NEW YORK TIMES • February 27, 2026
It was 1959 in Downtown Manhattan and the area, largely unpoliced and commercially undeveloped, was known for its dirt cheap rent for substandard accommodations. St. Marks Place between Second and Third Avenues, where Charles FitzGerald lived, was boarded up. He threw open the window and started selling wooden kitchenware directly to passers-by. His portfolio would grow from one shop to seven. Over the next half century, the transplant with no real estate aspirations would come to play a central role in transforming the once-derelict street into an international curiosity. Clubs and performance spaces flourished. And at the age of 91, he has no intentions of slowing down. The operation was never managed well. Kate FitzGerald, his 39-year-old daughter who lives on St. Marks, said whatever success the businesses had was largely because of her mother, Kathy Cerick. Rather than money, Mr. FitzGerald said he cared about adventure, culture and trees. The couple raised funds for a dozen saplings that they planted along the street. They also donated $2 million from the sale of two buildings to a nature conservancy they created in Maine.