In Episode #555 of This American Life, the third act features a story about a family that moves into this building to start a church in the basement. The majority of the town lives in this single building.

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Mahatma Gandhi lived at this location (then called the Birla House) for the last 144 days of his life, until he was assassinated here on January 30, 1948. He was 78 years old.

Originally the home of a wealthy Indian family, the Birla House was transformed into the Gandhi Smriti (or Gandhi Remembrance)- a museum and shrine to the slain political and spiritual leader.

The Martyr's Column marks the location where the fifth assassination attempt on Gandhi ended his life.

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In the early days of 78 rpm record-pressing, furniture stores would package their phonograph cabinets with recorded music to help sell the product. This led the Wisconsin Chair Company to construct a studio at this location for their Paramount Records label, near their furniture plant and record plants in Port Washington, WI.

Charley Patton recorded a number of profitable songs at here, so he was sent out to find other blues artists and bring them to Grafton. Son House, the Mississippi Sheiks, Tommy Johnson, and a number of other artists recorded here.

From Paramountshome.org:
"One fourth of the nation's 'race records' were pressed in Grafton, WI. Over 1600 songs were recorded in Grafton between 1929 and 1932. Over 60 African Americans recorded their blues, spirituals, and even sermons in a 'make-shift' studio of an old chair factory, opposite of the pressing plant."

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After legendary bluesman Son House recorded with Charley Patton and Willie Brown, taught Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters some licks, and did a stint at Parchman Farm- he left Mississippi for good in 1942.

Although many blues players ended up in Chicago, Son House ended up taking a job with the New York Central Railroad in Rochester, NY.

He was living on the third floor of this apartment building in obscurity until a couple of blues fans tracked him down, and convinced him to come out of retirement in 1964.

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Patti Astor was known as the "Queen of the Downtown Scene" and was an underground film actress and culture maven in 1970s and 80s NYC.

She opened up The Fun Gallery at this location with partner Bill Stelling in 1981, and the art gallery featured some of the earliest exhibitions of graffiti and street art, including Taki 183, Keith Haring, Fab 5 Freddy, and Jean Michel Basquiat.

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