Mac Dougal Street - Historic Locations and Residents

Historic Locations and Residents

• On the corner of West 8th Street/MacDougal at 32 West 8th Street is the former location of 8th Street Books, where Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg first met.
• Louisa May Alcott lived in her uncle's home, 130–132 MacDougal. Some say she wrote Little Women here.
• Jackson Pollock lived in apartment no. 9 in MacDougal Alley.
• At the corner of MacDougal/Washington Square North at 27 is the former residence of Matthew Broderick and Uta Hagen.
• Eleanor Roosevelt lived on the corner of MacDougal/Washington Square North at 29 after the death of president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• The southwest corner of Washington Square Park, which flanks one side of MacDougal Street, is the site of many historic chess games as well as the film Searching for Bobby Fischer.
• Eugene O'Neill lived at the corner of MacDougal/Washington Square South at No. 38.
• In the upstairs of 137 MacDougal Street was the homebase of the Liberal Club which existed during the 1910s. Members included such notable intellectuals as: Sherwood Anderson, Theodore Dreiser, Max Eastman, Emma Goldman, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, Margaret Sanger, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens.
• 146 MacDougal used to be a Caribbean restaurant frequented by James Baldwin, Paul Robeson, Marlon Brando, Eartha Kitt, and Henry Miller.
• Caffe Reggio, at 119 MacDougal Street, a coffeehouse since 1927, has been featured in many movies, including Godfather II. Many celebrities have been spotted or photographed in this location. In 1959, presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy made a speech outside the coffee shop.
• The Comedy Cellar at 117 MacDougal Street has featured nearly every notable American comedian.
• Bob Dylan had his first New York City gig at Cafe Wha?. This is also where Jimi Hendrix played some early gigs.
• No. 116 MacDougal Street used to be the The Gaslight Cafe, where Gregory Corso, Bob Dylan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones, Jack Kerouac, Ray Bremser, and many others would read poetry. Bob Dylan lived there for a time.
• Minetta Tavern is a trattoria/bar which has seen such regulars as E. E. Cummings, Joe Gould, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O'Neill, Ezra Pound, and many others.
• At the corner of MacDougal and Bleecker Street, at 93, is the former site of the rowdy San Remo Cafe, which attracted many bohemians such as James Agee, W. H. Auden, James Baldwin, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Miles Davis, Allen Ginsberg, Frank O'Hara, Jack Kerouac, Jackson Pollock, William Styron, Dylan Thomas, Gore Vidal, and many others.
• Cafe Feenjon featured middle eastern music