48 East 3rd Street
East Village | built 1837
Open on the map3 entries


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.
- 1837
Builder Ephraim Scudder puts up a Greek Revival row house with a peaked roof
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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…”
- 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.
- 1959
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
- 48 East 3rd StreetVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
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- 50 East 3rd Street1 entry
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- 50 2nd Avenue1 entry
- 54 East 3rd Street1 entry
- 58 East 3rd Street1 entry