On the quiet corner of West 10th Street and Waverly Place, one of New York’s oldest watering holes has been operating since around 1864. It…
The Village East Cinema: From Yiddish Theater to Arthouse Cinema
On Nov. 16, the Village East Cinema held a special screening of The Room, a maybe-the-worst-film-ever classic that has become a cult phenomenon. The screening…
Our 36-Hour New Year’s Party Crawl
From the far reaches of Red Hook to downtown Manhattan and back again to Bushwick’s warehouses, our New Year’s was a 36-hour race against time…
How Mariners’ Temple Survived Fire and Flux in Chinatown
On September 21, 1845, Rev. William R., Williams preached a sermon entitled “God’s presence in his sanctuary,” welcoming congregants back to their new edifice at…
From Governor’s Mansion to Russian Anarchist Hotbed
On Nov. 7, 1919, the second anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, US federal agents and New York City policemen, armed with clubs and blackjacks, raided…
A Firehouse Where Pioneering Feminists Have Carried the Torch
Eleanor Cooper was determined to keep 243 West 20th Street from turning into an icebox. This almost seemed like a joke, if she thought about…
The Dance Hall That Charmed Dickens in America’s First Slum
Charles Dickens toured Five Points for a day and found only two things he liked about it. One was the pigs. Dickens described the city…
In Brooklyn, Luxury Apartments Where Walt Whitman Once Worked With a Bright Heart
Leaning against the rattling doors of a Brooklyn-bound train, their noses to the ground even as they cross the East River, commuters easily miss the…
Don’t Be Surprised If Musical (and Romantic) Duo Drug Couple Runs For Office
Brooklyn indie duo Drug Couple is a band marked by a series of contradictory facets. The band’s members, Miles and Becca (themselves a couple) are…
New Book Reveals Downtown Ghost Signs Hiding in Plain Sight
Over the years, B+B contributor Frank Mastropolo has brought us a series on Lower Manhattan’s ghost signs; painted on walls or erected in metal or…