Thomas Paine

What can a piano bar named Marie's Crisis on Grove Street in Greenwich Village possibly have to do with Thomas Paine, the revolutionary rabble-rousing pamphleteer? Plenty, as it turns out.

Marie's Crisis is named for Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet, "The Crisis", which followed up on the themes of his earler "Common Sense" which laid out, in logical terms, why America had to break from England.

But why is Paine honored here? See below...

Paine died here in 1809. No, he didn't die in Marie's Crisis..it hasn't been around quite that long...but in a small wood framed house that had been on this site before the brick building that presently occupies the site was constructed.

In 1923, the Greenwich Village Historical Society installed this plaque commemorating the revolutionary.

The plaque reads:

The world is my country
All mankind are my brethren
To do good is my religion
I believe in one God and no more

Some say that the original name of neighhboring Barrow Street was Reason Street, after 'The Age Of Reason" but I haven't been able to find any documentation about that.

Questions? Comments? E me at erpietri@earthlink.net. Thanks for visiting the site!