The Downtown Pop Underground

Abbie and Anita's Apartment

10 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729070

-73.989360

0
Anderson Theater

66 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

40.725880

-73.989330

1
Bridge Theatre

4 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729120

-73.989640

2
Café La MaMa (original location)

321 E 9th St, New York, NY 10003

40.728900

-73.986050

3
Café La MaMa (second location)

82 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

40.726470

-73.988900

4
Café La MaMa (third location)

122 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

40.728070

-73.987600

5
Café Le Metro

149 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

40.729530

-73.987410

6
Club 82

82 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

40.726320

-73.989780

7
East Side Bookstore

34 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.728640

-73.988380

8
Electric Circus

23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729190

-73.988530

9
Fillmore East

105 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

40.727690

-73.988720

10
Five Spot Café

2 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729340

-73.989790

11
Gem Spa

131 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

40.728520

-73.988010

12
Harris family's residence

319 E 9th St, New York, NY 10003

40.728920

-73.986140

13
Hells Angels Headquarters

77 E 3rd St, New York, NY 10003

40.725130

-73.988280

14
La MaMa (final location)

74 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

40.726280

-73.990210

15
La MaMa (temporary location)

9 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729420

-73.989130

16
Les Deux Mégots

64 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003

40.727310

-73.987100

17
New York Theater Ensemble

62 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

40.726450

-73.990730

18
Slugger Ann's

192 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

40.731010

-73.985500

19
St. Mark's Church-In-The-Bowery

131 E 10th St, New York, NY 10003

40.730350

-73.987080

20
The Dom

23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

40.729190

-73.988530

21
Tompkins Square Park

E 10th St, New York, NY 10009

40.726420

-73.981780

22
Truck and Warehouse Theater

79 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

40.726670

-73.990000

23

Abbie and Anita's Apartment

10 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

Abbie and Anita Hoffman’s apartment was across the street from The Dom, and their apartment also served as the site of an infamous press conference in advance of the 1967 antiwar demonstrations in Washington, D.C.

Anderson Theater

66 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

The Anderson Theater—which hosted the disastrous New York City debut of the Cockettes—seated over three thousand people, and like many similar theaters on Second Avenue, it had been left to decay since the glory days of vaudeville.

Bridge Theatre

4 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

The Bridge Theatre was above the Café Au Go Go on Bleecker Street, which benefited from the abundant Greenwich Village foot traffic—especially when the Fugs performed there during their residency.

Café La MaMa (original location)

321 E 9th St, New York, NY 10003

Café La MaMa’s first location was in a basement on East Ninth Street, right next door to the Harris family’s longtime residence, and after it moved to Second Avenue, Ellen Stewart kept this space as a rehearsal studio.

Café La MaMa (second location)

82 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

After the first Café La MaMa location was shut down by the city, Ellen Stewart moved it to a loft at 82 Second Avenue, which was quickly vacated after Ellen Stewart was tipped off that the police were going to raid it one night.

Café La MaMa (third location)

122 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Right after a performance of Paul Foster’s Balls at Café La MaMa’s second location, Ellen Stewart enlisted the audience to move the entire set, seats, and other items to a new location up the street, at 122 Second Avenue—just before the police raided the 82 Second Avenue location.

Café Le Metro

149 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Before Mickey Ruskin opened Max’s Kansas City, he ran Café Le Metro—a literary hotspot where Andy Warhol first met Ronald Tavel, who was enlisted to write scenarios for several of Warhol’s films.

Club 82

82 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

During the early 1950s and 1960s, when it was known as the 82 Club, this Lower East Side venue had been one of the premier venues for drag queens, though by the early 1970s it had rechristened itself Club 82 and operated as afterhours disco and underground rock club.

East Side Bookstore

34 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

Along with Ed Sanders’s Peace Eye Bookstore, the East Side Bookstore on St. Mark’s Place was one of the key hubs of distribution for mimeo poetry zines.

Electric Circus

23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

The Electric Circus—located in the space on St. Mark’s Place that was formerly known as the Dom, where the Velvet Underground had a residency—featured acrobats, go-go dancer, and even John Cage onstage playing an experimental-acoustic game of chess.

Fillmore East

105 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Two blocks south of St. Mark’s Place, on Second Avenue and Sixth Street, was the Fillmore East—which for a brief period between 1968 and 1971 hosted the downtown sounds of the Fugs and Silver Apples, along with touring acts like the Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix.

Five Spot Café

2 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

The Five Spot Café, where many jazz legends performed, was frequented by Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, and John Vaccaro of the Play-House of the Ridiculous.

Gem Spa

131 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Gem Spa was a newsstand located on St. Mark’s Place that sold chocolate egg creams for a quarter and was a popular hangout frequented by everyone from Allen Ginsberg to Patti Smith.

Harris family's residence

319 E 9th St, New York, NY 10003

Ellen Stewart helped the Harris family find their longtime apartment, located next door to her first La MaMa location (which she later kept as a rehearsal space and let the family use).

Hells Angels Headquarters

77 E 3rd St, New York, NY 10003

Ironically, given the reputation of the biker club the Hells Angels, their headquarters was often considered one of the safer parts of the surrounding neighborhood (which included CBGB, where its members frequented in the early days of the bar).

La MaMa (final location)

74 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

After being run out of a variety of downtown locations by city authorities, Ellen Stewart opened the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club at 74A East Fourth—in a building that was the former site of a hotdog factory.

La MaMa (temporary location)

9 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

As Ellen Stewart worked on setting up La MaMa’s permanent home at 74 East Fourth Street, her theater continued staging shows in a temporary space at 9 St. Mark’s Place from 1968 to early 1969.

Les Deux Mégots

64 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003

Les Deux Mégots, run by future Max’s Kansas City proprietor Mickey Ruskin, was an East Village coffeehouse that was part of the underground poetry scene in the first half of the 1960s.

New York Theater Ensemble

62 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

Located at 62 East Fourth Street, the New York Theater Ensemble was the staging ground for many an outrageous production, including the Wayne County-penned play World: Birth of a Nation.

Slugger Ann's

192 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Slugger Ann’s was a dimly lit Lower East Side corner bar on Second Avenue (by East Twelfth Street) that was run by Jackie Curtis’s grandmother, who the bar was named after; Jackie sometimes crashed in the apartment behind the bar.

St. Mark's Church-In-The-Bowery

131 E 10th St, New York, NY 10003

Like Judson Memorial Church, St. Mark’s Church opened its doors to the artists who populated its surrounding neighborhoods—hosting the Poetry Project and Theatre Genesis, among many other artistic endeavors.

The Dom

23 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003

The Dom was a former Polish wedding and social hall on St. Mark’s Place that became a popular bar where bohemians congregated; it was at the Dom where Ed Sanders suggested to Tuli Kupferberg that they should form the Fugs, and the Velvet Underground performed as part of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

Tompkins Square Park

E 10th St, New York, NY 10009

Tompkins Square Park hosted its fair share of unrest, but it was also a place for neighborhood families. During the day, kids played on swings while adults read on benches, all while the sounds of an outdoor concert or protest rally reverberated in the background (it was at Tompkins Square where the New York chapter of the radical Young Lords Organization announced itself to the world on July 26, 1969).

Truck and Warehouse Theater

79 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

The Truck and Warehouse Theater, located across Fourth Street from La MaMa and Club 82, hosted the second production of Tom Eyen’s Women Behind Bars.