Walking Tour: The East Village

Start at Union Square, and walk east along the northern side of 14th Street. You will soon hit a small shop, Russian Souvenirs (227 14th Street), between Second and Third Avenues. The shop has seemingly been there forever, and is a great place for traditional Russian arts and crafts, and Soviet kitsch.

Once you hit Second Avenue, you can walk north one block to Stuyvesant Square (not really part of the East Village, but close enough), where you will find the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic church of St. Mary (246 East 15th Street), dating from 1964.

Diagonally across the park, at East 17th Street and Nathan D. Perlman Place is a bust of Czech composer (and Slav of New York, at least for a time in 1892) Anton Dvořák by Yugoslav sculptor Ivan Meštrović

Leaving Stuyvesant Square, the Slavic heart of the East Village unfolds southward down Second Avenue. On the west side of the street, you pass the Ukrainian Orthodox Federal Credit Union (215 Second Avenue) and then the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (203 Second Avenue), and across Second Avenue on the east side are the diner Little Poland (200 Second Avenue), and the Jozef Pilsudski Institute of America in the Polish National Home (180 Second Avenue).

One of the most important blocks for our purposes is Second Avenue between St. Mark’s Place and 9th Street. On the northeast corner you’ll find the popular Ukrainian diner Veselka Restaurant (144 Second Avenue), and right next door is the Ukrainian National Home (142 Second Avenue). Though there are no windows, the food inside is top notch. Also in the building are the Karpaty Pub, and Lys Mykyta bar.

A couple doors down is a building with an impressive medallion of Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko but no other signage (136 Second Avenue). Inside are the Dibrova Social Club (CYM) and the Ukrainian Free University Foundation Inc. Across the street you’ll find the last of the great Slavic meat markets, Baczynsky’s (139 Second Avenue, note that it is closed until September 2008).

One more block down, you’ll see the small Polish diner Stage Restaurant (128 Second Avenue), and a few doors down the Ukrainian Sports Club (122 Second Avenue).

From here, cross Second Avenue and continue west along East 7th Street to find the cultural center of the local Ukrainian Community. The landmark St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church (30 East 7th Street) dates from 1977, but a much older structure, St. George Ruthenian Catholic Church, once stood on the same spot. On the north side of the street is the excellent Surma Book & Music Store (11 East 7th Street), well worth a visit.

Take the short side street Taras Shevchenko Place next to the church down to 6th Street. You’ll find St. George Academy (215 East 6th Street) on the corner, and walking east toward Second Avenue you’ll find the new Ukrainian Museum (222 East 6th Street). Check out the latest exhibits, and make sure to visit the gift shop (though the selection at Surma is much wider).

Now walk back out to Second Avenue, cross to the east side of the street and walk north a few doors. You’ll see a building with a Cyrillic inscription that is the Self Reliance Federal Credit Union (108 Second Avenue). Turn onto 7th Street and walk east towards First Avenue.

A newcomer to the Slavic world of the East Village is the Polish-themed bar Klimat (77 East 7th Street), with a wide selection of beer and wine from Slavic countries, as well as traditional Polish food. Next door is the stalwart Ukrainian bar Blue and Gold (79 East 7th Street). If you’re interested, you can continue along 7th Street and pick up the Slavs of New York Walking Tour of Alphabet City to venture further.

Otherwise, on First Avenue between 6th and 7th Street you’ll see the restaurant Polonia (110 First Avenue), and between St. Mark’s Place and 9th Street is First Avenue Pierogie & Deli (130 First Avenue).

Around the corner is the Slovenian parish of St. Cyril (62 St. Mark's Place), a reminder that the East Village historically was much more than Ukrainians, Rusyns and Poles. Earlier times also saw vibrant Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, and, yes, Slovene communities (among others).

Walk back to Second Avenue and continue south. An interesting sight is KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street), just around the corner. The building in a previous life was the home to the Ukrainian Communist Party in the United States, but today is home not only to the bar but also the Kraine Theatre.

Further down Second Avenue is the Russian Anyway Cafe (34 East 2nd Street), and between First and Second Avenues is the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (59 East 2nd Street). Formerly a Russian-oriented parish, the church today takes in a wider audience. The building was originally the Mt. Olivet Memorial Church, and became an Orthodox church in 1943.

Continuing along East 2nd Street and crossing First Avenue you’ll find the small shop Arka - Ukrainian Arts (26 First Avenue). The store keeps somewhat irregular hours – right now, they’re open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

At the end of First Avenue is Little Veselka, which operates out of a kiosk in First Park, between 1st Street and Houston Street. Seating is available in the park.

And finally, if you’re feeling adventurous, walk down Houston and you’ll find the apartment complex Red Square (250 East Houston Street) between Avenues A and B. On the roof is a statue of Lenin rescued from the last days of the Soviet Union.

For some good background on the Ukrainians of the East Village, check out "Ukrainian East Village: A Shortened Oral History of an Immigrant Neighborhood” from the New York Press back in 2001. And for something a bit more substantial, taking in Ukrainians, Poles, Russians and Carpatho-Rusyns (Carpatho-Russians), try Yuri Kapralov’s Once There Was a Village, documenting the author’s time in the neighborhood in the late 1970s.

The Return of the Slavs

Kurowycky Meat Products used to be at 124 First Avenue between 7th and 8th Street, but it closed after 52 years on 2 June 2007.

Today, Jeremiah's Vanishing New York reports on what is happening to the building. Apparently there was interest in opening the space as a restaurant, but the local community board turned down the liquor license application and the interested restaurateurs backed out.

So now rumor has it that it will be turned into a porn store. Jeremiah comments, “When a high-end restaurant is passed over for porn, maybe it’s time to say welcome back, bad old East Village!” But it seems there is still a chance that a liquor license will be approved, and the space will open as a restaurant.

The loss of Kurowycky Meat Products followed hot on the heels of the final demise of Kiev diner, a major landmark for the local Ukrainians, the latest in a long string of Slavic establishments closing up shop in the face of gentrification.

Lately, though, the gentrification of the neighborhood has taken a new twist: the return of the Slavs.

First up was the Klimat (77 East 7th Street), near the unreconstructed Blue & Gold bar and the gentrified Café 81 (pregentrification: Verchovyna Tavern). Klimat is officially Polish, but has a beer menu and a wine list that covers most of Eastern Europe. The menu also includes pierogies, kielbasa and other Slavic East Village soul food.

And just last month, the Serbs set up an outpost in Alphabet City: Kafana (116 Avenue C, between 7th and 8th Streets). The most detailed review seems to be in the Village Voice. The menu is extensive, the food is excellent. And the Slavs are back in town.

Addendum: New York Magazine has just annouced that Veselka (144 Second Ave. and Ninth Street) is going ahead with the creation of a new location - Veselka Bowery - on East First Street, to be open next summer. Meanwhile, the original location is continuing with its planned expansion into a neighboring space on East Ninth Street.

Photos: Kurowycky from Jeremiah's Vanishing New York; Klimat from New York Magazine.

Walking Tour: Slavic Alphabet City

It's no surprise that the East Village has a Slavic patina, but it is most obvious on First and Second Avenues, and on East 6th and 7th Streets around Taras Shevchenko Place. Alphabet City, the east East Village on Avenues A, B, C and D, is better known for its Hispanic community but a Slavic presence remains from the first half of the 20th century.

Start on East 7th Street near Avenue A, at St. Mary's American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church (#1., 121 East 7th Street). The building started out as part of the Hungarian Reformed Church, then the Carpatho-Rusyns moved in. The group is pretty evenly split between the Green Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and in the United States in the early 20th century it was not uncommon for entire parishes to go from one to the other. Like this one. The Carpatho-Rusyns here started out as Ressurection Greek Catholic Church, and then became the Eastern Orthodox Church of SS. Peter and Paul. They settled on the name St. Mary's in the 1960s.

Just a couple doors down is New York Citys first Polish Roman Catholic parish, St. Stanislaus Kostka (#2., 101 East 7th Street). The parish started out in 1872, but the building was not built until 1900-1901. Outside the building are a bust of Pope John Paul II, and a memorial plaque to the Poles who died in the September 11 attacks.

Walk down to the corner of Avenue A and turn left. In the middle of the block, you'll see Odessa Cafe and Bar (#3., 117 Avenue A) and Odessa Restaurant (#4., 119 Avenue A). Both are great spots for a quick bite.

Continuing across East 7th Street to the southwest corner of Tompkins Square Park, take note of the Paderewski Tree (#5.), a tribute to Polish composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who died in New York in 1941. The tree was dedicated on the 60th anniversary of Paderewski's death by then-mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. It was sponsored by local Polish organizations and St. Stanislaus Church, where Paderewski was once a parishoner. The corner is also the home of the Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket.

Back over on Avenue A across the street from the northwest corner of Tompkins Square Park is Manhattan's other Carpatho-Russian Orthodox parish, St. Nicholas (#6., 228 East 10th Street). Originaly a mission chapel of St. Mark's in the Bowery, the Carpatho-Rusyns acquired the building in the late 1920s. It was built in 1883 by James Renwick Jr. (architect of, among other things, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.) and W.H. Russell, and was featured in the 2001 film A Legacy of Faith.

Just down the street is an East Village institution, the Russian & Turkish Baths (#7., 268 East 10th Street), founded in 1892. The place offers a full selection of banya treatments, as well as Russian soulfood at Anna's Restaurant.

Now cross back and enter Tompkins Square Park. Behind the pavillion near the athletic courts is the General Slocum Memorial (#8.). This isn't really a Slavic site per se, but bear with me. The marble monument commemorates the General Slocum Disaster of 1904, which claimed the lives of over 1000 Germans from the East Village (then known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany).

At the time, the area was home to more than 80,000 Germans but they quickly fled the neighborhood in the wake of the tragedy and resettled on the Upper East Side in Yorkville. It was with the exodus of the Germans that the Slavs first came to settle in the East Village and Alphabet City.

One major institution for the Slavic newcomers sits across the park: Christadora House (#9., 1 Tompkins Square). Christadora House was founded by philanthropists in 1867 as a settlement house providing social services to Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Carpatho-Rusyns and other Slavic immigrants in the neighborhood. The settlement house moved into this 17-storey building once it was completed in 1928. At that time it was the tallest building in the world dedicated to social services.

Later, it hosted George Gershwin's first public recital, and, even later, it was where Iggy Pop wrote the song Avenue B. Today, it is home to luxuy condos.

Continuing along Avenue B, youll come upon St. Brigid's Church (#10., 119 Avenue B). Though a Roman Catholic church, it hosted the nacent Ukrainian Catholic St. George parish from 1890 to 1905. Today, St. George is a Byzantine landmark on East Seventh Street, but St. Brigid's is facing the wrecking ball.

From here, make your way towards Avenue C. It's a good idea to check out the East Village Park Conservancy's Community Gardens map and pass by some of the local gardens on the way. Aim for El Jardin de paraiso (#11.) and Orchard Alley (#12.), both between Avenues C and D on East 4th Street.

They sit on the same block as perhaps the most intriguing Slavic site in the neighborhood, the out-of-the-way San Isidoro y San Leandro Orthodox Catholic Church of the Hispanic Rite (#13., 345 East 4th Street).

Few specifics are available about the building’s history, but it was built in 1895 as the first home of the Roman Catholic St. Elizabeth of Hungary parish. When that parish moved uptown to Yorkville, the building became the Russian - Greek Orthodox Chapel of the Holy Trinity serving the Russian and Greek embassies. Later, it became the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, which eventually moved to East 97th Sreet.

Today, the building is part of the Western Orthodox Benedictine Friars of the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite, though it still bears the royal seal of the Russian Czars on its façade.

Finally, Alphabet City is also home to The Monastery of St. Mary of Egypt / Mercy House (#15., 320 East 3rd Street), established in 1994 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. After a dispute, however, the monastery switched allegiances and is now part of the parish of the Russian Orthodox Church’s St. Nicholas Cathedral on the Upper East Side at East 97th Street near Fifth Avenue.

Bulgarians in New York City

New York has been home to a Bulgarian community since at least 1900, according to the Encyclopedia of New York City. The original immigrants settled in today's Alphabet City, around Avenues B and C at 3rd and 4th Streets.

The city was also home to the first Bulgarian association in the country, the Bulgarian American Mutual Aid Society, founded in 1906. Several other organizations aimed at the newly-arrived immigrants followed. Political emigration after World War Two saw the creation of a number of political groups in the city, such as the Bulgarian National Committee (1946-) and the Bulgarian National Front (1947-1968).

As the early immigrants moved up in society, they, like other immigrant groups, moved out of the Lower East Side. Many Bulgarians ended up the Tremont Avenue and Fordham Road sections of the Bronx, as well as in other parts of Manhattan and in the suburbs.

By the end of the 20th century, there were between 1500 and 2000 Bulgarians in New York, according to the Encyclopedia. Religious centers include Ss. Kirill and Methody Cathedral (552 West 50th Street) and St. Andrew in the Bronx. The Bulgarian community is connected through the weekly newspaper Nedelnik, and many congregate at the city's Bulgarian restaurants, such as Bulgara in Astoria, Tricolorii in Sunnyside and Mehanata in Manhattan.

In large part building on the popularity of Mehanata, the Bulgarian community has stumbled into the cultural spotight in recent years, helping to launch a local Balkan music scene, and a Gypsy music festival.

This just in: Kapralov memorial tonight

Friends and family of writer, artist and East Village figure Yuri Kapralov will hold a memorial at Six Street Community Center (638 East 6th Street between Avenues B and C) tonight at 7:00 p.m.

Kapralov died of a stroke on 27 August following a battle with liver disease.

His memoir, Once There Was A Village, focuses on Alphabet City in the late 1960s and offers important insights into the local Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and Carpatho-Russian (Rusyn) communities.

For more on Kapraov, see his obituary from the Villager, "Yuri Kapralov, a 'grandfather' of E.V. counterculture"

Previously on Slavs of New York! Books: Once There Was a Village and Yuri Kapralov dies at 73

Books: Once There Was A Village (1974)

Yuri Kapralov's Once There Was A Village is part surrealistic stream of consciousness memoir, part narrative history of Alphabet City circa 1966-1971. Originally published in 1974 and reissued in 1998, the book is fascinating - particularly for anyone interested in the history of Slavic groups in the area.

After running through the extensive list of ethnic groups living in the East Village (or as he calls it, the Vostochnaya Derevnia) in the 1960s, Karpalov comments, "The Slavic Group was the largest and also the least visible." He believes they were inadvertently oppressed through their devoutness by their clerics, who "...exploited them far more than the System itself, mainly by teaching them to accept with grace all the shit handed them and to be eternally thankful that they lived in America."

The book gives all sorts of insightful details about the day-to-day lives of the Village's Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and Carpatho-Russian (Rusyn) communities. One vignette details atrocities in Austria-Hungary that led to the emigration of one Rusyn to the US, to the East Village. Another describes the descent of a young Ukrainian man into heroin addiction and burglary.

More general details about the area's history are also there, including graphic descriptions of rioting and martial law on Avenue C, and the onslaught of junkies and squatters.

Artist and writer Karpalov was born in the Caucasus and came to the United States as a refugee, finally settling in the East Village in 1965. The book is currently being made into a documentary film, which should be completed by the end of 2005.

Check out Once Were Warriors: An unsentimental journey through Yuri Kapralov's Lower East Side, a 1998 review from the Village Voice.