551 East 12th Street; 196 Avenue B | Block : 406 | Lot #39

Building Date : 1848
Original Use : Residential

Original Owner : John R. Roberts
Original Architect : Unknown

Description & Building Alterations

This five-story tenement was built in 1848 for owner John R. Roberts. Various records indicate that the building was originally four stories in height. By 1911, a fifth story had been added. Its red brick facade is accented by sandstone trim and capped by a bracketed cornice. Stanley’s Bar, a bohemian bar at the center of the East Village underground community between 1962 and 1966, ran out of this building. Run by Stanley Tolkin, it offered inexpensive drinks and live piano music. Allen Ginsberg, Ishmael Reed, and Ed Sanders were a few of the bar’s patrons.

Block : 406 / Lot : 039 / Building Date : 1848 / Original Owner : John R. Roberts / Original Use : Residential / Original Architect : Unknown

Do you know this building? Please share your own stories or photos of this building here!

What is the Building Blocks Project

What does a building mean to someone who lives there? A person who lives on the block? In the neighborhood? In the city? This site presents a wealth of historic information gained from GVSHP’s architectural research survey about the buildings located in the East Village.

The site explores the area generally considered today as the East Village: from a northern border of 14th Street to a southern border of Houston Street, Avenue D in the east to 4th Avenue/the Bowery to the west. You can explore the information about the blocks and buildings featured here in two ways.

Pick a block. Maybe it’s yours, or perhaps it is just your favorite place to shop, grab a bite, or just people watch. Then explore the buildings that make up that block. Or take one of the many guided tours on the site, curated by a collection of organizations and experts from the neighborhood. See how they experience the neighborhood. Then tell us what the neighborhood means to you. The site’s comments section allows you to open a dialogue with others who feel just as passionately as you do about the East Village.