Had friends that roomed exactly in that neighborhood while attending Cooper Union in the early-mid sixties. I visited them more than a few time before moving to NYC.
IIRC there was an old bar that served mostly fortified wine. The Bowery bums were allowed in before legal opening hours. Bartender set out empty shot glasses in front of each. Ten to twenty bleary faces stared at the clock tick slowly to the appointed hour when the bartender could pour the port and then bang down the first drink of the day.
Interesting neighborhood before the “hippies” found St. Mark’s Place.
In some ways I prefer the hippies of the 70s to what we have there now and throughout most of NYC today: Starbucks yuppies. At least the hippies had some ‘character’. Seriously, I liked the old shops along St Marks Place back then where they sold stuff like blacklight posters, incense, scented wax candles, 60s rock albums, rollin’ papers, bongs... :)