Village St. of Pride: Charles St.

Charles Street runs from Greenwich Avenue to West Street just north of West 10th. The principal heir of Sir Peter Warren, who owned the land where Charles Street is found in the colonial era, was a fellow named Charles Christopher Amos, and those names were applied to streets when they were built through the area by 1800. ​

Most of the buildings on Charles Street went up between the 1850s and 1890s, with a couple of older and younger exceptions. #11 Charles Street for two years (1925-1927) was home to journalist/crime novelist James Cain, three of whose books became major motion pictures: The Postman Always Rings Twice(1934), Double Indemnity (1936) and Mildred Pierce (1941). Cain was born in Maryland and in his youth reported for the Baltimore American and Baltimore Sun, where he befriended his mentor, H.L. Mencken. During his two year in NYC he was an editorialist for the New York World and later The New Yorker; he moved to southern California in 1932, but other writers adapted his novels for film.

Source:  Forgotten New York