now, when I'm down there, and I don't happen to be standing outside the old office waiting for somebody to come out so I can beg for my job back, I like to take a walk through what was the city's main shopping district around the turn of the twentieth century, long before 5th Avenue or Times Square grew to be the horrendous tourist traps they are today.

So I took a walk downtown to the old work neighborhood after signing up for another temp agency and tried to study some of these buildings more closely. Now mostly broken up into smaller businesses, these were some of the original large retail stores. What is now a Burlington Coat Factory on 23rd and 6th, where I always go if I need to buy a suit, and the Staples right next store, was originally Erich Brothers, a bargain store. Next to it, on the corner, is a small ornate building, originally a jewelers, then a branch of Riker's Drug Store that resisted a buyout from Erich's who wanted the entire block. It's now a fancy deli that I've never been in. Two blocks down on 21st Street is the Hugh O'Neill building, which was considered more working class than it's retail neighbors, and was named for "the fighting Irishman of 6th Avenue", who opened his store here in 1887. The building was originally constructed with gold domes on top that were later removed, but just recently restored again. His name is still shown at the peak on top. It now houses a Men's Wearhouse which I make a point to avoid because of the pushy salesmen. That and I have no money. Ha!

Apex Technical School, founded in the '60s, is in the 1900 Simpson-Crawford Department Store, from 19th to 20th Streets on the west side of 6th Avenue, which replaced a demolished 1879 version. No price tags were here -- their philosophy, if you had to ask you couldn't afford it. The architecture is rather plane and subdued, unusual in a time when opulence was popular, specifically because the owner didn't want to attract the business of people who rode the 6th Avenue elevated train. The business went bankrupt in 1915.

From 18th to 19th Street on the east side of 6th Avenue is the former Siegal-Cooper's "The Big Store -- A City In Itself" which was from 1896 to 1914 considered the center of New York City shopping. The store was the first ever to offer free samples. "Meet me at the fountain" became a city catch phrase, referring to the store's old centerpiece, which featured Daniel Chester French's statue of The Republic, now in Forest Lawn Cemetery in California. In the 1980s, a youth center called "The Door" was centered here. Now a Bed, Bath & Beyond, Filene's Basement, and TJ Max, I was occasionally sent to pick something up here when I worked at my old job. The building looks fancy enough to be a palace in Europe, and the glass walls of the new Modell's across the street give a great view of it. I was caught staring out there one day a while back and one of the sales associates said to me, "It really is a great view, isn't it? I like to just stand here sometimes during my breaks." Across the street was the B. Altman building, called "The Palace of Trade" from 1876 - 1906, until it moved up to 34th Street and 5th Avenue, leading the way to Midtown and 5th Avenue becoming the center of posh and sophistication.

Across the street from the Hugh O'Neill building is the former 1846 Church of the Holy Communion, the first asymmetrical church in the United States, and attended by most of the wealthy Protestant families of New York, later the notorious dance club The Limelight, later still briefly a club called Avalon (which wasn't all that different from the Limelight as far as illegal activity went), and now very recently reopened again as a mini-mall called The Limelight Marketplace. I recently had the pleasure of being able to walk around in here after seeing it from the outside for so long, and am amazed to see pretty much all of the stained glass windows still intact. Walking up one of the new stairways to the second level of shops, I came across a window depicting St. Cecilia with an inscription at the bottom that read, "The Gift of the Members and Friends of the St. Cecilia Choir Club." In the back is a huge window depicting Jesus surrounded by angels. The windows are very well done (they remind me of the windows of St. Ann's in Nyack), and I'm surprised, after reading about the debauchery of the Club Kids, and watching the movie Party Monster about Michael Alig and James St. James among others, that these great works of art are still here. You can read all about this church/club on my website, RightHereNYC.com.

Further north is a small 1886 building which has seen a lot of history. On the peak on top, and on the side of the building, one can see it was christened "The Corner", because it is on the corner of 24th and 6th, and owned by "Koster &Bial". This duo owned a performance hall and theatre on 23rd and 6th, long demolished, that was famous for its vaudeville shows and orchestra. "The Corner", a block up, was a beer hall annex that survived even when Koster & Bial moved uptown to the site of Macy's, and later went out of business. Almost a hundred years later, from 1970 - 2001, this was Billy's Topless, a seedy, divey, nudey bar that was a holdout from the makeover that the so-called ungovernable city received mostly in Times Square in the '90s, but was eventually shut down by Giuliani in 2001. In the 1998 movie Rounders, about professional poker players, Ed Norton's character gets beaten up in the bathroom here by a former "business partner". For a while it was Empire State Bagels, and last fall it reinvented itself once again as a deli/pizza place called The Corner Cafe.

Supposedly, the buildings along this strip were intentionally built a little stretched because they were meant to be viewed by the 6th Avenue elevated train, and since only the working class road the city trains, these stores were intended for them. The rich shopped along Broadway from Madison Square to Union Square. So I make my way along 23rd Street to the Flatiron Building, where the term "23 Skiddo" supposedly originated when the building was finished in 1902, and police had to chase off loiterers who stood on the corner waiting the to see a bit of ankle from the women whose skirts were blown up by the unusual winds created by the triangular shaped building. On the southwest corner of 20th and Broadway can be seen Lord & Taylor's original store, built in 1873, until moving uptown in 1914. It currently houses the Stores Energie and Miss Sixty, before that Intermix and a china store called Villeroy and Boch. It the early '90s, this building also housed a topless bar. Next door, originally an extension of Lord & Taylor, with the same cast-iron facade, is Equinox Fitness, the company gym that I never belonged to because I was only a full-time temp for most of my time there.

On the west side of Broadway from 18th to 19th Street is the Arnold Constable Department Store building. From 1869 to 1914 it offered "everything from cradle to grave" and was a favorite store of Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Morgans. Across the Street, ABC Carpets, was once home to W & J Sloane, from 1881-1912. The store introduced oriental rugs to New York City, and carpeted the homes of the city's elite families, the Waldorf-Astoria, and the coronation of Czar Nicholas II in 1894. W. (William) Sloane was the foreman of the jury that convicted Boss Tweed in 1873. On my way down here, heading toward 6th Avenue, I past St. Sava's Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, a beautiful 19th century church, originally built as an uptown satellite chapel of Trinity Church on Broadway and Wall Street, that I have yet to see the inside of. Boss Tweed's daughter was married here in 1870, and it is said that the $700, 000 worth of wedding presents she received, a tremendous amount of money by today's standards let alone 140 years ago, led to his downfall.

On the northwest corner of 18th and Broadway, which I've passed so many times, was once the home of one of New York City's most renowned Shakespearian actors in the 19th century, Edwin Boothe. His brother, John Wilkes Boothe, who of course assassinated Abraham Lincoln, often stayed here with him. Between 22nd and 23rd Streets on 6th Avenue, where new apartments were built in 2002, was the Edwin Boothe Theatre from 1869 to 1883, which he not only acted in, but was also in charge of. Sarah Bernhart made her New York debut here in 1890. It was later occupied by the James W. McCreery store from 1895 - 1907, McCreery being the so called "Dean of the Retail Trade". The building was demolished in 1975, but a portrait of Shakespeare from the old building can be seen on the new building's west side.

I can go on and on about the old buildings that line these streets, but I'm heading into new territory further downtown and that will have to be for another blog. Time to head to Union Square and take the train home.