Built in 1895 by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons in the style of a 16th-century French chateau, Firehouse 31 was the exterior filming location for Dr. Eric Orloff's psychiatry office in the 2002 Upright Citizens Brigade alumni film, Martin & Orloff.

The Firehouse is currently occupied by the Downtown Community Television Center, and was designated a New York City Landmark in 1966 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

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Singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson was walking back to his hotel room on August 12, 1973, when he saw a 19-year-old girl working in Rumpelmayer's ice cream parlor.

Una O'Keefe was working in NYC on a summer exchange program from Ireland with a friend. Nilsson walked up to the two of them, and told Una, "You have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. Will you marry me?"

Una and her friend demured, and Nilsson asked them how he could prove that he had good intentions. They said they liked flowers and melons (they had never had a honeydew melon).

Nilsson went back to his hotel room, sobered up, bought the melons, and then found a florist down at the docks who was preparing for a funeral. Nilsson returned to the ice cream parlor in a limousine, and lined up rows of flowers and melons on the street outside of the limo.

The two were married later, and Ringo Starr was the best man at their wedding.

*From the documentary Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talking About Him)?

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The West Fourth Street stop opened on September 10, 1932, as part of the first line of the Independent Subway System (IND).

Today, it is part of the NYC transit system, and was added to the NRHP on March 30, 2005. Nearby points of interest include Washington Square Park, West Fourth Street Courts, West Village, and New York University.

This is where Louis C.K. exits the subway station in the title sequence of the tv show, Louie.

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In the early months of 1940, Woody Guthrie arrived in New York City. Dubbed "the Oklahoma cowboy" by his contemporaries, he was embraced by the leftist folk scene at the time.

On constant radio rotation at the time was Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." Guthrie found the song distasteful- unrealistic and complacent. On February 23, 1940, in a small boarding house at the corner of 43rd st and 6th Ave in NYC, he went about writing an answer to Berlin. Guthrie's response was the song "This Land is Your Land."

Adapting the melody from "When The World's On Fire" by the Carter family, "This Land is Your Land" has become a powerful national song, still open for interpretation today.

One of the original versions of the song had a final verse that goes like this:

"As I went walking, I saw a sign there,
And on the sign there, It said 'Private Property'
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing!
That side was made for you and me."

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Caroline Hirsch opened up a cabaret in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York in 1981. The comedians she booked were her most popular draw, so she started booking them exclusively.

After moving to a couple of locations, Carolines on Broadway (sic) opened at this location in 1992. Billing itself as "America's Premiere Comedy Nightclub," the list of comedians who have played Carolines is pretty extensive.

Notably, Bill Hicks gave his last performance at Carolines in January 1994 (before he died of cancer).

Louis C.K. often features Carolines as a filming location for the TV series, Louie.

I don't know why they don't put the apostrophe in the name. That's just how they spell it.

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