MacDougal Street is a one-way street in the
Greenwich Village and
SoHo neighborhoods of
Manhattan,
New York City. The street is bounded on the south by Prince Street and on the north by
West 8th Street; its numbering begins in the south. Between
Waverly Place and
West 3rd Street it carries the name
Washington Square West and the numbering scheme changes, running north to south, beginning with #29 Washington Square West at Waverly Place and ending at #37 at West 3rd Street. Traffic on the street runs southbound (downtown).
MacDougal Street is named for
Alexander McDougall, a merchant and
Revolutionary War military leader. MacDougall is also the namesake of MacDougal Alley, a private
cul-de-sac
A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet.
The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...
owned jointly by the residents of Washington Square North to its south and West 8th Street to its north, for whom it was created in 1833 for their stables. The Alley runs east off MacDougal Street in the block between West 8th Street and Waverly Place/Washington Square North.
MacDougal Street has been called "the most colorful and magnetic venue for tourists on an evening outing in the Village". It has been the subject of many songs, poems, and other forms of artistic expression, and has been frequented by numerous famous individuals.
Historic locations and residents
MacDougal Street
*No. 59 was the location of
Avignone Chemists, the oldest apothecary in the United States. Originally named Stock Pharmacy, the name changed when Francis Avignone purchased the pharmacy in 1898. Avignone was recognized as an important small business with the presentation of a Village Award by the
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation in 2013.
*Nos. 74–96 between
Houston and
Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was ...
s are houses of the
MacDougal–Sullivan Gardens Historic District, which were built c.1844 in the
Greek Revival style
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
. However, the houses deteriorated over time until they were bought by
William Sloane Coffin in 1920 and thoroughly renovated by Francis Y. Joannes and Maxwell Hyde in
Colonial Revival style
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture.
The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...
in 1921; their rear yards were combined with those of the houses behind them on
Sullivan Street to make a common garden.
*No. 77 is the clubhouse of the New York Rifle Club (Trio a Segno).
*Cafe Dante, at No. 81 features a giant photo mural of Florence.
* At the corner of MacDougal and
Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was ...
, at No. 93, is the former site of the
San Remo Cafe, which attracted many
bohemians such as
James Agee
James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time Magazine'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. ...
,
W. H. Auden,
James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...
,
William S. Burroughs,
Gregory Corso,
Miles Davis,
Allen Ginsberg,
Frank O'Hara,
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian a ...
,
Jackson Pollock,
William Styron,
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...
,
Gore Vidal and many others. The cafe is featured on the cover of
Fred Neil's debut folk-rock album ''
Bleecker & MacDougal''.
*Bob Dylan bought an apartment in 1969 at No. 94.
["What Do Anna Wintour and Bob Dylan Have in Common? This Secret Garden"]
by Steven Kurutz, '' The New York Times'', September 28, 2016
*No. 99 was home of
99 Records, a progressive music and fashion store owned by Gina Franklin and
Ed Bahlman. 99 Records released 1980's club hits by
Liquid Liquid,
ESG, and the
Bush Tetras, among several others.
* Minetta Tavern at No. 113 is a trattoria/bar which has seen such regulars as
E. E. Cummings,
Joe Gould,
Ernest Hemingway,
Eugene O'Neill,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
and many others.
*The bar
Kettle of Fish
''Kettle of Fish (88-98)'' is the title of a compilation album by Fish released in 1998, providing a retrospective on his solo career plus two new songs. Unlike the previous best-of ''Yin and Yang'' (1995), this is a single disc and does not in ...
opened in 1950 at No. 114, moving in 1986 to the space previously occupied by
Gerde's Folk City. A photo by
Jerry Yulsman
Jerry Yulsman (February 8, 1924 – August 6, 1999) was an American novelist and a photographer best known for his photographs of Jack Kerouac, notably the cover illustration on Joyce Johnson's memoir ''Minor Characters''.
Yulsman's first cam ...
of Jack Kerouac in front of its neon "Bar" sign was used in a black-and-white version and, with
Joyce Johnson removed from the image, in an advertisement for the clothing retailer
The Gap.
*
Bob Dylan had his first New York City gig at
Cafe Wha? at No. 115. This is also where
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
played some early gigs.
* No. 116 used to be
The Gaslight Cafe
The Gaslight Cafe was a coffeehouse in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. Also known as The Village Gaslight, it opened in 1958 and became notable as a venue for folk music and other musical acts.Al AronowitzThe Gaslight, ...
, where
Ray Bremser
Ray Bremser (February 22, 1934 – November 3, 1998) was an American poet married to Brenda Bremser ().
Bremser was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. When he was 17 he went AWOL from the United States Air Force and was briefly imprisoned. The ne ...
,
Gregory Corso,
Bob Dylan,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Allen Ginsberg,
LeRoi Jones
Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...
,
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian a ...
,
Dave Van Ronk and many others read poetry. Bob Dylan lived there for a time.
* The
Comedy Cellar at No. 117 has featured nearly every notable American comedian.
*
Caffe Reggio, at No. 119, a coffeehouse since 1927, has been featured in many movies including ''
The Godfather Part II''. Many celebrities have been spotted or photographed in this location. In 1959 presidential hopeful
John F. Kennedy made a speech outside the coffee shop.
*No. 127–131 between West 3rd and 4th Streets were built c.1828–29 as residences in the
Federal style
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...
. All three had been converted to commercial use by the 1920s, and were designated
New York City landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
s in 2004.
* No. 129 is
La Lanterna di Vittorio, an Italian pizzeria/cafe with a jazz venue in the basement known as the "Bar Next Door". No. 129 was also in 1925 the address of the lesbian bar "
Eve's Hangout" or "Eve Addams's Tearoom", owned by Polish-born and Parisian writer
Eva Kotchever
Eva Kotchever, known also as Eve Adams or Eve Addams, born as Chawa Zloczower (1891 – 19 December 1943) was a Polish-Jewish émigré librarian and writer, who is the author of ''Lesbian Love'' and from 1925 to 1926 ran a popular, openly lesbi ...
, murdered in
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
in 1943. The city of Paris pays tribute to her by naming a street,
rue Eva-Kotchever
Rue Eva Kotchever is a street in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France.
History
It was named after Polish activist Eva Kotchever, owner of the Eve's Hangout in New York, murdered at Auschwitz in 1943.
The kindergarten and the public school o ...
, and a school in the neighbourhood she lived after the closure by police of her bar for "obscenity".
*
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Little Men'' (1871) and ''Jo's Boys'' (1886). Raised in ...
lived in her uncle's home at Nos. 130–132.
* The upstairs of No. 137 was the home of the Liberal Club during the 1910s. Members included such notable intellectuals as:
Sherwood Anderson,
Theodore Dreiser,
Max Eastman,
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...
,
Sinclair Lewis,
Jack London,
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...
,
Upton Sinclair and
Lincoln Steffens.
* No. 146 was once a Caribbean restaurant frequented by
James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...
,
Paul Robeson,
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
,
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Ba ...
and
Henry Miller.
*The Tenth
Church of Christ, Scientist
The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word an ...
, at No. 171 between Washington Square North and East 8th Street was built in 1891 as a factory and store, and was designed by
Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell
James Renwick Jr. (born November 11, 1818, Bloomingdale, in Upper Manhattan, New York City – June 23, 1895, New York City) was an American architect in the 19th century. ''The Encyclopedia of American Architecture'' calls him "one of the most ...
. It was converted into a church in the modern style in 1966–67 by
Victor Christ-Janer
Victor F. Christ-Janer (March 27, 1915 – March 24, 2008) was an American architect who along with the world-renowned Harvard Five helped define the Modernist architectural movement in New Canaan, Connecticut. He was also an educator, artist, an ...
.
* The corner of
West 8th Street and MacDougal, at 32 West 8th Street, is the former location of 8th Street Books, where Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg first met.
Other notable residents include
Francesco Carrozzini,
Francesco Clemente,
Diego Della Valle,
John Hammond Jr.
John Paul Hammond (born November 13, 1942 in New York City) is an American singer and musician. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as John Hammond Jr.
Background
Hammond is a son of record producer and tal ...
,
Baz Luhrmann
Mark Anthony Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962), known professionally as Baz Luhrmann, is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor. With projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music and recording industries, he is re ...
,
Pat Steir
Pat Steir (born 1940) is an American Painting, painter and Printmaking, printmaker. Her early work was loosely associated with conceptual art and minimalism, however, she is best known for her abstract dripped, splashed and poured "Waterfall" pa ...
.
Alexander Calder bought a townhouse in the 1960s for his daughter Mary.
Washington Square
* No. 27 is the former residence of
Matthew Broderick and
Uta Hagen.
*
Eleanor Roosevelt lived at No. 29 after the death of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
*
Eugene O'Neill lived at the corner of MacDougal and Washington Square South at No. 38 Washington Square.
MacDougal Alley
*
Jackson Pollock lived in apartment No. 9 in MacDougal Alley.
* The Czech-American sculptor
Albin Polasek rented space at 9 MacDougal Alley from 1914 until 1916.
* The artist
James McBey took a photograph of 11 MacDougal Alley in the 1890s.
In media
*In 1954
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian a ...
wrote the poem "MacDougal Street Blues".
*American folk singer
Dave Van Ronk was nicknamed "
The Mayor of MacDougal Street", and a posthumous compilation album and his biography by
Elijah Wald were titled after this nickname.
*The song "
New York, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...
", from the musical
''On the Town'', makes reference to the alley as being "in the heart of
Green-Witch Village".
References
Sources
*
*
External links
"Positively 4th Street Revisited"from ''
Q'', May 1995, pp. 56, 57;
with images"The Beats Go on"by Brian Niemietz, ''
New York Post'', January 13, 2007; article about
The Beats in Greenwich Village, particularly about Macdougal Street nos. 93 (San Remo), 115 (
Cafe Wha?), 119 (
Caffe Reggio).
*Mushett, Travis
"Street Writer: MacDougal Street" ''Blunderbuss Magazine''
{{Authority control
Streets in Manhattan
Greenwich Village
SoHo, Manhattan