Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
RUSSIAN & TURKISH BATHS
TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK
Subway L to First Ave; N, R to 8th St; #6 to Astor Place.
MAP
Fringed by avenues A and B and East 7th and East 10th streets,
Tompkins Square Park
was one of the city's great centres for political protest and homes of radical thought. In the
Sixties, regular demonstrations were organized here, and during the 1980s, the park was
more or less a shantytown until the homeless were kicked out in 1991. Today it has a play-
ground, dog run and a summer jazz festival. The famous saxophonist and composer Charlie
“Bird” Parker lived at 151 Avenue B, a simple whitewashed 1849 house with a Gothic door-
way (closed to the public). Bird lived here from 1950 until 1954, when he died of a
pneumonia-related haemorrhage.
