East 10th St, Greenwich Village

The entire two blocks of East 10th as they run through Greenwich has been completely taken over by NYU and it is ugly as sin. Then again, so is pretty much everything that NYU gets it's hands on. The corner of 10th and 5th is Rubin Hall. It is now a NYU dorm but it used to be the Grosvenor Hotel. It was the most expensive hotel downtown in the 1920's. Ella Cather and Mark Twain both live there for a bit. The Bronfman Center next door has one beautiful piece of architecture on it in a sea of ugly: the windows. They are part of the original building that was the house of the artist that built them and they are stunning. Across the street is the Pen and Brush club. It's a women's art organization that has been around since the '20's and included members such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Marianne Moore and Pearl S Buck. The building is from the mid-19th century and I hope the school doesn't get its grubby mits on this as well. The corner of 10th and Uni houses a building called the Beauclaire. Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford all used to live here at, I believe, the same time.
Across Uni is an apartment building called The Albert Apartments which used to be the Albert Hotel. It was, apparently, quite the writer's haunt. Robert Louis Stevenson, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Wolfe, John Phillips and James Taylor all stayed there. Across the street is a great Italian Restaurant called Il Cantinori. It is incredibly charming and the food is great. Most people know it as the restaurant where Carrie was left alone on her 35th birthday in Sex and the City.
The end of the block has a building with the Silver Spur on the ground floor that was built by a guy called Randall. He used to own most of Greenwich and is the reason why the Village is so much shabbier than the West Village. His will stated that much of his money go to a retirement home for sailors and the property is all tied up in trusts that state they must be used for public works. Oh, bizarre old New York laws. Some of them are so crazy. The NYU residence hall across the street used to be another famous hotel for the artsy set. The top floor was a speakeasy.
Grace Church is at the end of the block and it is one of my favorite churches in the city. It is incredibly old and just stunning. They have a quartet playing various classical music sets every weekday around lunch and it is magical. I highly recommend everyone go to that. The building is from the mid-19th century but because of the Gothic architecture it looks much older. You legitimately feel like you have been transported back in time.