This building, 9 East 10th Street (once the home of author Dawn Powell), features a really, really neat building number sign.
It’s beautifully ornate, especially on this otherwise unremarkable building.
I love the African theme, sort of feels like it should be on the outside of a safari club (note: commenters are saying this is Indian – I apologize for my cultural ignorance).
-SCOUT
Last week, I was scouting around the Upper West Side when I noticed something nestled in the miniscule gap between two buildings on Columbus… Literally occupying about 3 or 4 feet of space, was that a store?? Indeed it was! Known as the “Amazing Store and Smoke Shop” (which pretty much covers everything, if you…
Ice flow on the East River today… -SCOUT
One of the most beautiful and pleasant places in the city is the campus of Columbia University. It is simply incredible that such a place exists in the tightly packed metropolis that is Manhattan, and I never pass up a chance to visit. Located in the center of campus is the statue of Alma Mater…
Note: It’s gone. You know 35 Cooper Square, right? Sure you do. It’s that cute little building hidden in the shadow of the modern Cooper Square Hotel, a building best described architecturally as having been inspired by Optimus Prime’s phallus. If you had passed it today at around 4:30pm, you’d have seen a group of…
I love streets in New York that make you feel as far from the city as possible. Obvious examples include Washington Mews and Pomander Walk, but a third less noted example is one of my favorites: Centre Market Place in Nolita. Here, hidden in the shadow of the beautiful Police Building, a row of townhouses…
I love traveling down Flatbush Ave past Prospect Park because there’s so much history to find hidden on every block. I noticed this Oldsmobile ghost sign (ghost sign: a business sign remaining from a long defunct business) at the corner of Avenue D and Flatbush above a liquor store: God knows how long ago this…
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The sigh is stunning!!! The floral pattern reminds me of Balinese wood craft, but looking at the elephants, it could be Indian wood craft..
i agree, i think it’s more likely indian than african.
good find regardless!!!
hey-o!
lovely blog, was directed here from curbed.com. I love your discovery of the Minetta Creek, I’m a student at NYU and learned about the creek/a lot of the city’s history pre-people but didn’t know it’s THAT close to campus, thanks 🙂
Too bad the trunks are facing down. That is one bad luck charm or should I say 6 bad luck charms at your front door.
I’m going through your archives, so I apologize for the lateness of this post but I love that you reference Dawn Powell!!! One of my favorite authors. Her books about NYC are fantastic.
High productivity mind mapping secrets – revealed
I actually lived in this building growing. You’d be sad to know that although they have chosen to keep the exterior original (there used to be black paint covering all the wood work on the front, which they had removed), they gutted the inside to make it more modern. the initials “AVA” are those of the architect’s wife fyi. I love that front too much
The initials, “AVA” are, unfortunately NOT the initials of the architect’s wife. His wife’s name was Florence Lucretia Sands. They were married in 1893. The origin of the name “AVA” is something of a mystery; one guess is that it relates to a town upstate by that name where the architect, William Hamilton Russell, summered with his family when he was a boy.