Walk down Great Jones Street in NoHo and you might miss it. Honestly, it looks like a lot of other carriage houses in Lower Manhattan—brick, weathered, a bit unassuming. But 57 Great Jones Street isn't just another piece of real estate. It's a shrine. It’s where Jean-Michel Basquiat lived, worked, and eventually died.
The history here is thick. You can almost feel it.
The building has gone through so many lives. It was built in the 1860s. Back then, it was a stable. Then it was a gang hangout. Later, it was Andy Warhol’s property. Now? It’s a high-end restaurant called 60 Curations (formerly Blue-Point). But for most of us, 57 Great Jones Street will always be the Basquiat house.
The Warhol Connection: How Jean-Michel Found a Home
People forget that Andy Warhol was a landlord. He bought 57 Great Jones Street in 1970. He didn't live there, though. He used it as a sort of investment and studio space. By the early 80s, Basquiat was the hottest thing in the art world, but his personal life was, frankly, a mess. He needed a place that was both a sanctuary and a massive canvas.
Warhol leased the second-floor loft to Basquiat in 1983.
It was a weird dynamic. Warhol was the elder statesman of Pop Art, and Basquiat was the "radiant child" of Neo-expressionism. They worked together. They boxed together. They fought. But 57 Great Jones Street gave Basquiat the room to breathe. The space was huge. He could lay out massive canvases on the floor and walk over them with paint-stained feet.
If you look at photos from that era, the place is chaotic. It’s filled with books, jazz records, and expensive Armani suits covered in oil stick. Basquiat didn't just live there; he consumed the space. He painted on the doors. He painted on the refrigerator. He painted on anything that stayed still long enough.
A Darker History: Gangsters and Gunfights
Before the art world moved in, 57 Great Jones Street was a lot more dangerous. In the early 1900s, it was the headquarters of the Paul Kelly Gang. Paul Kelly (born Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli) was the founder of the Five Points Gang. He was one of the most influential mobsters in New York history.
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The building was called the "Paul Kelly Association."
It wasn't just a social club. In 1905, a massive gunfight broke out right there. Kelly was ambushed by his rivals, "Eat 'Em Up" Jack McManus and Chick Tricker. Hundreds of shots were fired. It was like something out of a movie, but it was real life in NoHo. Two of Kelly’s men died, but Kelly himself survived after being shot three times.
It’s wild to think about. The same floors where Basquiat painted "Untitled" were once slick with the blood of early 20th-century mafiosos. That’s New York for you. Layers of history piled on top of each other.
The Tragic End and the Graffiti Tribute
Basquiat died in the loft at 57 Great Jones Street on August 12, 1988. He was only 27. The cause was a heroin overdose.
After his death, the building became a site of pilgrimage. For decades, the facade was covered in graffiti. Not just random tags, but heartfelt tributes to Jean-Michel. People would spray-paint crowns—his signature motif—all over the brickwork. It was a living, breathing memorial.
The Estate of Andy Warhol eventually sold the building. For a long time, it sat relatively quiet, though the graffiti remained. Every time a new coat of paint went up, a new layer of Basquiat-inspired art would appear overnight. The city tried to keep it clean, but the fans were faster.
57 Great Jones Street Today: High-End Dining and Luxury
In 2022, things changed. The building was put up for lease by the current owners, the real estate family that bought it from Warhol’s estate. The news hit the art world hard. Would it be turned into a Starbucks? A bank?
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Angelina Jolie actually leased the space for her fashion collective, Atelier Jolie. She kept the graffiti. In fact, she leaned into it. She wanted to preserve the "urban feel" of the building while using it as a creative hub for tailors and artisans. It felt like a win for the neighborhood.
But recently, the ground floor has transitioned again.
Now, if you want to get into 57 Great Jones Street, you’re probably going for dinner. The space houses an incredibly exclusive, high-end Japanese restaurant. It’s a complete 180 from the grit of the 80s. You’ve got people spending hundreds of dollars on omakase in the same room where Basquiat was probably listening to Charlie Parker at 3:00 AM while high on speed.
Is that gentrification? Yeah, definitely. But it’s also the cycle of Manhattan.
Why the Address Still Matters
You might wonder why we care so much about a single address. There are thousands of old buildings in New York.
It matters because 57 Great Jones Street represents the last gasp of "Old New York." That period in the 70s and 80s when the city was broke, dangerous, and incredibly creative. You could rent a massive loft for peanuts. You could be a kid from Brooklyn and become a global superstar in a matter of months.
When you stand outside that building, you aren't just looking at bricks. You're looking at:
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- The intersection of the Italian mob and the 1980s art boom.
- The literal site where one of the most expensive artists in history took his last breath.
- A testament to Andy Warhol’s eye for real estate (and talent).
- The transition of NoHo from a manufacturing district to a luxury destination.
The building is protected now, somewhat. It’s part of the NoHo Historic District. They can't just tear it down and put up a glass tower. The bones of the place will stay.
Misconceptions About the Property
A lot of people think Basquiat owned the building. He didn't. He was a tenant. He actually had a somewhat tumultuous relationship with the Warhol estate after Andy died in 1987. There were rumors he was going to be evicted because his lifestyle was becoming "too much" for the management.
Another myth is that the "Basquiat Crown" graffiti on the outside was painted by him. It wasn't. While he did paint on the building, the graffiti seen in the 90s and 2000s was all done by fans and other street artists paying homage. He kept his work mostly inside.
What to Do if You Visit
If you’re heading to NoHo to check out 57 Great Jones Street, don’t expect a museum. There’s no plaque (though there should be). There’s no gift shop.
- Look at the facade. Even though it’s been cleaned up for the new tenants, you can still see the texture of the old brick. Imagine it covered in spray paint and posters.
- Walk the block. Great Jones Street is short. It only runs from Broadway to Bowery. It’s one of the few streets in the city that still feels "cobblestone-ish" and narrow.
- Visit the nearby galleries. The spirit of Basquiat is still in the neighborhood, even if the lofts are now multi-million dollar condos. Brant Foundation is nearby and often hosts shows that reflect that 80s era.
- Grab a coffee at Great Jones Cafe. It’s just down the street. It’s been there since the 80s. Basquiat actually ate there. It’s one of the few places left that feels authentic to that time.
57 Great Jones Street is a ghost story. It’s a story about how New York eats its young, how it turns art into money, and how some places are just cursed—or blessed—with too much history to ever be "normal" again.
Whether it's a stable, a gangland fortress, an artist's studio, or a sushi dens, it remains a landmark. You don't need a map to find it; you just need to look for the building that feels like it has a secret to tell.
Actionable Next Steps
If you want to dive deeper into the history of this specific location and the era it represents, here is how to do it without just reading Wikipedia:
- Watch the documentary 'Basquiat: The Radiant Child'. It features footage of him inside the Great Jones loft. You get a real sense of the scale of the space and how he moved through it.
- Check the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission reports. They have detailed architectural histories of the NoHo Historic District that explain the structural changes to 57 Great Jones since the 1800s.
- Walk the "Warhol Trail." Start at the site of The Factory (Union Square), head down to Great Jones, and end at the Bowery. It gives you a physical sense of how small the "cool" part of New York actually was in 1984.
- Support local archives. Organizations like the Village Preservation (GVSHP) keep the history of these buildings alive when the city tries to scrub them clean for new developers.
The best way to experience 57 Great Jones Street isn't through a screen. It's by standing on the sidewalk, looking up at the second-floor windows, and imagining the smell of oil paint and the sound of jazz drifting down to the street.