East 9 St, Greenwich Village

9th has a lot of history through its trek in Greenwich. It is quite lovely considering the fact that it is predominantly apartment buildings and businesses as well. It isn't too busy but it does have a lot of activity. The apartments are all old and grand and it's . . . well, it's kind of a perfect New York street.
There are two old and beautiful buildings on the corner of 6th and 9th that house two pretty new establishments on the ground floor. Lenny's is a really popular sandwich shop that is quite big for a place that only makes sandwiches in my opinion. And, across the street is the market, Citarella. Citarella is great, but the space used to hold Balducci's which was, apparently, incredible and quite famous in New York as far as markets go. All of the apartment buildings on this block are lovely. They maintain a neighborhood kind of vibe in aesthetic even though some of the buildings are quite large. And, they have a bit of history to them as well. 46 West 9th is where Dawn Powell lived when she wrote her first novel. The creator of the Public Theatre lived in the Portsmouth Theatre for almost twenty years. Anais Nin and Marianne Moore both lived at 35 -- though at separate times, obviously. And, Elinor Wylie lived at 36. I guess you call this the Writer's Block because so many noteworthy writers lived within just a few steps from each other (had they all been alive at the same time). The Hotel Griffou is midway down the block on the north side of 9th. It used to be a bohemian hotel and now it's a restaurant that I hate to say I love, but man, I love this place. The interior is dark and gothic and the food is exquisite. It was so trendy when it first opened that I never wanted to go there. But, I finally did and fell a little bit in love with the place. It's just too gorgeous to not like. The end of the block houses Cru, a wine bar with a 200 page wine list. If you're really into wine, this is the place to go. If you're kind of into wine (like myself) the selection is extremely overwhelming.
The corner of 9th and 5th has an apartment building called the Brevoort which used to be a hotel for artists and radicals. Isadora Duncan, Eugene O'Neill, Edna St Vincent Millay and Nathanael West all lived here. Mabel Dodge's literary salon used to be directly across the street at 23. I guess it was an easy walk for a lot of the people invited, eh? The corner of 9th and Uni has a really beautiful apartment structure called the Beauclaire where Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins lived as well as Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford.
Across University holds one of my favorite places in the city: The Knickerbocker. It has an old diner feel but I just think it's so cool. The waitresses are snippy and the clientele is older but the food is greasy in a good way and it looks so old school that it doesn't have that depressing diner energy. I go here with my dad every time he comes to visit. At the end of the block is a place called Randall apartments which is named for the sea captain that owned much of central Greenwich. His house was where the apartment building now stands. I always wondered why the West Village was so much prettier than Greenwich, and apparently, it's because this guy left most of his land in an unbreakable trust for retired sailors. Much of Greenwich's real estate is still tied up in this trust and the buildings are never repaired. Some of New York's laws are crazy. And, this is one of them.
The end of 9th's tenure in Greenwich is at Wanamaker Place. 9th actually is renamed Wanamaker for just one block before it turns back into 9th due to the building on the south side of the street. It's now a commercial business building, but the grand looking thing that takes up an entire block used to be the place to be in department shopping at the turn of the 20th century. Apparently, it was so famous, the entire street was named after it just for these few steps. It really is a beautiful building but I can't imagine what kind of marathon shopping that must have been. The place is huge.