Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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ASTOR PLACE
Subway N, R to 8th St; #6 to Astor Place.
MAP
Astor Place
marks the western fringe of the East Village, named after real-estate tycoon
John Jacob Astor. Infamous for his greed, Astor was the wealthiest person in the US at the
time of his death in 1848 (worth $115bn in modern terms). Beneath the replicated old-fash-
ioned kiosk of the Astor Place subway station, the platform walls sport reliefs of beavers, re-
calling Astor's first big killings - in the fur trade. The teen hangout here is the balancing
black steel cube
Alamo
(1967) by Tony Rosenthal, which dominates the centre of the inter-
section. In the 1830s,
Lafayette St
, which runs south from Astor Place, was home to the
city's wealthiest residents;
Colonnade Row
, a strip of four 1833 Greek-Revival houses with
Corinthian columns, is all that remains.
The stocky brownstone-and-brick building across Lafayette was once the
Astor Library
.
Built with a bequest from Astor between 1853 and 1881, it was the first public library in
New York. It became the Public Theater in 1967.
Astor Place Opera House
was erected on
the corner of Astor Place and East 8th Street in 1847, infamous as the site of the Astor Place
Riot two years later. Supporters of local stage-star Edwin Forrest tried to stop the perform-
