Museum as Hub

Hub Notes: The Little House That Could: Bowery Artist Tribute, 2/29/08

Accra, a man intrigued by the Bowery Artist Tribute, told me of a building along the Bowery / 3rd Avenue he had grown up in. Throughout its time, an amazing lineage of cultural figures such as Hettie Jones (poet/writer) her ex-husband LeRoi Jones (poet/writer), Archie Schepp (jazz musician), Elizabeth Murray (visual artist), George Mingo (photographer) and Worth Otto have called it their home. According to The Villager, “Others who have visited the building include jazz musicians Ornette Coleman and the late Don Cherry and the late poet Allen Ginsburg.”

The building is 27 Cooper Square, a tiny brick house directly adjacent to the recently erected Cooper Square Hotel, relatively incognito in comparison to its hovering 14-story neighbor. The brooding presence of the hotel is not the only morbid persistence overwhelming the life of this small home. Like many other buildings all over the city, it is at the mercy of the ever-escalating, relentless urgency of the real- estate development malady. Despite the odds, 27 Cooper still stands thanks to the outstanding resilience of Hettie Jones – one of the original residents of 27 Cooper Sq. The building serves generations for the Jones’ family, as the two daughters Kelly and Lisa Jones (both cultural critics) currently reside there. Hettie fought in courts and utilized all of her rights under state laws for years. It is rare that an individual perseveres in the face of developers, and day by day we lose countless treasure troves of our city. Fortunately for us, because of Hettie’s efforts one vessel of original Bowery soul is preserved.

“Jones feels her building is a landmark, and she said it has been a stop along literary walking tours since the 1970s. She quoted a January 8, 2008, New York Times article by architecture critic Herbert Muschamp, in which he said, ‘Landmarks are not created by architects. They are fashioned by those who encounter them after they are built.’”
– Robert Kreizel, “Loft Tenants won’t check out to make way for Hotel,” The Villager, vol.76, no. 5, June 21-27, 2006

-Lena Imamura