NYC Neighborhood News
  • The old elevated railroad running through Cooper Square
    The old elevated railroad running through Cooper Square
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  • Cooper Union where Lincoln gave a speech that altered the course of history
    Cooper Union where Lincoln gave a speech that altered the course of history
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  • Oh that cube has seen a lot of forties and joints over the years
    Oh that cube has seen a lot of forties and joints over the years
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  • Colonnade Row, used to be home to an Astor, now the Blue Man Group
    Colonnade Row, used to be home to an Astor, now the Blue Man Group
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  • Pre-Starbucks
    Pre-Starbucks
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  • It's a Walgreen's/David Barton gym now.
    It's a Walgreen's/David Barton gym now.
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Cooper Square Through the Years

A historial slideshow of The Standard, East Village's frontyard
Oct 26 2012

Curbed.com put together this pre-Starbucks slideshow of the Astor/Cooper Square neighborhood (The Standard, East Village’s stomping grounds) dating all the way back to the 1860s. See them all here.

  1. Some interesting factoids:
  2. • There used to be an elevated rail
  3. • On Lafayette Street nine Greek revival townhouses were constructed in the 1830s, housing the likes of President John Tyler, John Jacob Astor III, and Washington Irving.
  4. • According to a Curbed commenter (he’s wearing a bow-tie so he must be trustworthy) that off-kilter, twirly cube thing in Astor Square was designed by Tony Rosenthal and is titled “Alamo.” It was installed in 1967 as part of a temporary exhibition.
  5. • During the late 1800s, on the current site of The Standard, there used to be a gay brothel called “The Buck”