NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH JONES STREET—A SINGLE-BLOCK LANE LOCATED IN THE WEST VILLAGE—GREAT JONES STREET IS A TWO-BLOCK STRETCH THAT LIES BETWEEN BROADWAY AND THE BOWERY. IT IS WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF THE NOHO HISTORIC DISTRICT, AND IS MARKED BY THE DISTRICT’S CHARACTERISTIC ROMANESQUE, RENAISSANCE, AND NEOCLASSICAL FACADES AS WELL AS MODERN CONSTRUCTION THAT TOOK PLACE BEFORE THE AREA WAS GRANTED LANDMARK STATUS. BUT WHAT DISTINGUISHES GREAT JONES STREET FROM OTHERS IS NEITHER ITS LOCATION NOR THE INCONGRUITY OF ITS ARCHITECTURE. WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL, WHAT MAKES IT ALLURING, IS A RICHLY MYSTERIOUS AND URBAN HISTORY THAT WEAVES TOGETHER THE STORIES OF ARISTOCRATS, OUTLAWS, AND HIGH-PROFILE ARTISTS.
GREAT JONES STREET WAS DONATED TO THE CITY BY LOCAL LAWYER, SAMUEL JONES, NEAR THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY WITH THE STIPULATION THAT IT HAD TO BE NAMED AFTER HIM. HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THAT CONDITION, THE STREET LIKELY WOULD HAVE CONTINUED ON AS EAST 3RD STREET. IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY THE STREET HAD GAINED A REPUTATION AS A SANCTUARY OF THE ELITE. IT WAS WHERE FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR PHILIP HONE—KNOWN MORE FOR HIS CONTRIBUTIONS AS AN ARISTOCRATIC SOCIALITE THAN AS A PUBLIC SERVANT—MADE HIS HOME AFTER HIS TIME IN OFFICE.
BY THE LATE-19TH CENTURY, HOWEVER, WHEN THE CITY’S WEALTHY MOVED UPTOWN, THE STREET BECAME HOME TO A TEEMING IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY OF IRISH, GERMANS, AND ITALIANS, AND BECAME A PRODUCTION ZONE FOR WAGONS, HATS, AND COFFINS. IN THE EARLY-20TH CENTURY IT WAS WHERE NOTORIOUS “FIVE POINTS” GANG LEADER PAUL KELLY DECIDED TO HEADQUARTER HIS OPERATION. EVENTUALLY, AS THE CITY CONTINUED TO EVOLVE, GREAT JONES STREET BECAME AN ENCLAVE FOR ARTISTS, NONE OF WHICH WERE MORE RENOWNED THAN ANDY WARHOL AND JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT. THE LATTER RENTED OUT WARHOL’S GREAT JONES STREET APARTMENT AND LIVED AND WORKED THERE UNTIL HIS DEATH.
GREAT JONES STREET IS LINED WITH SMALL GALLERIES, SHOPS, AND CAFES. IT IS ONCE AGAIN A SOUGHT-AFTER ADDRESS FOR THE CITY’S AFFLUENT. WALKING DOWN THE STREET TODAY IT IS DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE JUST HOW MUCH WENT ON IN THIS LITTLE TWO-BLOCK CORNER OF THE CITY. BUT ALL ALONG THIS EXCLUSIVE CORRIDOR—IN AN UNASSUMING BRICK BUILDING FACED WITH A TRIO OF ARCHED WINDOWS, IN ONE OF THE MANY CAST-IRON EDIFICES THAT SEEM TO TOWER OVER EVERYTHING ELSE, OR IN THE ALLEY THAT IS AS SURPRISING TO COME UPON AS IT IS ENIGMATIC—THERE STILL EXIST REMNANTS OF AN IRRESISTIBLY COLORFUL PAST.
