Irving Pl, Gramercy Park

I love Irving Place. It's one of the best streets on the east side and is definitely in the running for Manhattan, in general. It's a gorgeous street, it has a lot of charm and there's stuff to do on it. It's just about as well rounded as a street can get, in my opinion.
There's a really interesting building on the corner or Irving and Gramercy Park South called the Evangeline. It used to be a hotel but has been a women's only residence hall since the '60's. The building has small rooms with few that have private bathrooms but the rent is dirt cheap so a lot of young models and actresses have called this place home over the years. It's extremely to get into because there are never vacancies but I think it's lovely that this exists. It's in a really nice, safe neighborhood and that's a wonderful thing to offer a young girl that has come from a place that's not as scary as New York City. They have threatening to turn this into a condo for years and I hope it never works. Across the street is a gorgeous house, the Stuyvesant-Fish House. It was the house to be in the 1800's, and, I still consider it the house to be now. I don't who lives there but they are some lucky ducks. The price tag on this thing must be outrageous because it is massive and really beautiful. The other two houses on this block are equally impressive in that they are both massive and one of them is lined with really cool gargoyles. You can't miss this block.
The block after 19th is a great mix of gorgeous brownstones and townhouses and cool little bars and eateries. Friend of a Farmer and Pete's Tavern are both on this block and I love them both. Friend is fantastic for local ingredient lunches and Pete's has been around since the early 19th century. They posed as a flower shop but still served liquor during Prohibition making it one of the oldest continual drinking establishments in the city. O. Henry wrote Gift of the Magi in booth number 2. This tavern is really cool and not much has been changed in almost 200 years. It's a must see for everyone that comes to visit me.
The block below 18th has some of the oldest townhouses in the neighborhood and they are just gorgeous. But, most of them are now used for restaurants such as Pure Food - a haven for the vegan foodie and Sal Anthony's -- a fantastic little Italian block. This block is particularly stunning in the fall and I love walking around here and looking at the old homes when the leaves are falling.
The next block holds Washington Irving High School and Irving House. Irving House is bizarrely named because there's a plaque of Washington Irving in the front but the house actually used to belong to a completely unrelated Irving that was a merchant. I don't know why that plaque is there, but tourists seem to love it.
Once you get down around 15th and 16th, Irving becomes much more commercial and takes on the vibe of Union Square but there are still some really cool, old buildings mixed in the bigger, modern ones that are worth taking a peek at if you're in the area. It costs a fortune to live on this street, but if I had a fortune, I would love living here.