Minetta Street

Minetta Street is named after the Minetta Creek, which once ran along this path, and actually still runs underneath it. The bend in the street follows the bend in the creek.
 
Minetta Lane runs along the path of Minetta Bridge, so this intersection of Minetta Lane and Minetta Street was where the bridge crossed the creek.
 

This is the back of Panchito's Mexican Restaurant, but in the 1960's, it was a cafe called the Fat Black Pussycat. They moved elsewhere, but you can still see the name on the facade. A musician named David Blue talked about sitting here with Bob Dylan all afternoon on April 16, 1962, as Dylan was writing a song. He played it for the first time later that night at a place called Folk City, and the song was called 'Blowing in the Wind'.

 

 
Incidentally, a few blocks away in the lobby of an apartment building at #2 Fifth Avenue, just north of Washington Square, is a tube where you can supposedly see Minetta Creek water bubbling up from underground. It has always been dry when I looked, but someone told me that's because there hasn't been enough rainfall for the past few years.

 

 
 
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