Mori Restaurant, Bleecker Street, November 21, 1935.

144 Bleecker Street was built 1832 as two townhouses (Nos. 144 and 146). Placido Mori established his Italian restaurant at No. 144 in 1883.

In 1920, Mori enlisted then-unknown architect Raymond Hood — who would go on to design several New York skyscrapers, including Rockefeller Center — to create a new facade incorporating No. 146 for an expanded restaurant. As part of Hood’s compensation, he received an apartment upstairs.

Mori closed in 1937 and the building was later occupied by another restaurant and a handful of activist organizations. Between 1962 and 1990, the building was home to the well-loved Bleecker Street Cinema. Today the building has been split up again with no. 144 housing a pharmacy and no. 146 a stationary store.