Joseph Papin – Chelsea in NYC – 40 years ago

Karen Green is the Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia University Libraries who coordinated the Papin family donation of Joseph Papin’s extensive collection of NYC drawings and papers to Columbia. She recently took some lovely photographs in Chelsea and I was reminded of some of Joe Papin’s drawings of Chelsea that ran in the Daily News. The following article by Suzanne Hamlin from October 5, 1984 portrays the Chelsea neighborhood of forty years ago. This particular drawing was done at the corner of 8th Avenue and W 16th Street:

A recent Google maps screen capture shows the building that housed Mary Ann’s restaurant (foreground, on the right):

The entire article follows:

An earlier article on Chelsea appeared a few months before on May 6, 1983, written by Gary M. Stern, sketches by Joe Papin. In the drawing below, the restaurant on the corner of 7th Avenue and W 19th Street is the Peter McManus Cafe. It is still there today. According to their website, “Peter McManus Cafe is the oldest family-run bar in New York City, serving fine food with good spirits since 1936!”