19-23 St. Marks' Place Lot #48

Overview

Type of resource: Business & Private home
Original use: Unknown
Current use: Business & Private home
Over all condition: excellent
Explain: Even though this building has no unique structural patters, it is well preserved and harmony between upper floors as residence and lower floors as business is merit.
Description of resource: Interestingly, wheelchair elevator has installed in the front steel stairs.
History of resource: This building was an altered version of a collection of federal style buildings constructed in 1832-1833 by Thomas E. Davis
Later in the century, as the neighborhood changed and a predominantly immigrant working-class emerged, 19 and 21 St. Marks were purchased by a German Music Club, the Arion Society. When they moved uptown, a developer named George Ehret purchased and combined 19-23 St. Marks to for a large community hall and ballroom, named Arlington Hall. This was a popular venue that hosted everything from weddings and dances to union conventions and political events, including a speech by Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt in 1895 in which he explained his view on the Excise Law. This event amassed a swarm of hundreds of people. In 1920, the Polish National Home bought the19-25 St. Marks, and Arlington Hall was officially closed. The buildings became occupied by Polish businesses and organizations,and eventually, a popular restaurant known as The Dom. By 1960, Stanley Tolkin ran the famous Stanley’s Bar downstairs and rented the upstairs for psychedelic light shows. In 1966, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey began renting the upstairs space and created The Dom nightclub, for which The Velvet Underground was the house band. In 1967, The Dom was turned into The Electric Circus by former William Morris agent, Jerry Brandt. Acts who performed at the famously open-minded Electric Circus include Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Blue Oyster Cult, Jefferson Airplane, and many more. Eventually the psychedelic culture of the 1960s declined and The Electric Circus was sold to Joyce Hartwell’s All-Craft Center, a non-alcoholic community meeting place which gave retail space to local artists, taught women carpentry skills, and acted as a rehab and half-way house for recovering addicts. The community center lasted until 2003.
Today, four buildings have been combined to form a sprawling and consolidated mini-mall with newly designed condominiums on the upper floor

Architect: Unknown
Owner: original Owner : Thomas E. Davis.

Greenwich Village Block 464 Green Map
updated 04/2013 by NYU Tourism Maps