48 East 3rd Street

East Village | built 1837

Open on the map3 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1837

    Builder Ephraim Scudder puts up a Greek Revival row house with a peaked roof

    Read more

    The builder Ephraim Scudder erected this three-story brick house around 1837, one of a row at 44 to 48 East 3rd Street, with a peaked roof in the Greek Revival manner. Later in the 19th century it received a bracketed Queen Anne cornice, and its window lintels and sills were probably replaced. The city's landmark report notes further window changes in 1914 and 1919.

    “Originally built as a three story, Greek Revival-style row house with peaked roof. A new Queen Anne-style cornice was installed…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1959

    George Nelson Preston opens the Artist's Studio, a jazz and poetry storefront, at 48 East 3rd Street

    In 1959 George Nelson Preston, a poet, set up a storefront venue called the Artist's Studio in this 1837 row house. Village Preservation describes it as a place for jazz and poetry performances, with Norman Mailer, Frank O'Hara, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg among its frequent contributors. The room gave Beat-era writers a way to get their work out and in front of a bigger audience.

    Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

  3. 1959

    February 15

    Jack Kerouac reads at the Artist's Studio alongside Ginsberg, Corso and LeRoi Jones

    On February 15, 1959, Jack Kerouac took the stage at Preston's Artist's Studio. Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky and LeRoi Jones also read that night. Fred McDarrah photographed Kerouac reading from On the Road, and the picture later appeared on the cover of The Beat Scene, a 1960 anthology.

    Source: Village Preservation

Further reading

Nearby

All 572 buildings with stories in East Village