Woody Guthrie's New York apartment (1942 - 1943)

74 Charles Street in Greenwich Village was the apartment where Woody Guthrie lived from December 1942 to May 1943 — the first place he ever put his own name on a lease, despite having spent years in New York playing with the Almanac Singers. He called the apartment 'El Rancho Del Sol.' It was here that he met Marjorie Mazia, a dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company who would become his second wife, and here that his New York life took on a more settled, domestic quality than it had ever had before.

The apartment was a gathering place for the folk music world of wartime Greenwich Village. Lead Belly, Sonny Terry, and others were regular visitors, and the building sits at the heart of the neighbourhood that was, in the early 1940s, the creative centre of American folk and protest music. Guthrie was at the height of his powers during this period — writing prolifically, performing at union halls and benefit concerts, and producing the work that would define his legacy.

The building at 74 Charles Street still stands today, a well-preserved Greenwich Village townhouse on a tree-lined block that looks much as it did in Guthrie's time. There is no official marker on the building, but the address is documented in Guthrie scholarship and is a touchstone for anyone tracing his New York years.