In 1976, the corner of 13th St. and Avenue C was home to Mousey’s Irish bar, above. Back in the day, Lower East Side bars would field stickball teams that would play on weekends, and the Mousey’s team was always the best. The old-school tavern was torn down to clear the way for construction of Campos Plaza, a New York City Housing Authority development, completed in 1979. The photo at right is of the same corner in 2008. Campos Plaza is named after Pedro Albizu Campos (1891-1964), a leading Puerto Rican “independentista” of his day, who was jailed for nine years for advocating Puerto Rican sovereignty and was accused of being behind a 1950 assassination attempt on President Truman. Also post-Mousey’s, Avenue C was co-named Loisaida Ave. in honor of the neighborhood’s Puerto Rican heritage. Photographer George Cohen gave the story of the Mousey’s photo: “I was driving a taxi back then, and I had a fare in the area. I stopped to photo the bar, and just as I did, a patron came to the doorway, saw me, and grabbed his crotch.”
