Daily What?! The Pez House in NYC’s Greenwich Village

The very creative Pez dispenser entrance above the doorway at 8 Charles Lane

In the 1800s, the Charles Lane Mews was given the name Pig Alley due to the large number of pigs in and around the slaughterhouses close to West Street near what was then the Newgate Prison. After the prison closed in 1829, some of the warehouses and stables in the area were converted into residences. The freight depot of Beadleston & Woerz’s brewery was one such building.  It was made into duplex apartments in 1977 and it is where we first found this unusual sight a few years ago–a collection of Pez dispensers lining the top of the front door of one of the townhouses.

A series of duplex townhouses on Charles Lane built in 1977

We first discovered the Pez house on Charles Lane in 2010, and it was the recent post on the little farmhouse of Charles Street that made us wonder if the Pez dispensers were still there. The townhouses, two rows of eight with small front yards and wrought iron gates, are still intact and wonderfully preserved, as is the Belgian block originally set in 1890.  In stark contrast, next door to the west are a pair of Richard Meier designed glass buildings facing the Hudson River.

The colorful mural that was on the east wall in 2010 is now gone, replaced by stucco

When we first visited this mews in 2010, there was a colorful painted brick mural on the east side.  The mural is now gone and replaced by a plain stucco surface.

This plain stucco surface replaced the colorful tile mural

Our Pez house, however, was exactly the same as when we saw it last.  A welcome sight and homage to those popular candy dispensers of which over 1,500 different images were made when they first came to the United States from Austria in the early 1950s. We wonder if perhaps there are 1,000 more–inside.

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