Angels on East Third Street

There is a building on East 3rd Street with a lot of history that starts with Dorothy Day.
Dorothy Day, 11/8/1897 - 11/29/1980, was born in Brooklyn.  She was a college graduate who read and was influenced by Upton Sinclair, Jack London, William Haywood, Mother Jones, Elizabeth Gurly Flynn, and Carlo Tresca.  Her father had been a journalist and after she graduated from the University of Illinois she went to work for the "New York Call" and then "The Masses", both socialist newspapers.  In 1916 she interviewed Leon Trotsky who was living in exile in the east village.  Where else would he stay?
"The Masses" supported  pacifism during the first world war and because of that they lost their mailing privileges and went out of business.  Day supported and worked for Woman's Suffrage, the unionization of workers and non-violence.  When her job at "The Masses" ended she started to attend Catholic services: "the church of the poor".  She has written a number of books that tell what brought her to Socialism and Catholicism.  There are many things to motivate people.  It might be greed, fame, power, or sex.  But to sustain a commitment to the poor throughout her life of service seems superhuman.  She says it came from her political influences.
Her family was from Tennessee and her father was a product of the Jim Crow South.
Her friends were socialists and anarchists.  The father of her out of wedlock child Tamar was the anarchist Foster Batterham who left her when she had Tamar baptized.  Then in the 1930s she met Peter Maurin, a Christian Brother.  Together on 5/1/ 1933 they began "The Catholic Worker" in order to publicize Catholic social teaching.  In 1936 there were 33 Houses - today there are 130 in 32 States and 92 Foreign Countries.
Just a few doors east of MARYHOUSE:
Is the New York City Headquarters of The Hell's Angels.  The east village is diverse.  One interesting note about this building which the Hell's Angels owns.  The Naked Civil Servant, Quentin Crisp, rented an apartment there.  If you don't know who Quentin Crisp is you can rent the movie.  He's worth knowing and the movie, starring John Hurt is terrific.
Crisp said they, The "Angels", were always very nice and gentlemanly toward him.