Doors and famous people on Horatio Street (the street I live on) from the Hudson River to Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich Village, New York City. Horatio Doors are for Norm’s Thursday Doors, April 21.

---

95 and 113 are luxury condos converted from factory buildings near the river. Odd numbers are on the north side and even on the south side of the street. This yellow brick building was built in 1947. While under construction the wood foundations of a 1812 fort were found. Pumps were installed in the basement to supply freezing brine water to the whole sale meat venders in the area.

---

Washington Commons – a small park on the south side of Washington Street between Jane and Horatio Streets.

---

83 has a tradesman’s entrance or entrance to rear building (lower door on the right) to the rear.

---

82: Playwright Clifford Odets lived in an apartment building there in 1933-35; he wrote Waiting for Lefty there in 1934.

---

81: Writer James Baldwin lived here in the 1960s while writing Another Country.

---

79 is a four-story 1870 building that was home to novelist William Gaddis in the 1930s and 1940s. It was sold for $7.4 million in 2008, and for $10.5 million in 2012. Note the larger French style windows.

---

77 was Built c. 1836.

---

73 houses the West Village Nursery School, a coop founded c. 1962. It was a nursery school before then because my husband Marc Felix attended it back in 1949.

---

71 looks good in the snow.

---

69: Larry Kert, the original Tony in West Side Story, who later won a Tony as the lead in Company, lived here from 1977 until his death in 1999.

---

68 is modern.

---

65: Marc was friends of the Leacock’s children who lived here in the late 1950s to early 1960s.

---

62 was once a stable, now a home for a classic Porsche. This, like some other houses, had its stoop removed and the lower trademans entrance became the main entry.

---

 

---

53 was Built c. 1848.

---

51: Musician Todd Rundgren lived there with his girlfriend Bebe Buell, a singer and fashion model.

---

Corner of Horatio (633 Hudson): Writer John Cheever lived in a former building here, a teenaged dropout living on bread and buttermilk, when The New Republic published his first short story. Earlier, this address was the headquarters of the Hudson Dusters, a criminal gang whose territory was Manhattan below 13^th Street and west of Broadway. They were shut down by police in 1916.

---

50 was built in 1877. Marc Felix lives here; first with his mother since his birth in 1946, and then with me, Sherry Felix, since 1971. Marc’s mother, Myriam (1918-1971), knew many artists and writers; such as, James Baldwin, Jason Robards, Rip Torn, Kim Stanley, Alfred Ryder,  Alan Ginsburg  and many othe actors, Jazz and Folk musicians..

---

The musician Richie Havens lived on Horatio for some time.

---

48: The sculptor Cheim Gross had his studio in this old Firehouse. The famous actor Anthony Quinn visited Gross for sculpture lessons.

---

47: Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollack lived there briefly in the early 1930s.

---

1, 3 and 5: Gypsies live at number 3 which used to be a variety store.

---

Green Triangle at Horatio Street, Jane Street and 8^th Avenue.

---

2 is on the corner of Greenwich Avenue and was the address of Jackson Hall (1859-63), the meeting place of the Mozart Hall faction of the Democratic Party – opponents of Tammany Hall. A 17-story red-brick coop, built in 1931, stands there now.

Before the Van Gogh apartments at number 2 (1960) there were one story shops there. In one there was a furniture maker, a friend of Marc’s mother, who only used wood joinery in his constrctuiion. Sadly, he commited suicide.

---

Jackson Square Park is bounded by Horatio Street, Greenwich Avenue and 8^th Avenue. It was acquired by the city in 1826, named for President Andrew Jackson, and was redesigned by Calvert Vaux and Parks superintendent Samuel Parsons in 1887. The cast-iron fountain was installed in 1990.

Unfortunately, Greenwich Village is no longer a center for artists. It is the new “Gold Coast.” Low cost housing, the old hangouts and neighborhood stores are gone; replaced with condos, expensive restaurants, nightclubs, and boutiques.

Sources: http://www.nysonglines.com/horatio.htm and links to Wikipedia articles.
Personal history by Marc and Sherry Felix.

Marc Felix leads history tours of Greenwich Village