Commerce St, West Village

Commerce street is a really short street with an awful lot going on, historically. It starts at Barrow in the West Village. Right at this corner is a pretty new restaurant called "Commerce." The food is a bit pricey but really good and the service is great. However, I don't like what they did with the place as far as decor goes. It's too bright and modern for such an old building. It used to be the Blue Mill Tavern. The building has been around forever and was in Anything Else, the Brothers McMullen and the series finale of Sex and the City. A lot of famous writers from back in the day used to hang out there. Next door -- well, kinda next door because the street abrubtly changes directions, is a place referred to as Pie Houses. It looks like it's one house with a piece taken out of it because of the the street direction change which I think is pretty cool. Directly across the street are the Twin Houses. The long legend is that they were identical houses built by a sea captain hoping to reconcile his feuding daughters. They weren't built by a captain and there isn't any record of sibling rivalry but it's a fun story to tell and the houses are giant and stunning.
The Cherry Lane theatre is on Commerce. It was founded by Edna St Vincent Millay in 1924 in an old silo. It's a really famous theatre that has premiered plays by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Stein, Beckett and Albee not to mention a slew of great plays in the here and now. Awesome theatre and really beautiful. The corner of Commerce and Barrow is home to the oldest house in the village (1799). It was owned by the man who was business partners with Paul Revere and I think that is so friggin cool. The house is kinda ugly on the side, though. Across Commerce is an apartment building where the government used to conduct LSD experiments on non voluntary subjects -- it was administered by prostitutes. I think that says an awful lot about how much we can trust our government. But, I digress . . .
17 Commerce is where Aaron Burr used to live. 11 Commerce is where Washington Irving lived and wrote Sleepy Hollow. The street ends at 7th avenue making it only run a few blocks. But, that is a jam packed few blocks if you are a history nerd like I am.