Numbered streets of brick tenements surround Tompkins Square Park, and The Godfather Part II dressed one block as 1917 Little Italy.
What the East Village looks like
The numbered streets east of Third Avenue are lined with five and six story brick tenements, most of them dating from the 1890s, with fire escapes bolted to the fronts and small storefronts under roll down shutters at the sidewalk. Basement level restaurants and bars sit below street level on , reached down a short flight of steps, with awnings and railings marking the entrances.
sits in the middle of the numbered streets, ten and a half acres from Avenue A to Avenue B and East 7th Street to . Elm trees line its paths, and a dog run and chess tables sit inside the iron fence. Rowhouses with high stoops face the park along East 10th Street, their fronts painted pale colors between plainer brick buildings on either side.
East of Avenue A the numbered streets continue past Avenue B, C and D, the lettered blocks known as . Christodora House rises over the park's east side, a sixteen story brick tower taller than the tenements around it. Corner bars and delis with painted signs mark the intersections along Avenue B, some of them lit in neon after dark.
cuts against the numbered grid at its western end, running true east and west while the surrounding blocks sit at an angle to it. , a fieldstone church with an iron fence and gate out front, stands where the street meets Second Avenue. Brick rowhouses with stoops and small front gardens line the block beside it.
Shot in the East Village
Two blocks of the East Village appear in The Godfather Part II. East 6th Street was dressed back to 1917 for young Vito's arrival in Little Italy, and the bar at Seventh and B played the meeting where the Rosato brothers turn on Pentangeli.
The Godfather Part II
East 6th Street and the corner at Avenue B and East 7th Street are a block apart, and the production used both.
The Godfather Part II, 1974
The 1917 block
Played young Vito's Little Italy street, Little Italy, Manhattan, New York, 1917
The Little Italy of young Vito's arrival was shot on East 6th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. The production dressed the whole block back to 1917. Carole Teller photographed the shoot from the sidewalk. Her pictures name the buildings, 519 to 531 on one side and 520 to 530 on the other.
The Godfather Part II, 1974
Played the bar where Pentangeli is attacked
The bar where the Rosato brothers try to garrotte Frank Pentangeli was PH Vazac's at 108 Avenue B, on the corner of East 7th Street at the southeast corner of Tompkins Square Park. The shootout that follows was filmed outside on East 7th Street. The bar is still open today as 7B.
The North End's four and five story brick tenements have fire escapes threading up the fronts and narrow streets, close to the East Village's own tenement blocks. Both were built for the same wave of immigrant tenants around the turn of the century. The North End's alleys run narrower and its brick runs redder, so a wide shot needs a tighter frame to hold the illusion. Try searching brick tenements with fire escapes now.
West 18th Street in Pilsen still has brick tenement and storefront buildings from the same period, some later covered with murals and painted signs. The murals themselves need separate clearance to use, and most of Pilsen's buildings run a story shorter than the East Village's own blocks. Try searching brick storefront buildings now.
Whitechapel's Wentworth Dwellings and the other Victorian tenement blocks nearby were built for Jewish immigrant tenants in the 1880s, the same decade as many East Village tenements. These blocks are reached by open access balconies rather than fire escapes, so a shot that shows the stair side gives the location away. Try searching Victorian tenement blocks now.
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