NOW

The Stumble Inn

Veteran Greenwich Village bar owner Mitchell Banchik is the man behind Stumble Inn. Started in the 1990s, Banchik has since opened a dozen more bars in three states. Today, the dive bar is filled with multiple televisions where locals and visitors stop in to watch the hottest sporting event of the day.

Iggy's

Iggy’s Karaoke Bar is named for its founder, Ignaius Hughes, a wonderful Irishman who arrived in the US at age 18 to work in his aunt’s bar for the summer. In 1994 he was able to realize his dream and open his own place, a bar focused on music and dancing as a tribute to his love of Bruce Springsteen. Iggy passed away suddenly in 2016, but the bar continues to attract a crowd 365 days a year, be it to watch a sporting event, sit down and share a pint from the 24 beers on tap, or sing a favorite song.

THEN

The two brick buildings at the SE corner of East 76th Street and Second Avenue are the only remaining intact tenements from a row of eight which occupied the entire east side of the block.. Commissioned by Solomon Bellmann and built in 1877-78 with stores at street-level, their detailed enframements, pronounced quoin detail at the corner, and galvanized iron cornices are still visible at 1452 and 1454 Second Avenue. The two buildings to the south were joined and altered, while the four tenements at the southern corner were demolished in the late 1940s/early 1950s for the construction of the modernist white brick building there today. The construction didn’t go without misfortune, as a 19-story, 75-ton crane collapsed, damaging the roof of number 1454. Both buildings have boasted a series of shops, such as Tempo Music in 1949, Castle Farraday Wine in 1973, restaurant of the week Primo Elio in 1986, a frozen yogurt joint TCBY in 1989, and many more.