NoLita and the Old 'Hood

Old advertisement from pre-area code days.

I really like the eaves on this building at the corner of Lafayette and Spring, though they had to do some violence to them when they installed the fire escapes.

This place was shuttered when I used to live in the neighborhood. I'll have to try it sometime late night.

Street fair, seen looking south on Mulberry from its intersection with Spring.

The nichest of niche foodshops.

Synagogues and Demolition in the Lower East Side

Another synagogue on Rivington, though this one looks operational. The Ten Commandments, again, above the gates. I really like the circular window.

Close up. I assume that this is the Decalogue, as I see five consecutive "Lo" ("No") in there. One of the few Hebrew words I can remember.

It looks as though the entryway is all that remains of the Roumanian Congregation synagogue.

Demolition, also on Rivington.

In Freeman's Alley, off Rivington near Bowery.

I've been questing after a dresser. For a damn long time. I spent an entire Saturday walking around the West 20s, poking my head in all the furniture shops. I combed flea markets. I looked at brand new stuff. I looked at old stuff. I looked in catalogs, I tried Froogle, and I scoured Craiglist.

When I was walking down Greenwich between Seventh and Sixth, on my way back from a haircut after work, I passed two furniture stores. One of them, Old Good Things, had the dresser I'd been looking for.

Tiger oak, quarter-cut, with locks and scrolled top drawers. Perfect.

And it was a few hundred yards from my house all this time.




Closer up on the grain of the tiger oak.

The scrolled top drawer of the tiger oak dresser.

The backs are in pretty good shape.

Both have dovetailed joins on the drawers.

Flat-cut oak. Original metal pulls.

Tiger oak. Scrolled top drawers. Wooden pulls.