SubscribeGreenwich Village Miscellania
I recently had a few hours to kill in New York City before heading out to the airport, so I decided to snap some photos of Henry Miller sites around Greenwich Village (click any of the images below to see a larger version).
Pepper Pot
First up is the site of the Pepper Pot cafe, where Miller’s wife, June, worked as a waitress in 1925 and 1926. RC at the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company blog has provided an excellent history of the Pepper Pot. June sold Miller’s broadsheets, known as Mezzotints here under her own name and it was also at the Pepper Pot that June met Jean Kronski, who appears in Miller’s novels variously as “Vanya” and “Stasia.” The Pepper Pot itself appears in The Rosy Crucifixion under the guise of “The Iron Cauldron.”
The Pepper Pot occupied the basement level of 146-150 Fourth Street, at the intersection with Sixth Avenue. Today, the basement at number 146 is occupied by a laundry and the first floor houses a skin care center known as Beauty Jewel (the yellow awning on the left). Number 148 is home to a Belgian bar called Vol de Nuit (the red door at the center of the photo). 150 Fourth Street is now the Washington Square Diner (at the right of the photo).
It’s not clear from my photo, but the exterior of the Pepper Pot appears to have changed only slightly since the 1920’s. Compare the following image, which I cobbled together from Google Maps’ street view, with the old postcard image RC provided on his site:
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| Image from Google Maps’ street view | Image from RC’s blog |
The Roman Tavern?
After returning to Miller from her European trip with Jean in 1927, June opened a cafe called The Roman Tavern, likely with the money from her wealthy admirer, Roland Freedman (Freedman appears in The Rosy Crucifixion as “Pop”). Like the Pepper Pot, The Roman Tavern operated out of a basement and, according to Miller biographer Mary Dearborn, was located at Macdougal and Third Street. Another biographer, Robert Ferguson, simply places it on Macdougal Street.
Two of the corners at the intersection of Macdougal and Third Streets are reasonable candidates for the site of a 1920’s tavern (the other two corners are occupied by large institutional buildings). Ben’s Pizzeria is lodged on one of these corners while the other is home to Groove, a nightclub featuring live R&B and Blues music. I have no idea if either of these places is the true site of June’s Roman Tavern. If you know the specific address of the tavern, please post it in the comments.
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| Ben’s Pizzeria, 123 Macdougal Street | Groove, 125 Macdougal Street |
The Speakeasy
Between September and November/December of 1925, Henry and June ran a speakeasy in the basement apartment of 106 Perry Street. They also used the apartment as their living quarters. I haven’t come across any indication that the speakeasy had a name, but that was likely the norm for drinking establishments during the Prohibition era. As with the Pepper Pot, RC’s blog has the most thorough information on the Millers’ speakeasy, which Miller himself described in Plexus.
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| 106 Perry Street, site of Henry and June Miller’s speakeasy in 1925 | ||
Map
The map below shows each of the locations photographed in this post:
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