57 Great Jones Street
NoHo | built 1868
Open on the map9 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.
- 1862
A saloon keeper at 57 Great Jones Street turns his bar into a Civil War recruiting station
Between 1852 and 1862 a man named Thomas Kavanagh ran a saloon at 57 Great Jones Street. In 1862 he used the place as a recruiting station for a regiment then being raised for service in the Civil War. This was an earlier building on the lot: city property records date the present brick structure to 1900.
“…he used it as a recruiting station for a regiment that was being formed for service in the Civil War…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1901
A gas explosion in the cellar of The Brighton saloon burns its owner
Charles Deveniude owns The Brighton, a saloon and dance hall in a converted stable. When a beer barrel snaps off a gas jet in the cellar and he goes down with a candle, the gas ignites and the blast is heard several blocks away. Deveniude is burned and the building suffers about $500 in damage, but he makes repairs and keeps the business open.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1905
Paul Kelly's lieutenant John Ratta is shot in Little Naples and blames a bullet on the floor
In November 1905 John Ratta, a lieutenant of the gang leader Paul Kelly, was shot inside the saloon Kelly ran as Little Naples. Witnesses gave investigators only one account: that Ratta had slipped and fallen onto a bullet lying on the floor. Ratta told police he expected to survive, carry a gun and settle the matter himself, but he was murdered two nights later.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1905
A man said to be ready to inform on Kelly's illegal voters is killed inside Little Naples
Within days of the Ratta shooting, William E. Harrington was inside Little Naples. Word had spread that he was about to tell police about the floaters, the paid illegal voters Kelly's gang brought in from New Jersey to vote for Tammany candidates. Harrington was shot many times and did not leave the saloon alive. His murder trial came four years later; Kelly was not implicated, but he closed the saloon.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1905
Gangster Paul Kelly takes over the saloon and runs it as Little Naples
By 1905 Deveniude has sold the saloon to Paul Kelly, born Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli, who runs it as Little Naples, a hangout for an Italian gang tied to Tammany Hall. In November his lieutenant John Ratta is shot inside and murdered two nights later, and William E. Harrington, reportedly ready to tell police about illegal voters, is killed in the saloon days afterward. Kelly closes the place after the Harrington trial four years later.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1970
Andy Warhol's Factory Films buys the building and plans to join it to 342 Bowery for a theater
In 1970 Andy Warhol's Factory Films, Inc. bought 57 Great Jones Street together with 342 Bowery, which backs onto it. Warhol joined the two properties at the rear and planned a theater in that space. The building passed to Andy Warhol Enterprise, Inc. in 1974 and stayed in that company's hands until 1990.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1983
Jean-Michel Basquiat begins renting Andy Warhol's Great Jones Street building
Andy Warhol, who bought the building in 1970, leases it to the young painter Jean-Michel Basquiat starting August 30, 1983, at $4,000 a month. Basquiat uses it as both his home and his studio.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1988
Jean-Michel Basquiat is found unconscious at his studio and dies of an overdose
Basquiat's girlfriend finds him unconscious in his bedroom at 57 Great Jones Street. He is dead by the time the ambulance reaches Cabrini Medical Center. An autopsy attributes his death to acute mixed drug intoxication involving opiates and cocaine.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2023
Angelina Jolie leases the building for eight years and sets up Atelier Jolie
In 2023 the actress Angelina Jolie rented 57 Great Jones Street for eight years and founded Atelier Jolie, a for-profit public benefit corporation, at the address. Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture oversaw the renovation, which preserved the early comics by Basquiat and the graffiti by Al Diaz on the upstairs walls and kept the facade open to the city's graffiti artists. A 2025 New York Times article described her vision of a cultural clubhouse that would also draw curious visitors.
“…actress Angelina Jolie rented 57 Great Jones Street for a term of eight years and set up a for-profit public benefit corporation called Atelier Jolie…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 57 Great Jones StreetWikipedia
- Gangsters, Modern Art and Sushi - 57 Great Jones StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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