A Katz History Lesson: University Place
Formerly part of Wooster Street until 1838, University Place became its own short street a year after New York University’s first building opened on Washington Square. During the 1800s and early 1900s the area was known for being the location of the original Union Theological Seminary and the New York Society Library.
However, by the 1950s, things changed when the New York School — an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians — took up residence and transformed the area for years to come.
If this artistic rag tag group had anything in common, it was their affinity of surrealist work and contemporary avant-garde art movements such as action painting, abstract expressionism, and improvisational theater. The poet Frank O’Hara became one of the leading figures of the movement. His wild variety of friends and his post as curator at the Museum of Modern Art, created connections and collaborations which helped the movement grow.
The New York School writers, some of the more famous figures to emerge during the 1950s, created work whose subject matter was often observational. The writing style contrasted with the more confessional style of critically popular poetry of the time. Writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Gregory Corso became popular for an immediate and spontaneous stream of conscious writing full of vivid imagery. The wild rage and passion of their work aligned with the art of contemporary New York School painters in the area such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
A popular hangout for many of these artists was The Cedar Tavern. The dive bar and restaurant became an informal gathering place for many because the drinks were cheap and the bar was never full of tourists or business types. In fact, during the 1950s and 60s the entire area of University Place was quite downtrodden.
Among the guests that frequented The Cedar Tavern were Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, George Plimpton and Amiri Baraka. There are rumors Pollock was eventually banned from the establishment for tearing the bathroom door off its hinges one night and hurling it across the room at Franz Kline.
In the 1960s, The Cedar Tavern became an incubator for the next wave of young artists to move to New York City, including Bob Dylan and the composer David Amram. Over the next few decades however, the area, like much of lower Manhattan, changed drastically.
As the area grew in value, artists were pushed out and their old haunts — clubs, record stores, bars and restaurants — were shuttered to make way for condominiums, offices and chain stores. In December of 2006, The Cedar Tavern was closed to allow for the construction of a new residential building. The once famous bar frontage was replaced by a CVS Pharmacy.
Although much of the physical artistic history has been erased from University Place today and replaced with new buildings and businesses, the legend and art of those who inhabited the area half a century ago still lives on in our museums, book shelves and music streaming services.
Today, we at Katz are delighted to work on one of the many historic Greek Revival row houses in the landmark district. The building, which was constructed in 1843 as a single family residence, was remodeled in the 1920’s to accommodate a store at ground level. Today it is a multifamily residence that has seen better days. Our job is to restore the exterior and bring back some of the hidden history of its infamous bygone days.
Special thanks to oldnyc.org for access to the archival photos used in this post.
