Where in the city is this row of brick buildings?

When Washington Square North resident Edward Hopper finished this strangely haunting painting of simple low-rise buildings in 1930, it was recorded in his ledger as “Seventh Avenue Shops.”

But could this really be on Seventh Avenue? Not according to a 2007 report from the Greenwich Village Historical Society, which explains that the distinctive cornices, barber shop pole, fire hydrant, and morning shadows place the inspiration not on Seventh Avenue but at 231-235 Bleecker Street, just west of Carmine Street.

Adding to the mystery is that Hopper later changed the name of the painting to “Early Sunday Morning,” which it’s still known by today.

[Photo comparison published in New York magazine, courtesy of the Whitney Museum of Art, John Carbonella]

Many of Hopper’s other works—deceptively simple, solitary, often people-free city corners and streets—have been traced to specific locations that still stand.

Maybe Hopper did draw his inspiration from this slice of Bleecker Street, or perhaps it’s a composite of details from several buildings.

Jeremiah at Vanishing New York has an intriguing take on the “Early Sunday Morning,” as well as a fascinating look at where Hopper’s “Nighthawks” might have been.

Cross street carvings on Bleecker Street buildings

Bleecker Street west of Sixth Avenue has gone upscale over the past decade.

But I wonder how many of the boutique shoppers and cupcake eaters who now crowd this meandering old road notice the old street signage carved into building corners.

This one is on the southeast corner at West 10th Street, above a designer jeans store housed in a classic city six-story tenement.

Across the street is another low-rise brick apartment building. The carving appears on the corner, above Village Apothecary. Is street abbreviated “str”?

You really have to squint to see this next one, two corners away on Perry Street. It’s showing its age on a five-story walkup.