350 West Street, east side, adjoining the south corner of Clarkson Street, opposite Pier 40, North River. This is a frame house with stucco facing. It is shortly to be demolished, being a part of the site of the new St. John's Park Freight Terminal. June 3, 1930.

A guide to the places Bob Dylan worked, played and created in New York's Greenwich Village.

Hudson Park Library, Seventh Avenue South facade, 1937. In late 1910s the nearby park, which gave the branch its name, Hudson Park, was largely demolished in the construction of Seventh Avenue South. An addition was built for an entrance on the new street, in a slightly different style. The new facade had Common or American Bond brick work instead of the Flemish Bond of the original structure and double-height limestone enframements on the windows. Both of these factors give the Seventh Avenue South facade a more rigid and geometric look. The library, following this addition, seems to hug the seven-story brick apartment building at the southwest corner of Leroy Street and 7th Avenue (not visible at right).

High pressure water system trench at Christopher and Washington Streets; undated photo. At left, the storefront at No. 163 Christopher Street (today known as 649 Washington Street) is occupied by druggist M.B. McAvoy. At right is the Christopher Street station of the Ninth Avenue Elevated line, above Greenwich Street. Between the two is the Church of St. Veronica.

"Originally constructed in 1831 to house the fledgling Greenwich Village Free Medical Clinic, the building was a philanthropic venture designed to provide care to the working-class neighbors and domestic servants of the wealthy in the area, and to reduce communicable illness in the interest of public health. The founders of the Dispensary saw it as a valuable contribution to both social welfare and scientific good — particularly well-positioned to study the diseases of the working poor otherwise not receiving medical care. It served more than three thousand patients and was busy enough by 1855 to require the installation of a third floor. By the middle of the twentieth century, the Dispensary was primarily providing free dental care, but its operators’ reluctance to serve people with AIDS led to its shuttering in 1988." To learn more about the Dispensary, check out Salonee Bhaman's profile in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History

Much like the history of the beloved Sunshine Cinema, which cycled from a church to a movie theatre with a couple of other uses in between, the IFC Center followed a similar path. The original building at 325 Sixth Avenue was constructed as a Universalist church in 1831 and later housed St. Jude's Episcopal Free Church and the Union Reformed Church. In 1893 it became the home of J.\&R. Lamb Studios. This firm was established in 1853 and stained glass, and later mosaics, marble, carved wood and metal pieces for churches, libraries, and private homes. In 1937 the former church was converted into the Art Deco Waverly Theatre by architect Harrison Wiseman. The Waverly was immortalized in a song in the musical Hair and hosted the original long-running midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Closed in 2001, the theatre reopened in 2005 as the IFC Center after another renovation, which added a new metal facade but retained the 150+-year-old gabled roof.

The same, better view of the buildings which supplanted the Weehawken Market. About 1830.

Federal style townhouse at 41 Barrow Street, 1932. This brick house was one of seven built by the developer Charles Oakley between 1824-6. During the 19th century, it was home to Dr. Virgil Thompson and, later, Police Captain Ira S. Garland.

Whittemore House, October 21, 1935. President Abraham Lincoln, after saving the Union and winning the Civil War, was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865, finally succumbing to his wounds the next morning on April 15th. Lincoln was the first U.S. President ever assassinated, and his death led to a protracted period of national mourning and political tumult, including the first impeachment of a U.S. President, Lincoln’s successor Andrew Johnson. But this event which changed the course of history might never have happened were it not for events connected to one of the most unusual houses in Greenwich Village, constructed by one of Greenwich Village’s most prolific builders, which thanks to landmark protections still stands. 45 Grove Street, just west of Bleecker Street, was originally a free-standing home built in 1830. According to the Greenwich Village Historic District designation report “it was undoubtedly one of the finest and largest Federal residences in Greenwich Village,” often referred to ask the Whittemore Mansion. It was built for Samuel Whittemore one of the major property owners in the area, and who was largely responsible for the early development of this part of the Village. Whittemore was the senior member of the firm of S. Whittemore & Company, manufacturers of steam-propelled carding equipment used in textile manufacturing. One of his factories was located nearby on Waverly Place, then known as Factory Street. When 45 Grove Street was originally built it was just two stories, and many of its original details including Flemish bond brickwork, arched doorway, and Federal lintels at the windows are still intact (the two upper stories were added in 1871). But by 1851, the neighborhood was becoming increasingly crowded with immigrants and industry, and the Whittemore Family sold it. Not long after the sale, the home was operating as a boarding house. One of the boarders was a man named Samuel K. Chester. Chester was an actor and associate of fellow actor John Wilkes Booth. Around the beginning of 1865, Booth came to 45 Grove Street to meet Chester at his home and try to persuade him to participate in a “conspiracy to take over the government” including kidnapping President Lincoln. Booth was a strong supporter of the Confederate cause, and wildly opposed to Lincoln’s war to save the Union and his move to free the slaves. After Chester turned Booth down the offer to assist with the kidnapping of the President, Booth changed his plan, deciding to murder the President. Had Chester either agreed to participate in the plan to kidnap the President, or reported Booth’s plot, Lincoln’s life might have been spared, and the course of history quite different. But he did neither. Just days after Lee’s surrender at Appamatox and the collapse of the Confederacy, Booth shot Lincoln as he watched a performance of ‘Our American Cousin’ at Ford’s Theater, shouting (by various accounts) “Sic semper tyrannis” (“Thus always to tyrants,” the state motto of Virginia) or “The South is avenged!” as he leaped from Lincoln’s box and onto the stage. He escaped, but after the largest manhunt in American history up to that time, he was shot and killed. Lincoln was replaced as President by Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat who was significantly more sympathetic to the Confederate cause than Lincoln, who refused to adopt or enforce many of the Republican party’s Reconstructionist programs granting rights to freed slaves. By another twist of fate, shortly after the Civil War, 45 Grove became known as the “Lincoln Home” for destitute soldiers and sailors. Early 20th century residents included the poet Hart Crane, who lived at this address when he wrote "The Bridge," a paean to the Brooklyn Bridge and New York.

Carmine Street buildings slated for demolition ahead of the downtown extension of Sixth Avenue, July 30, 1926. Prior to the 1920s extension, Sixth Avenue terminated at Carmine Street. The extension and associated demolitions were undertaken for two purposes: facilitating construction of IND subway tracks and providing a connection for vehicular traffic to/from the Holland Tunnel, via Canal Street.

84 King Street, December 7, 1927. Built in the 1920s and replacing five old houses, no. 84 (at right) was constructed as a two-story parking garage. It functioned in that capacity for a number of decades. The address, though, is best known as the Paradise Garage, a night club opened between 1977 and 1987, whose patrons were predominantly African American gay men. The state-of-the-art sound system installed in the club was considered the best in New York at the time. The club was the base for DJ Larry Levan, a cult favorite who style and musical productions are considered the precursor of modern house music. The club was not open to the general public and they served no food or alcohol, meaning it was not limited to bar hours and often stayed open all night and into the next day. The club closed in September 1987, a few months before its owner, Michael Brody, died of complications from HIV/AIDS. Today the building is occupied by a Verizon Communications facility, though the club is still remembered and mourned by those who attended its infamous parties.

276 Bleecker Street; February 2, 1937. Anchored by the famous Church of Our Lady of Pompeii, Bleecker Street stood in the center of Little Italy and was lined with food specialty stores. The Mandaro family, which owned this cheese store, made many of their own cheeses and imported others. Although Mandaro’s is gone, similar shops can still be found along Bleecker Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The Mandaro storefront has been absorbed by the ever- expanding John’s Pizzeria, a neighborhood institution that opened in 1934.

Thanksgiving Ragamuffins, 1933. A little girl applying lipstick, at 367 Hudson Street, west side, between King and West Houston Streets. November 30, 1933.

The city's real estate has left us with some precarious addresses. Browse some of Manhattan's 1/2 Houses.

The city might feel like its been on fire this last record-breaking summer, but there have been times in the past when it has been. In the 1970s the Bronx was burning and Lower East Side was also suffering from fires and abandoned buildings. Before that, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire became one of the worst workplace tragedies to ever occur. In the late 19th century, the booming population of the city brought with it a great need for fire protection. During that time, some beautiful firehouses were built and served a crucial function for the city, both before and after the creation of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). Here, we’re going to tour some of these beautiful historic buildings in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo.

2-6 Minetta Street, November 21, 1935. Located above a small historic lower Manhattan waterway called Minetta Brook, Minetta Street has a long and diverse history. The stream was moved underground in the 1820s because it was impeding the development of the area. The crooked Minetta Street was originally a path along the brook, created by the “partially-freed” African American population that had settled nearby in the mid 17th century. In the late 19th and early 20th century the street was known for its seedy occupants, including prostitutes and saloons that catered to Irish gangsters. After a concerted effort by local police to clean up the area, by the 1920s, Minetta Street and Lane were the more quiet and quaint blocks they remain today.

Pingpank Barber Shop ca. 1938 When Abbott photographed this shop window, August Pingpank was 87 years old, in business for more than 50 years, and said to be the oldest barber in New York City. On the verge of retirement, Pingpank remarked that “it’s different now with the men shaving themselves every morning at home.” Abbott’s photograph presents a distilled image of Pingpank’s world. Set up against a mirror are his customers’ personalized shaving mugs on a makeshift display stand. Given the place of honor on the stand are a Chinese porcelain jardiniere, a cut glass disinfectant jar, and a can of Jergen’s talcum powder. Attached to the mirror is a photograph of the shop’s interior, and on the left wall is a Victorian cigar advertisement. A horse-drawn cart is reflected in the window, a fitting accompaniment to this relic of a bygone era. Pingpank’s store, which falls within boundaries of the Greenwich Village Historic District, is currently occupied by an antique shop.

Dilapidated Federal style frame house, once home to Thomas Paine, 1932. Paine, the English-born Revolutionary era author, moved to the wooden house on Herring Street (as Bleecker was then known, west of Sixth Avenue) after his release from French prison in 1802. He would live there nearly until his death in 1809. Nearby Barrow Street was briefly renamed Reason Street in Paine’s honor, referencing “In Praise of Reason,” a tract he wrote while imprisoned in France. Locals, however, had difficulty embracing the new name: it was often bastardized as “Raisin Street.” In 1827, the Barrow Street name was restored.

The Mad Hatter Tearoom ca. 1892 The one-story building at left has early LGBT history in its incarnation as the Mad Hatter, which was located in the basement from 1916 to c. 1930. The first tearoom in the Village, the Mad Hatter attracted a bohemian crowd (and a number of upper class “slummers” who came to watch them). Eliza Helen Criswell – who went by “Jimmie,” had short hair, and wore sandals, artsy smocks, and tailored suits and ties for formal events – owned the establishment with her partner Mathilda Spence for a number of years. Beginning in 1945, the ground floor space was the location of the Pony Stable Inn, a lesbian bar. Like other Greenwich Village lesbian bars of the 1940s-1960s, such as the Sea Colony and the Bagatelle, the Pony Stable Inn attracted mostly working-class white women who adhered to strict butch/femme gender roles \[for an explanation on butch/femme, see the entry on the Sea Colony]. Almost all gay bars of the time in New York City were run by the Mafia and frequently raided by the police. A McCarthy-era tactic of infiltrating gay spaces with informants was also common, making women reluctant to talk to those they did not know for fear of police entrapment. As Lee Zevy (who would later co-found Identity House NYC) described of her first visit to the Pony Stable Inn with a few more experienced friends, “Nobody talked to anybody because everybody was deeply, deeply in the closet, even at the bar.” Acclaimed black lesbian feminist, writer, and activist Audre Lorde wrote of the reluctance to speak with anyone at a lesbian bar at the time for fear of coming across a plainclothes policewoman: “There were always rumors of plainclothes women circulating among us, looking for gay girls with fewer than three pieces of female attire. That was enough to get you arrested for transvestism, which was illegal.”

51: 1843; 53: 1846; 1930, combined façade: William Bayard Willis) NYC IL, NYC HD, NR-P, NHL The Stonewall Inn was the starting point of the Stonewall Rebellion of June 28-July 2, 1969, which began when customers at the bar refused to leave during a police raid — in the 1960’s, it was illegal for a gay bar to obtain a liquor license and police routinely raided them. The uprising became a catalyst for the formation of organizations and groups across the country devoted to LGBTQ civil rights, and it’s commemorated nationwide and around the world with Pride marches and the celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month. In 2015, the Stonewall Inn became the city’s first Individual Landmark commemorating an LGBTQ site, designated entirely on the basis of its cultural, rather than architectural, significance. The area was designated as the Stonewall National Monument in 2016, the country’s first U.S. National Monument dedicated to LGBTQ civil rights history. Further State and National designations have made it one of the most decorated and protected sites in the city. Photo by Diana Davies/NYPL.

Grocery store at the corner of Christopher and Bleecker Streets, June, 1925. This tiny corner store was built between 1802 and 1808 by a grocer named William Patterson, in what was then a rural village. In 1807, the house at the corner of Herring (Bleecker) and Christopher Streets served as a meeting place for the commission charged with designing Manhattan’s street grid. Lead surveyor John Randel spent ten years staking out and marking intersections from 1st Street to 155th Street. Recognized as a work of genius today, Randel and his surveyors were pelted with cabbages and artichokes by landowners furious at the prospect of streets being plowed through their properties.

205 Bleecker Street as viewed from Hancock Street, a now de-mapped road in Greenwich Village. The street disappeared not long after this photograph was taken, swallowed up by the creation of Sixth Avenue South.

The White Horse Tavern, ca. 1975. In addition to its literary bona fides, the White Horse served as a meeting place for leftists, labor organizations, and journalists, including writers associated with the Village Voice, whose 1960s headquarters at Sheridan Square was a short walk away.

A tour of the architectural and cultural gems of Bleecker Street. From Bob Dylan to Dylan Thomas, from Federal style rowhouses to new law tenements, Bleecker Street represents a wonderful cross-section of New York City’s diverse history.

San Remo Cafe, 1937. The San Remo was a cafe and bar which opened in 1925 and closed in 1967. In the 1950s it became a popular haunt for literary and artistic notables of the Beat and Bohemian generation. Regulars included Gore Vidal, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas, Miles Davis, Jackson Pollack, James Baldwin, and Allen Ginsberg. A later account of the Cafe said this, “With its pressed-tin ceiling, black-and-white tile floors and dollar salads with all the bread and butter you could eat, the San Remo attracted a younger, hipper crowd more into experimenting with drugs than The White Horse’s habituées,” The bar and its patrons are described in a number of literary works authored by those who hung out there, including Jack Kerouac's 'The Subterraneans.'

Our Lady of Pompeii Church ca. 1928 On March 7th, 1898, Our Lady of Pompeii Church was incorporated as a separate parish. This South Village icon has been serving the neighborhood since 1926, but Our Lady of Pompeii has been a part of the Village since 1892. The Our Lady of Pompeii church that stands today was designed by architect Matthew W. Del Gaudio and constructed between 1926 and 1928. But the parish had several prior homes. In 1890, it began in a building located at 113 Waverly Place, as part of the Saint Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants, under the leadership of Father Pietro Bandini. Father Bandini named his chapel there “Our Lady of Pompeii.” He worked to help the many Italian immigrants adjust to their new lives in America. By 1895, the Society moved to 214 Sullivan Street, but fire forced them out and they moved to an existing church at 210 Bleecker Street. This church was originally built in 1836 for the Unitarian Universalists, but was sold to the African American Roman Catholic congregation of Saint Benedict the Moor in 1883. There had been a significant African-American population in the area around Minetta Street, but as the century was coming to a close, they began moving further uptown, and Our Lady of Pompeii parish acquired the property and moved in on May 8, 1898 under the leadership of Father Antonio Demo (the square adjacent to the church now bears his name).

102 Bedford Street. 102 Bedford Street began its life around 1830 as a 2 1/2 story wood-frame Federal style house — the kind of simple structure one sees throughout Greenwich Village and Lower Manhattan. It seemed to live a pretty unremarkable life until 1925 when Clifford Daily purchased the building. According to NY Times Streetscapes columnist Christopher Gray, records show Daily, 39 years old at the time, was unmarried, lived in an old house on Sheridan Square, and was the decorator of “The Little House,” a tea room located next door at 100 Bedford Street in the tiny former back shed of 17 Grove Street. The 1910s and 1920s saw a lot of new interest in Greenwich Village from artists and those who simply wanted to live around artists. Like today, real estate developers were quick to try to capitalize on this trend, and rundown buildings in the neighborhood were often given makeovers intended to project an artistic image. Few, however, were as complete, or as fanciful, in their transformation as 102 Bedford Street. The two and a half story building was raised to five stories and given a sort of Tudor/Medieval/Swiss Chalet facade, including the twin-peaked roofs, from which its name is derived. The building was specifically intended to attract artists, with 10 one-room studios with casement windows, similar to the “artists’ studios” which had been popping up on the top of houses throughout the Village during this time. Again according to Gray (citing the NY Herald Tribune) the building was originally painted black, green, orange, and blue — a color scheme which has long since been replaced with the more conventional brown and beige we see today, and of which there seems to be little or no photographic record. Perhaps most notable, however, was the building’s dedication ceremony: On May 21, 1926…the actress Mabel Normand stood on a platform on top of one of the gables and shattered a bottle of Champagne over the roof. Next to her, Princess Amelie Troubetskoy (an American novelist who had married a Russian prince in czarist days) burned acorns in a charcoal brazier in honor of the Greek god Pan. Holy water, flowers, and other rites also inaugurated the building. The studio apartments in the building are all tiny, approximately 20 by 18 feet. However, many maintain original details, and the interiors of the building literally ooze Village bohemian charm. Despite the incredible appeal of the apartment’s unique charms, their modest dimensions have given rise to some skepticism about claims that Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Walt Disney, Cary Grant, and Miles Davis each lived there for a time

75-1/2 Bedford Street, July 1948. With a facade of only nine and a half feet wide, 75 1/2 Bedford Street is the narrowest house in New York City. The interior space is even cozier, at its widest, 8 feet 7 inches, and at its narrowest, only 2 feet. Some sources suggest it was constructed in 1873 on what was a former carriage entranceway, while others believe the narrow home dates to earlier in the century. In the late 19th century the building was home to a cobbler's shop and candy factory. In 1923 the building was leased (with its surrounding neighbors) by a group of artists and actors, who established the Cherry Lane Theatre around the corner. Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay and her husband moved into the building in 1923 and only stayed a year. During their tenure, the building, which was constructed in a typical Italianate style with a cornice at the top, was renovated. Architect Ferdinand Savignano installed a skylight and made the top floor a studio for Millay. The original cornice was removed, and a small Dutch stepped gable was added (possibly as a reflection of the Dutch heritage of Millay's husband). According to numerous accounts, the house also was the residence (however briefly) to cartoonist William Steig, his sister-in-law anthropologist Margaret Mead, and actors John Barrymore and Cary Grant. The building was purchased in 1952 by a Greenwich Village local (saving it from redevelopment) and sold and renovated a number of times since the mid-1990s. It was sold in 2013 for $3.25 million.

17 Commerce Street, July 1967.

Built in 1911, the large building at 421 Hudson Street was originally the printing facility for Schweinler Press. Ten stories tall and occupying the fill blockfront, this building printed McClure's Magazine, The Ladies World, and Harper's Weekly. The press produced more than six million magazines monthly by 1913. In the 1910s the printing firm became the target of a highly contested court case which challenged new labor laws that forbade female workers from toiling in "factories and mercantile establishments" between 10 P.M. and 6 A.M. In its first few years women had been hired for night work here. A New York State Court of Appeals ruling in 1915 upheld the ban of nighttime workers in "People v. Charles Schweinler Press." In the 1970s the printing facility was converted into rental loft residences, a common transformation at the time in this neighborhood. In the late 1980s, a condo conversion was completed on 80% of the units. In 2013 the building was renovated completely and 60 condo units were put on the market.

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church ca. 1932 Even before the Irish potato famine of 1845, waves of Irish immigrants began to enter New York City. St. Joseph’s parish (now called the University Parish of St. Joseph’s), located on Sixth Avenue between Waverly and Washington Places, just west of Washington Square Park, was formed in 1829. Its founding is credited to the first Irish who settled in Greenwich Village, those who came to serve as domestic servants or to work on the construction of buildings when the Village’s population swelled due to outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera that beset the core city in 1799, 1803, 1805, and 1821. The parish originally served an area from Canal Street to 20th Street and was the sixth Catholic parish established in New York City. The cornerstone of the Church was laid on June 10, 1833, and despite several extensive renovations, the church that stands now is still the original.

The West Street facade of 6 Weehawken Street.

Edgar Allan Poe residence, Waverly Place. Undated photo, ca. 1900. This turn of the century snow scene includes the Waverly Place townhouse were Edgar Allan Poe once lived. No. 137, at left, was built in 1829 by Thomas Cumming a builder who developed several houses in the surrounding area, including on Gay Street. When Poe came to New York in 1837, he first settled in Greenwich Village, before moving to farmhouses on the Upper West Side and in Fordham. On Waverly Place, Poe was close to the Northern Dispensary, where he was often treated.

When searching through the chronicles of Greenwich Village history, some things almost seem too Village-y to be true, with all their quirky details and theatrical anecdotes. A prime example: The Pepper Pot Inn at 146 West 4th Street, a 1920s multi-level restaurant that became a sensation. Purchased in 1918 by Carlyle “Doc” Sherlock and his wife Viola, this spot came into being as the neighborhood surrounding Washington Square Park transitioned from affluent enclave to working-class territory and artists’ haven. Doc and Viola themselves tried to make it as actors on the big screen, but they soon left that world to become the owners of “the most popular eating place in the Village and a nation-wide destination.” The basement level of 146 West 4th served as the bustling restaurant of The Pepper Pot, where customers could enjoy a variety of cuisines, followed by Viola Sherlock’s own homemade desserts. Strings of peppers and paper lanterns decorated the ceiling, while the tables displayed enormous candles made of the wax drippings of all the candles that had sat there before. Artists seated at the table would carve figures into these mounds of wax, and the light from these candles illuminated the dark basement room. Home › South Village › The Pepper Pot Inn, “The Realest Thing in Bohemian Atmosphere” The Pepper Pot Inn, “The Realest Thing in Bohemian Atmosphere” A view down West 4th Street with The Pepper Pot's big vertical sign and ads on neighboring buildings. Via http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com. The Pepper Pot Inn, “The Realest Thing in Bohemian Atmosphere” Laura FleischmannLaura FleischmannPosted on August 2, 2019 Posted in South Village, Uncategorized — 4 Comments ↓ When searching through the chronicles of Greenwich Village history, some things almost seem too Village-y to be true, with all their quirky details and theatrical anecdotes. A prime example: The Pepper Pot Inn at 146 West 4th Street, a 1920s multi-level restaurant that became a sensation. Purchased in 1918 by Carlyle “Doc” Sherlock and his wife Viola, this spot came into being as the neighborhood surrounding Washington Square Park transitioned from affluent enclave to working-class territory and artists’ haven. Doc and Viola themselves tried to make it as actors on the big screen, but they soon left that world to become the owners of “the most popular eating place in the Village and a nation-wide destination.” A view down West 4th Street east from 6th Avenue with The Pepper Pot’s big vertical sign and ads on neighboring buildings. Via http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com. Lanterns, Candles, and Chili Peppers The basement level of 146 West 4th served as the bustling restaurant of The Pepper Pot, where customers could enjoy a variety of cuisines, followed by Viola Sherlock’s own homemade desserts. Strings of peppers and paper lanterns decorated the ceiling, while the tables displayed enormous candles made of the wax drippings of all the candles that had sat there before. Artists seated at the table would carve figures into these mounds of wax, and the light from these candles illuminated the dark basement room. On the parlor and second floors of this 1828 house, guests could dance and enjoy music. An image of the dance floor also appears to show a ceiling of greenery and more lanterns, with beautiful sunlight coming in from a tall window. Then above this was the Bridge Room, where Carlyle and Viola’s “friends of the motion picture, theatrical, bridge and chess world” could play and watch “exhibitions” of expert players. As The Pepper Pot continued to flourish through the Roaring ‘20s, it became a popular spot for a new wave the neighbors didn’t care for – jazz! As Daytonian in Manhattan describes, “In the days before air conditioning open windows let in the night breezes but also let out the blaring music.” As a result, the Sherlocks’ landlady across the street, Mrs. Creveling, and her neighbor stopped by Jefferson Market Court to file a complaint. The landlady told the magistrate of “those funny ditties that they play” and the liquor continuing to flow despite prohibition. Dr. Sherlock arrived in court on February 17, 1921 ready to fight this case. But according to the New York Times from the following day, he “waited in vain for the complaintants.” And so, the music and enjoyment continued at The Pepper Pot. A year later The Evening World newspaper described the place as still “extremely Greenwich Village – with an automatic piano in the candle-lit basement and a group of furious jazzers two floors above.” A few years later, Carlyle and Viola moved to their country home and another person managed the place, which by this time had expanded to include Nos. 148 and 150. Newspaper reviews continued to paint a picture of a funky hangout, complete with a fortuneteller, tap dancing, singing, dim lights, and neighborhood celebrities “of whom there have been many in the proud Pepper Pot past.” The good times k...

Jillian Jonas was the house photographer at the legendary boy bar on St. Mark’s Place in the mid 1990’s, where she captured thousands of images of drag performers who mixed gender-bending and illusion with downtown in-your-face attitude. This collection includes images not only from boy bar, but the Pyramid Club, Wigstock, the Gay Pride Festival, Jackie 60 and various other downtown nightlife and performance venues of the early-to-mid 1990s. Her pictures capture a golden age of LGBTQ+ nightlife and performance, as well as an edgy slice of life when drag and blurred boundaries of gender were just beginning to make inroads into the broader public consciousness, largely through this vibrant local scene. This image was taken by Jillian Jonas and is from Village Preservation's Historic Image Archive, view more historic photos like this here.

Home and Office of WIlliam Kunstler ca. 1933 William Kunstler was an American radical lawyer and civil rights activist, known for his involvement in some of the most high-profile and controversial civil rights and civil liberties cases of the late 20th century. A native New Yorker, he attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, Yale College, and Columbia University Law School in 1948. Kunstler practiced family and small business law in the 1950s and was an associate professor of law at New York Law School (1950–1951) before entering civil rights litigation in the 1960s. Kunstler's defense of the Chicago Seven from 1969–1970 led The New York Times to label him "the country's most controversial and, perhaps, its best-known lawyer". He is also well known for defending members of the Catonsville Nine, the Black Panther Party, the Weather Underground Organization, Attica Prison rioters, and the American Indian Movement. Kunstler also won a de facto segregation case regarding the District of Columbia's public schools and "disinterred, singlehandedly" the concept of federal removal jurisdiction in the 1960s. In late 1995, Kunstler died in New York City of heart failure at the age of 76.

My Archive Spring 2019 "This photo was taken in 1981. The gentleman on the right end is my grandfather, Paolo Anfosso, with his retired neighborhood cronies. They gathered most days in Minetta Triangle or Fr. Demo Square. He and my grandmother, Yolanda, were fixtures in what was then the very Italian Greenwich Village. They lived at 259 Bleecker Street above Zito's Bakery for over 70 years. Paolo was a chef in Jersey City who spoke mostly Italian. Yolanda was a kindergarten teacher first at the Children's Aid Society then, St. Anthony's on Sullivan St. The 3rd gentleman from the right was his good friend also named Paul. The story goes, someone saw them all gathered one day and stopped to ask if they would have their picture taken. To us, this has become a family classic moment in time." —Jean Gross

Ice delivery on West 4th Street, just east of Sheridan Square, ca. 1950. The corner delicatessen (at left) is located at the corner of West 4th Street and Sheridan Square. Next to the right is the shop of Pedro Pujol, known for his modernist copper jewelry. At far right is Miss Douglass' Bake Shop.

Charles Lane looking east, September 20, 1938. Named for the same man for whom Christopher Street is named, Charles Christopher Amos, Charles Lane is a narrow street with no sidewalks and a unique brick paving. The pavers, seen prominently in the photograph, are laid out horizontally with 3 rows of vertically paved bricks in the middle. This configuration, which created a sort of gutter in the middle, was likely constructed to assist in the drainage of water from the street into the gutter on nearby West Street. Like many of the small hidden Manhattan alleys, Charles Lane saw debris, garbage, and likely its share of illicit activity in the 20th century. Today it is a quiet, quaint street, lined with brick buildings, some of which were originally stables.

88 Grove Street, ca. 1915. No. 88 (at right with the ironwork at the roofline) was constructed in 1827 as a Federal style home by Henry Halsey, a mason. In the 1860s the house was remodeled into a French Second Empire style complete with slate mansard and classic dormer windows (all the rage at the time). When this view was captured in the early 1910s, the structure was obscured by ivy and home to Italian landscape architect Ferruccio Vitale. Later the building was purchased by James Graham Phelps Stokes, referred to as a “millionaire Socialist." Today no. 88 looks very much as it did when it was altered in the middle of the 19th century.

Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein (in suit on right) cuts the ribbon, 1982. From its founding in 1980 until 1984, GVSHP was known as the Greenwich Village Trust, as noted on the sign.

The Napolitana Kitchen, photographed by Berenice Abbott in 1947, in the ground floor space of no. 228, a 1900 Romanesque Revival tenement designed by Peter J. Herter.

1 Sheridan Square, 1933. From 1938 to 1948 Barney Josephson ran Café Society, New York's first racially integrated nightclub at 1 Sheridan Square. Josephson was a former shoe salesman whose extensive travels in Europe inspired him to create a jazz club that might look like the racially diverse cabarets he attended in Europe. On opening night Billie Holiday performed and she would later debut 'Strange Fruit' at the club. The venue only lasted for a decade. Josephson had leftist leanings and in 1947 his brother refused to refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. As a result the club was lambasted by writer and critics, the patrons stopped coming, and the Sheridan Square (and the second uptown location) were forced to close.

132 Bank Street This charming row of three brick residences was built in 1833 for William E. Fink, a grocer. These houses, early Greek Revival in style are three stories in height with basements. Nos. 132 and 134 have fronts of Flemish bond. The corner house, No. 136, is constructed of running bond, and the top floor attic windows have been replaced by larger ones. The original wrought iron hand railing of the stoops has been retained at all three houses. At Nos. 132 and 136, the horizontal band beneath the handrail proper is designed with a very graceful scrollwork pattern. The iron spindles are enhanced by a delicate ball design at mid-height. The handrailings, resting on very simple newels with urnlike bases, terminate in a curved volute. A simple wrought iron areaway railing, and wrought iron uprights, topped by small acorn finials may be seen at all three residences.; At. Nos. 132 and 136, the charming Greek Revival doorways have columns and transoms. These doorways consist of a handsome three-paneled door which is flanked on both sides by well proportioned, fluted Doric columns. The two handsome columns support a low entablature which is surmounted by a five-paned transom. A simple lintel, enhanced by a delicate cornice, is seen over the transom. The lintels above the muntined windows of the first and second floors of all three houses have had cornices added. In all three houses, the original sills remain unchanged. The facades may have originally been crowned by a deep fascia board with waterproofed surface seen at No. 134, with small windows cut into it. No. 136 has a shallow cornice set above the lengthened windows, while No. 132 was remodeled to provide a double window located on center with casements, above which a dormer has been added to obtain north light. Philip Evergood, a well-known painter, lived at No. 132 Bank Street from 1940-47.

Longo Sanitary Bakery, ca. 1935.

666 Greenwich Street Rising like an ark over Christopher Street, the Archive Building’s construction and multiple uses over a New York century reflect the changing character of the Far West Village waterfront and the city as a whole. Join us as we trace the unique history of this colossus of the West Village. Filling the entire block bounded by Barrow, Greenwich, Washington, and Christopher Streets, the Archive Building sits on an irregularly shaped lot more than an acre in size. In the best tradition of the Village street plan (or lack thereof), none of the lot sides are actually parallel to each other. Construction began in 1892 and was completed in 1899 based on the designs of Willoughby J. Edbrooke, the supervising architect of the U.S. Treasury. Crafted in the Romanesque Revival style, the structure is capped by a weighty cornice atop a masonry façade that features wide brick support piers and round Roman arches and a three-foot thick brick base. The massive building reflected the Far West Village’s transition from earlier light residential use to a more commercial and industrial character that would remain for much of the twentieth century. Though English-born, Edbrooke came to the U.S. government from a successful practice in Chicago where the influence of the developing “Chicago Style,” disseminated by the likes of Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, was strong. It’s been noted that the façade of the Archive Building reflects the Chicago work of Sullivan and Adler’s Auditorium building. You can find an actual Louis Sullivan building here in New York right over in NoHo – the Bayard-Condict Building on Bleecker Street. The building, originally termed the U.S. Appraisers’ Warehouse, was used by the U.S. Customs Service to assess the tariffs on goods arriving in New York via ship. Originally it was meant to be built near the planned U.S. Custom House at Bowling Green far downtown, but shipping owners lobbied to have the building constructed closer to the West Side piers near Christopher Street so they would not have to deal with the headache of navigating their cargoes from the piers and through the congested, narrow streets of lower Manhattan. After the Federal income tax was instituted in 1913, revenue generated by import tariffs was no longer a crucial component of the Federal budget and by the 1930s the building was reconfigured into office space for the National Archives, a post office, and other Federal agencies. Even as the various Federal tenants gradually began to depart, the City recognized the important character of the structure and in 1966 designated it a city landmark. It was later recognized by the State and National Register of Historic Places in 1973. By 1976 the federal government deemed the building to be government surplus property and its future was in jeopardy. However a deal was successfully arranged to preserve the structure by transferring ownership to the New York State Urban Development Corporation. The UDC in turn leased the property to a private developer for residential conversion. By the 1980s, despite its continuing industrial, gritty character, the Far West Village had lost many of the industries housed in the large structures in the neighborhood. The area was beginning its transformation into one of the most sought after residential communities in the city. By the late 80s several large residential buildings were constructed or re-purposed from existing commercial structures farther and farther west. The renovation of the current Archive Building as we know it was completed in 1988. Although many historic elements were retained, many new elements were added and an entire interior atrium was cut into the structure to make the floor plans viable for apartment living. It was one of the earlier examples of preservation by commercial conversion in to residences in the city. The conversion of Westbeth (which was just landmarked) to the north is another, but it did not have the same overtly commercial character.

Le Gandarme ca. 1970 The 9th (later 6th) Police Precinct Station House was the first New York City police station house built under the new Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt in 1896-97. It became familiarly known as the “Charles Street Police Station,” and also included a prison and a stable wing. The building ceased to function as a police station in January 1971 after the construction of the new station at 229-235 West 10th Street. The old police station was sold at auction and converted to “Le Gendarme” Apartments in 1977. Only eight months after the Stonewall uprising, in the early morning of March 8, 1970, police raided the Snake Pit, a gay-run non-Mafia, the after-hours bar in the basement of a Greenwich Village apartment building at 215 West 10th Street. The raid was led by Seymour Pine, who had also led the ill-fated raid on the Stonewall. Fearing similar rioting from the crowd of patrons, the police arrested 167 people, who were taken nearby to the 6th Police Precinct Station House. Argentinian immigrant Diego Vinales apparently panicked over the possibility of deportation, tried to escape from the second story of the jail, and was impaled on the iron fence below. According to Arthur Bell in Dancing the Gay Lib Blues: A Year in the Homosexual Liberation Movement, one witness later commented, “I was at the window right after he landed on the spikes. The remarks the cops made after this happened were unbelievable. One cop said to a fireman, ‘You don’t have to hurry, he’s dead, and if he’s not, he’s not going to live long.’ I was with three or four kids when one of the kids heard crying and screaming out. Then the other kids started crying. They saw what was happening and they were shaken. But the remarks kept coming from the cops. They probably thought they were justified. Diego was a faggot, they said. They used the word faggot so many times it was unbelievable.” Vinales was cut loose along with part of the fence, taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital and survived, but word spread that he was dead or dying. The Gay Activists Alliance and Gay Liberation Front organized a quick response – an angry protest by a crowd numbering around 500 people, who marched from Christopher Park to the police station.

Fugazzi's Bar and Grill, ca. 1940. Formerly a fish market, the all-night cafeteria is famously mentioned in Allen Ginsberg epic poem, Howl. Supposedly, Ginsberg worked as a custodian at the bar.

The former Mad Hatter tearoom, 150 West Fourth Street, 1932. The wood-framed, brick-fronted building at 150 West Fourth Street dates to the early 1800s, but became a Greenwich Village fixture in 1916 when the sculptor Edith Unger opened the Mad Hatter tearoom in its basement. The Mad Hatter claimed to be the first tearoom in Greenwich Village, a hangout for the neighborhood’s so-called Bohemian types: artists, writers, performers, and hangers on. As curiosity about the Bohemian lifestyle became fashionable, the Mad Hatter became a popular downtown destination. However, the tearoom’s popularity was to be short lived: by the time of Charles Von Urban’s 1932 photograph, the basement-level entrance had been sealed, though the “Mad Hatter” lettering is still visible, just above the sidewalk.

Felipe Rose of the Village People, Can't Stop the Music Film Set in front of 244 West 4th Street, 1979.

Zito's Bakery, 259 Bleecker Street. Taken February 3, 1937. The day after photographing Mandaro’s Cheese Store, Abbott returned to Bleecker Street to make its counterpart, Bread Store, owned by Anthony Zito. Zito’s was the older and larger of the two family businesses: Mandaro had been in the neighborhood for 15 years and Zito for more than 30; Mandaro’s business was primarily retail, while Zito supplied restaurants and groceries throughout the City; Mandaro’s business was valued at $5,000, and Zito’s at $12,000. The narrow, crowded Bleecker Street sidewalk afforded Abbott little flexibility in composing these storefront photographs. The intricate geometry of Bread Store — the fancifully shaped breads, the “five-cent” signs, the basement entryway, the large wicker baskets, the white brickwork, and the complicated reflections from across the street — make this one of Abbott’s most memorable photographs. In a variant, a young man’s head and shoulders rising from the basement lends the work a surrealist touch. Abbott preferred the version which, like many of Atget’s Parisian storefronts, shows a shopkeeper looking out at the photographer. Zito’s still operates at 259 Bleecker Street, run by Anthony’s son Charles and grandson Charles, Jr.

Since its very beginnings, Greenwich Village has been a breeding ground for artistic free expression. Nowhere is this more evident than its historic theaters.

Bedford Street at Commerce Street, ca. 1910. The clapboard house at the corner (no. 76) has long since disappeared, but there’s a historic under-the-radar building just visible further up Bedford Street. At far left (zoom in!), past Barrow Street is no. 86 Bedford, a Federal style house with twin dormer windows on its third floor. From 1922-2007, it was the home of Chumley’s, a legendary Prohibition-era speakeasy established by the leftist activist Leland Stanford Chumley. The bar was accessed by a secret entrance off Barrow Street, along with an alleyway called Pamela Court. As legend has it, the restaurant industry term “86” (meaning something has run out or should be thrown out) originated here, either in reference to ejecting unruly customers via the door at 86 Bedford Street, or to Prohibition cops tipping Chumley off to impending raids, so patrons could exit through the side door — while police used the courtyard entrance. The bar was also known as a meeting place for writers — the walls were lined with the dust jackets of books by regular visitors — both for the modernist generation (Edna St. Vincent Millay lived down the street) and the Beats who followed. Sadly, a chimney collapse in 2007 spelled the end for Chumley’s. The building has been restored, but the restaurant that opened in October 2016 is, despite the dust-jackets, a successor in name only.

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, ca. 1978. Built 1821-22 as the Eighth Presbyterian Church, the Federal style church was sold to St. Matthew’s Episcopal in 1842. The church was sold again in 1855, this time to a Lutheran congregation of German immigrants. In 1886, Victorian embellishments were added to the facade, including a new pediment inscription commemorating the church’s German-American heritage: “Deutsche Evangelish-Lutherische St. Johannes Kirche.

82 Washington Place, ca. 1975. Rendered in a French Beaux-Arts style, this six-story apartment building was completed in 1903 by architects Horenburger & Straub. Famous residents have included author Willa Cather and urbanist and Robert Moses adversary Jane Jacobs.

Wm. Grotecloss photography studio, No. 227 Bleecker Street, circa 1860. This frame building stood at the corner of Bleecker and Carmine Streets, approximately at the location of present-day Father Demo Square.

My Archive Spring 2019 "This is a family photograph of my grandfather, Andrew Bambace who was born in Calabria, Italy in 1900. He immigrated to America in 1920. Our family comes from a region rich in agriculture, so fruits and vegetables is what he knew. He literally built a push cart out of discarded wood and sold apples and oranges. He would push from West 4th Street to 34th Street. Then the great depression came, and he had to abandon his cart. He then roasted chestnuts on a corner of 34th Street. It became increasingly difficult to survive, but he managed to save for ship passage and in 1928 he returned to Italy, discouraged but not about to give up on his American dream. He married in 1931, sold a small piece of land and in 1934 he came back to New York and opened this store in the photograph at 10 Cornelia Street (between Bleecker and West 4th Street). “Nonno” lived right up the street in a 6th-floor walk-up, 165 West 4th Street." "That little fruit and vegetable store was patronized by many locals and some of them were the young, struggling writers, artists and actors of the day. My mother helped out in the store and she would tell us about these “regulars.” Eva Marie Saint and her then-boyfriend Jeff, (who she eventually married), Robert Culp and James Broderick. Also, the actor Dean Jagger (who played the General in the film “White Christmas”) were “Nonno’s customers”. My mother was very artistic and sometimes she would hang her paintings and drawings in the store. Dean Jagger bought one of them. They all shopped at Nonno’s because he always carried the best vegetables and fruit. When they asked him where did he get such fine quality produce, he would answer “I grow everything on my roof and window sill” and they believed him!" "Greenwich Village was populated with many Italian immigrants, and the narrow Village streets were bustling with Italian shops, my grandfather’s being one of them. He wanted to expand to a larger location on 8th Street, but he did not have enough money, (he continued to support his many siblings in Calabria who were impoverished and broken by the war). The 8th Street property was bought by his competitor, Mr. Balducci. My grandfather’s little store closed in 1963 after one of his daughters died suddenly, and then his health deteriorated. Growing up, I have fond memories of walking up Sixth Avenue with my Grandfather. He would hold my hand and as we made our way past 14th Street he would recount his many journeys on foot all the way uptown to meticulously choose his produce. I also vividly recall the aroma of the potted basil plants facing the sun on his kitchen windowsill on West 4th Street. Grandfather’s store never had an official name, but everyone in Greenwich Village knew where to go for the best produce and lively conversation with a charming, beloved shop keeper named Andrew." —Mary Lofaro

289 Bleecker Street, ca. 1979.

Longo Sanitary Bakery, 1937. This Bleecker Street bakery dates to 1905 when an Italian baker purchased the building at no. 201 for $5,000. The ground floor shop was opened by 1907 selling baked goods and items that the Italian immigrants were accustomed to buying, including espresso beans, dried mushrooms, and spices. According to the grandson of the original owner, the large bread baking ovens were also used by neighbors to cook items that did not fit in their smaller home appliances. The current owner's father learned the business of coffee after the long hours required for baking became too much. He purchased Porto Rico Coffee Importers and moved it from no. 195 to this storefront. Today the coffee store remains and is still owned and run by the Longo family.

By Salonee Bhaman The dusty red brick façade of the Northern Dispensary sports a hand-lettered sign, a throwback to a bygone era. Built in a neo-Georgian style, the triangular, three-story building occupies the entirety of its oddly shaped, now-trendy West Village block bound by Christopher Street, Grove Street, and on two sides by Waverly Place. Remarkably, given its bustling and costly surroundings, the Dispensary is empty—a shell observing a city in constant flux. Underwritten by a mixture of public and private funds, the building and the land it sits on fall under a restrictive deed requiring that the premises serve the poor and infirm. Just what that requirement means has become a question determining much of the Dispensary’s fate over the 20th century. Read this in its original format here.

Men playing bocce in James J. Walker Park near Hudson and Leroy Streets, ca. 1950. The park is named for the colorful and corrupt Mayor Jimmy Walker, who held office between 1926-1932. The park was still known as St. John's Cemetery when Walker's family moved into a townhouse on Leroy Street (also known as St. Luke's Place). In 1895, the land was acquired by the city and converted for recreation. After Walker's death in 1946, the park was re-named in his honor. Across Hudson Street, behind the bocce players, is the Printing House, a 1911 structure build for the Schweinler Press. At the time, the Hudson Square neighborhood was a hub of the city's printing trade. Today, those businesses have been replaced by contemporary media and publishing companies. The Printing House was converted to condos in the early 2000s and is today creatively marketed as..."The Printing House."

Northern Dispensary, April 24, 1934. The triangular dispensary building is a cartographic curiosity: it has two sides on one street (Waverly Place, which forks around the building), and one side on two streets (Grove and Christopher Streets, which share its northwestern face).

Cafe Wha? ca. 1933. The cafe and theater has a rich history. Built in 1907, it is one of the oldest Off-Broadway venues still in operation. It was originally used to house horses but was converted into a theater in the 1958. The Players Theatre contains a main stage with more than 200 seats and a 50-seat black box theatre as well as four rehearsal rooms. According to the South Village Historic District Designation Report, “Gene Frankel directed and held theatre workshops at the Players Theater from 1959 to at least 1968. The Café Wha? has occupied part of the building since the 1950s except for a period when it was replaced by the Café Feenjon. Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Pryor, and Bill Cosby are among the performers who played the Café Wha?” Players Theatre has hosted a large number of off-Broadway productions since opening its doors. Most notably in the early 1990s, Natalie Portman starred in the musical Ruthless, in which Britney Spears also participated as an understudy. An archive of every production at the theater can be found here.

39-41 Commerce Street, ca. 1933. An interesting example of the Second Empire style can be found at 39 and 41 Commerce Street in the Greenwich Village Historic District. These two houses were built in 1831-32 in the Federal style for Peter Huyler, a milkman. Later, in the early 1870s, architect D.T. Atwood added the mansard roof for owner George Huyler. The slate at the roof, as well as the hipped roof dormers, are still intact.

Paradise Garage was a semi-underground club focused solely on music and dance. Unlike many other clubs at the time, it was membership only – not open to the general public. Moreover, it did not discriminate among its membership based on race, class, or sexual identity. Sole proprietor Michael Brody, with financial backing from former boyfriend Mel Cheren, opened the club in 1977 as the 84 King Street Garage with a series of “construction” parties as the renovations continued for a year. DJ Larry Levan (born Lawrence Philpot) worked with Richard Long of Richard Long & Associates to develop, design, and assemble the award-winning sound system that was considered the best in New York. It officially opened as the Paradise Garage on January 28, 1978. Only open on weekends, patrons entered the club through a first-floor garage door entrance and walked up a long ramp to the second floor. The 10,000-square-foot space was divided into a 5,000-square-foot dance floor, which could accommodate 2,000 people, and a 2,000-square-foot lounge. The club served no alcohol – or food – allowing it to stay open after bar hours, often until noon the next morning. Levan chose records that sustained all-night dance marathons and changed the sound of dance music. Songs he played soon showed up on the radio and were featured at New York’s Vinylmania Records. His musical influence spread to dance clubs across the United States and Europe, and is recognized as a precursor to house music. The building was demolished in 2018.

GVSHP Executive Director Regina Kellerman conducts TV interviews ahead of the groundbreaking of the Sheridan Square Architectural Dig, 1982.

St. Luke’s Chapel (Church of St. Luke in the Fields), ca. 1912. St. Luke’s was established in 1820 as a chapel of Trinity Church. Clement C. Moore, the first pastor, was responsible for planning the full-block complex that included a brick church building in the Federal style (1821-2), private burial ground, rectory, and surrounding townhouses. James N. Wells, a prolific builder, was responsible for construction. The popular moniker “St. Luke’s in-the-fields” arose from the character of the surrounding neighborhood at the time the church was built. Greenwich Village, though starting to be developed, still included considerable tracts of farmland. St. Luke’s has long had a reputation for philanthropy and ministry to the poor, including in recent decades, as the West Village community was hard-hit by the AIDS crisis. The AIDS Project of St. Luke’s, founded in 1987, provided food and care to New Yorkers, including many parishioners, affected by the crisis.

Valerie Perrine being filmed in Can't Stop the Music in front of Sevilla Restaurant & Bar, 1979.

120 West 3rd Street African Free School No. 3, 120 West 3rd Street (formerly 120 Amity Street): This is the former location of African Free School No. 3, one of seven schools dedicated to the education of the children of free and enslaved blacks in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first African Free School was the very first school for blacks in America. The African Free School Institution was founded in 1787 by members of the New York Manumission Society, an organization devoted to the full abolition of African slavery. At the time of its creation, many African residents in the city were still slaves. The mission of the institution was to empower young black people and educate them on something other than slavery, which was a complicated and bold proposition for the time. In 1785 the Society worked to pass a New York State law prohibiting the sale of slaves imported into the state. This preceded the national law prohibiting slave trade, passed in 1808. The 1783 New York law also lessened restrictions on the manumission of enslaved Africans. In New York, a gradual emancipation law was passed in 1799, which provided that children of enslaved mothers would be born free. However, long periods of indentured servitude were required; 28 years for men and 25 for women. Existing slaves were eventually freed until the last slaves were freed in 1827. The first African Free School, a one-room school house located in lower Manhattan, was established in 1794 and held about 40 students. Here, the children of both free and enslaved blacks were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. Boys were also taught astronomy, a skill required of seamen, and girls were taught sewing and knitting. After a fire destroyed the original building, a second school was opened in 1815 and held 500 students. African Free School No. 2, located on Mulberry Street, was Alma mater to abolitionist and educator Henry Highland Garnet. African Free School No. 3 was established on 19th Street near 6th Avenue, however, after objections from whites in the area, it was relocated to 120 Amity Street (now known as 120 West 3rd Street). By 1834 the seven existing African Free Schools, with enrollment surpassing a thousand students, had been absorbed into the public school system.

10 Grove Street This fine row of Federal two and one-half story houses from 4-10 Grove Street is one of the most delightful in the Village. They are frame structures with brick fronts in Flemish bond and were built between,1825 and 1834 on land leased from Trinity Church and St. Luke’s Chapel. The builder associated with the row is James N. Wells, who, like Samuel Winant and John Degraw, had started out as a carpenter, but soon achieved recognition as a builder. He did a great deal of work for Trinity Church and built St. Luke’s Chapel. With the exception of No. 2 1/2, subsequently altered by the addition of a third story with bracketed cornice and steel casement windows, this row of houses has been modified very little. They faithfully reflect the type of modest dwelling which a conscientious builder erected in the late Eighteen-twenties and early Eighteen-thirties. No. 6, built in 1827 by and for D. G. Van Winkle, a house carpenter, and No. 8, erected in 1829 for Abraham Storms, Jr., merchant, were extensively remodeled by James N. Wells in 1833-34, as was No. 2 1/2, the earliest house of the row, which Wells had originally built in 1825. No. 4, erected by Wells in 1833-34, replaced a shop owned by William J. Roome, a house painter. Consequently, Wells should certainly be credited with the fine proportions and good taste so evident here. All of these Federal houses, with the exception of No. 2 1/2, are three windows wide, two and one-half stories high, and surmounted by two dormer windows at roof level. A low stoop leads to a doorway framed by paneled reveals. Although No. 4 was the last house in the row to be built, it is interesting to note that it has a prototype Federal doorway flanked by columns, standing in front of rusticated wood blocks simulating stone. The three other doors are similar, but have pilasters instead of columns. The transom of No. 10 retains its handsome leadwork applied over the glass. The eight-paneled entrance doors of these houses, surmounted by a rectangular transom, are also typical of the era. The stone lintels, flush with the brickwork, above the doorways and windows have lost their cornices, but the plain wood cornices with undecorated fascia board may be the originals. The dormer windows at Nos. 4, 8, and 10, have double-hung muntined sash; they have frames with small square paneled blocks at the meeting of vertical and horizontal trim members and are crowned with little pediments. At No. 6, the two dormers have been combined under a low gambrel-shaped gable with a small diamond-shaped window inserted between the two original ones.

10 Sheridan Square, steel framing, March 6, 1929.

16 Minetta Street, ca. 1940. View looking east from rear (westerly) wall to No. 14 Minetta Street; today, this vantage point is near Minetta Green, a small park east of Sixth Avenue.

The small wedge-shaped building at 1 Sheridan Square was built in 1834 for Samuel Whittemore (first owner of the Julius’ Bar building) and was originally three stories with a hipped roof. In 1927-28, it was raised one story, terminated with a stepped parapet, and stuccoed. During this remodeling the basement was joined with that of the adjoining 1902-03 factory building next door, which was converted into apartments. The basement was first the location of the Four Trees speakeasy/restaurant c. 1927-35. Trenton shoe salesman Barney Josephson opened Café Society in the basement space in 1938. Many people, including Josephson, have claimed that it was New York City’s first racially integrated club, but at least one venue, Small’s Paradise in Harlem (opened in 1925), appears to have preceded it. Bookings were made by now-legendary jazz producer John Hammond. It opened with a relatively unknown young singer named Billie Holiday, who played here for nine months and debuted the anti-lynching song Strange Fruit. Billed as “the wrong place for the Right people,” Café Society featured many of the jazz giants of the day, as well as such singers as gospel (and briefly jazz) star Sister Rosetta Tharpe. After his brother was subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1948 due to his leftist political connections, Josephson was attacked by newspaper columnists, and his business fell off greatly. He closed this club in 1950. The space was converted into the Off-Broadway theater One Sheridan Square in 1960. Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company, founded in 1967, moved here in 1978. This was one of New York’s most innovative and influential Off-Off-Broadway theater troupes. In 2003, the New York Times noted that “Playwright, actor, and director, iconoclast among iconoclasts, Charles Ludlam was revolutionizing downtown New York culture in the 1970s with his gender-bending and outrageous theatrical sendups long before terms like ‘gender-bending’ were common.” Ludlam was in a unique theatrical position in New York, as the writer of 29 full-length plays that were produced by his own company. Ludlam died of AIDS in 1987. The Ridiculous Theatrical Company was located here until 1995. Since 1998, the basement theater has housed the Axis Theatre Company.

New York has always been a great place to enjoy a pint (or three). A rare class of the city’s taverns date to Prohibition days or earlier, and each carries decades of local history: from the Revolutionary War to the gay rights movement. Starting with the Old Town Bar on 18th Street, take a loop through downtown Manhattan, and pay a visit to the dives that have withstood the test of time.

10 Sheridan Square, under construction, April 8, 1929. The 14-story apartment house called the Shenandoah loomed over its more low-rise neighbors when constructed in 1929. It remains still one of the taller buildings in the area, directly across from a pocket park on one side and a small garden on the other. Designed by famed apartment house and hotel architect Emery Roth, the simplified neo-Romanesque building includes a multi-colored stonework base with large segmental-arched windows. The tower, with arched loggia (open portico) can been seen in both construction photographs set back from the corner on the Sheridan Square-facing facade (on the right in the photographs). Take note of the small stone and metal sea creatures, elephants, and dragons that decorate the ground floor, which has been occupied by a gay bar called Monster since the 1970s.

Cherry Lane Theater. Designated as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District in 1969 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Cherry Lane has the distinction of being New York City’s oldest, continuously running Off-Broadway theatre. The building itself was originally constructed in 1836 to house a brewery for one Alexander McLachlan and later served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory. Tucked away from the bustle of the city along tree-lined Commerce Street between Barrow and Bedford Streets, the three-story brick theatre features 6-over-1 wood windows and an arched double-door entryway covered by an awning. In 1924, the Provincetown Players, which included the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, founded the Cherry Lane Theatre here, which opened on May 24 of that year. They hired scenic designer, Cleon Throckmorton, to convert the building to a 200-seat auditorium and a small stage, to which renowned entertainer George M. Cohan amusingly remarked, “Might as well act in a telephone booth!” Small as it was, the theatre hosted three plays in its inaugural season: Saturday Night, The Man Who Ate Popomack, and The Way of the World. Over the years, the theatre became known for its avant-garde offerings. An eclectic array of theatre companies have operated there, including the New Playwrights (who moved there in 1927 in only their second season), the Savoy Opera, The Living Theatre, and the Theatre of the Absurd. The Cherry Lane has long given aspiring playwrights opportunities to share their work with a wide audience. Given the Village’s worldwide reputation as a haven for artists in the 20th century, the Cherry Lane is an integral part of that history. Even still, the theatre was threatened with demolition some 17 years before historic district designation when plans were made to erect an apartment house on the site in 1952; luckily for the theatre, a group of residents lead by a Kenneth Carroad gained ownership of the building. It appears that Carroad was also responsible for saving a number of theatres outside the city. For close to a century, the Cherry Lane has served as an Off-Broadway theatre and has seen the likes of Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand, Kevin Bacon and Bea Arthur perform on its stage. In 1996, stage actress Angelina Fiordellisi saw potential in the historic landmark and raised funds to purchase and renovate the Cherry Lane. She also bought space in a neighboring brownstone and opened a 60-seat black box theatre now known as the Cherry Lane Studio.

59 Christopher Street, ca. 1909. This Greenwich Village standard, known as Kettle of Fish, was established 1950 as a Wisconsin Sconnie bar. In the early-1960s, when the bar was located at 116 MacDougal Street, it emerged as a major hangout for Beat writers like Jack Kerouac, and musicians and writers, including Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Joyce Johnson, Bob Dylan, and Andy Warhol among others. Kettle of Fish later moved to Third Street, where the live music venue Fat Black Pussy Cat is now, before relocating to its current Christopher Street location in the late 1990s. While the bar has moved twice since its opening, through the years, Kettle of Fish has proven to be popular with people from all walks of life -- intellects, musicians, writers, and sports fans alike. The owner, who hails from Wisconsin, has made the bar the go-to NYC spot for Packers and Badgers fans!

357 West Street. The same view, but ten years later May 7th, I940.

Northern Dispensary, ca. 1975. The Northern Dispensary was founded in 1831, then in the northern part of the city. When New York deeded the land to the Northern Dispensary organization, the deed included a firm stipulation: that any building be used for the medical treatment of the city’s poor. Edgar Allan Poe, who lived nearby on Waverly Place, was among the facility’s patients in the winter of 1837. The clinic continued to operate until the 1980s, when the dispensary was fined for refusing to treat a prospective patient who had AIDS. In 1989, the building was purchased by the Roman Catholic Church, whose attempt to open a clinic for homeless AIDS patients was defeated by local opposition. The Northern Dispensary building sits on an extremely valuable lot in the middle of the West Village, but its 1831 deed restriction continues scare away developers. Today, the building is owned by the estate of William Gottlieb, an inscrutable real estate speculator who purchased the property in 1998.

Construction of the Sheridan Square Viewing Garden, 1982. For most of the twentieth century, Sheridan Square served as nothing more than a traffic-safety island. It wasn’t until 1982 that the area went from a paved triangle to a lovely viewing garden. The genesis of this project came in July of that year when a group of Sheridan Square neighbors, the Sheridan Square Triangle Association, convinced the Parks Department to turn this plot of land into a garden. GVSHP’s then-Executive Director, Regina Kellerman, heard about these plans and thought it would be the perfect spot to conduct an archaeological dig since the 4,200 square foot triangle hadn’t been used since the early twentieth century and hadn’t really been touched at all prior to that. Professional archaeologists contributed their time, and Dr. Anne Marie Cantwell, a professor at Rutgers, agreed to direct the site excavation and involve her students. Mostly it was Native American artifacts that were being searched for, many of which were uncovered. The Sheridan Square Viewing Garden stands today, cared for still by its neighbors, as a reminder of the unity and commitment to history of Greenwich Village.

No. 12 Gay Street (left, with lantern), ca. 1975. The Federal style row houses at Nos. 12 and 14 were built in 1827-1828 by the developers Daniel H. Weed and Joseph D. Baldwin. During prohibition, No. 12 allegedly housed a speakeasy before becoming a different sort of clandestine meeting place: the house was purchased by the married Mayor Jimmy Walker, to be used for barely-secret assignations with Betty Compton, his showgirl girlfriend.

Entrance to Grove Court, 1939. Grove Court is one of several private courts that dot the city. Entered through a gate on the south side of Grove Street near no. 10, the residence is a row of six, brick-faced townhouses. Completed in 1853, the development was funded by a local grocery store owner. While today the Grove Court homes are offered on the market in the range of $4 million, when constructed they were considered 'backhouses,' occupied by poor residents.

Christopher Street Station, June 18, 1936.

The original structure was a two-story Federal style frame house, built in 1826 and converted into a tavern in 1864. During Prohibition, by which time a third story and stucco finish had been added, the “Seven Doors” bar continued to operate as a speakeasy. Following the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, the bar was renamed Julius’. During the 1950s, Julius’ became known as a gathering place for gay New Yorkers, despite its management’s harassment of gay customers, under the auspices of liquor regulations prohibiting the sale of alcohol to “disorderly” customers (gay men were considered intrinsically disorderly). In 1966, a group of gay activists and members of the Mattachine society held a “sip-in” to challenge the discriminatory law: after first identifying themselves as homosexuals, they ordered drinks from the Julius’ bartender who then refused service (the New York Times headline read “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars”). The men successfully challenged the New York State Liquor Authority in court, winning a ruling that guaranteed gay New Yorkers the right to peaceful assembly, thereby opening the door to legal, licensed gay bars.

17 Commerce Street ca. 1932 No. 17 serves as a welcome reminder of the original proportions and general appearance of the row adjoining to the east. This small two and one-half story late Federal house, with basement, has a low pitched roof and central dormer window. It was built in 1830 as an investment by Abraham R. Bogert, a stone-cutter, and rented immediately. With a brick front of Flemish bond, its handsome paneled stone lintels, dark exterior blinds, and small light fixtures flanking the doorway, it is easily the most attractive building on the block. Pilasters flank the deeply recessed door with leaded transom. The second story windows have muntined sash, and the dormer has a casement window. The ironwork of the stoop is the original and notable for its fine openwork newels of wrought iron.

233 Bleecker Street; ca. 1975.

From 1972 until 1982, a racially and economically diverse crowd patronized the Duchess, a lesbian bar located on the ground floor of 70 Grove Street. Guidebooks at the time described the bar as, “A friendly and relaxed atmosphere, popular with ‘movement’ women.” and with a “relaxed Feminist atmosphere.” A small space, the Duchess did not offer as many attractions as other bars; a jukebox near the entrance provided music for the small dance floor. It also offered a Sunday buffet and table service, like some other lesbian bars of the time. While staff at earlier Mafia-run lesbian bars monitored bathroom use to supposedly prevent sexual activity, this was not the case at the Duchess. Alison Bechdel, cartoonist and author of the graphic memoir Fun Home, said of the bar: “There was a lot of routine anti-gay hostility on the street. Even in Sheridan Square \[Christopher Park] on a weekend night you’d get hassled for holding hands. But then you’d step past the bouncer at the Duchess, and you were home free …. it afforded me the space to just be, with my guard down, and that was salvational.” - Alison Bechdel, 2016 By 1980, however, the Duchess ran into legal trouble for not serving alcohol to men, an act of “discrimination” that led to the bar losing its liquor license. However, it continued to serve liquor and, on September 8, 1982, the bartender and bouncer were arrested for doing so by two undercover police officers from the “NYC Morals Division.” Ironically, the “anti-discrimination” law for which the Duchess’s license was revoked was one many movement women who patronized the bar had actively supported in an earlier era. Fran Greenfield of Womannews explained the justification for the Duchess’s discrimination as opposed to misogynistic discrimination, against which the law was meant to protect: “On one side there are privileged and powerful groups who use their clubs to keep ‘social undesirables’ clearly on the outside. On the other side there are the people denied privilege and power who rely on their own clubs as a haven in an otherwise hostile world.” The Grove Café / Duchess II / Grove Club / Pandora’s Box After an unsuccessful attempt to continue the space as a lesbian “juice bar” without liquor, and a brief hiatus (based on guidebooks), soon after 1983, the Grove Café opened with a similar atmosphere to the Duchess. By 1989, the name changed to Duchess II, and then again in 1990 to Grove Club, and finally in 1992 to Pandora’s Box. The Grove Club was described in a guidebook as, “One of the most famous women’s bars in the entire world, known as one hang-out where you can still have a good feminist conversation.” By 1992, the bar was again running into legal trouble, but this time from neighborhood residents complaining about bar fights and noise. Cynthia Russo, then-manager of the club, claimed “residents dislike the club because many of the patrons are lesbians and because most are black or Hispanic.” Pandora’s Box apparently closed shortly after, ending the over twenty-year long lesbian legacy of 70 Grove Street.

20 Christopher Street This pair (18 & 20 Christopher Street) of charming little Federal houses was built in 1827 by Daniel Simonson, a carpenter who had purchased the lots that year. These two and one-half story houses of Flemish bond brickwork have gambrel roofs, which are now echoed by the roofs of the dormers. Each house has a dormer window, which is triply divided while its gable is decorated with a sunburst pattern. No. 18 has three simple panels on the fascia board of its roof cornice and a paneled doorway with fanlight giving access to the upper floors. No. 20 has its original paneled Federal door and doorframe with panels replacing the original sidelights. In the corners may be seen the original semi-engaged colonnettes, while those which once stood in front of the pilasters on either side of the door have been replaced by brackets at the top under the transom bar. The transom bar is very handsome, consisting of a convex (pulvinated) frieze with a refined cornice above. The leaded transom above the bar is exceptionally graceful and displays circular and oval forms. At both houses the charming wood shop fronts, which were doubtless added at a later date, consist of glass windows and corner colonnettes set under small continuous hoods, which shelter both show window and door.

Just behind 17 Grove’s wooden workshop lies a building that captures the whimsy, flamboyance, and bohemian spirit of early-20th-century Greenwich Village like no other. This Story is adapted from a blog, which can be viewed here.

The Stonewall Inn, site of the 1969 Stonewall riots, 1969. The buildings at 51-53 Christopher Street were constructed in the 1840s as stables. In 1930 the two buildings were given a unified first floor of an Arts & Crafts style brick and stucco facade. The Stonewall Inn opened in 1967 and became a popular bar for the LGBT community. In the early morning of June 28th, 1969 the police raided the bar (as they often did to gay establishments in the 1960s). The patrons of the bar did not disperse as ordered but instead fought back, angrily remaining on the streets in front of the bar, growing in numbers, and chanting at the rough treatment of those arrested. The Stonewall Riots (sometimes referred to as the Stonewall Uprising) lasted for the next six days and included demonstrations that encompassed the surrounding blocks. This event is considered the beginning of the modern LGBT right movement. The buildings (today only no. 53 is the Stonewall Inn, an iteration that opened in 1993) are a part of the Greenwich Village Historic District, designated in 1969. In 2000 it was the first LGBT-related location to be named to the National Register of Historic Places and in 2015 an individual landmark designation was enacting, marking its cultural importance and making it the first landmark in New York City to be recognized on the basis of its status in LGBT history.

70 Barrow Street ca. 1933 One of the oldest firehouses in New York, this structure was built in 1852, before there even was an organized Fire Department of New York. In 1865, the city created the Metropolitan Fire Department (MFD) which managed all of the city’s fire responses. Before that, firehouses were operated by volunteers who formed groups and petitioned the city to build them a firehouse and provide them with the materials. Most firehouse members were blue-collar workers, volunteering any extra time they had. At 70 Barrow street, a volunteer group called Empire Hose Company No. 40 had around 30 members until it was disbanded after the act of 1865. The original firehouse doorway has been bricked over partially, but its classic look is still legible. Our friend Tom Miller at the Daytonian in Manhattan blog noted “The carved, faceted keystones at street level and the third floor were an added touch of sophistication to the handsome four-story structure. Unusually tall windows, deft brickwork, and a deeply-overhanging cornice set the firehouse apart from the norm”

2,4,6 Minetta Street These three houses on Minetta Street dated to 1800, when ”the Minettas” — Street, Lane, and Place — were home to free African Americans. By 1900, the tiny houses had become rag pickers’ warehouses. They were renovated as private homes in the 1920s, when the Village attracted artists, writers, and professionals in search of an American Montmartre. Only months after Abbott photographed Minetta Street, the houses were demolished to make way for a five-story apartment building fronting on Sixth Avenue. Abbott’s composition was typically direct and artful. The stepped shadow falling across the facade of no. 4 echoes the stoop below, while the shadow of a bulbous chimney across the street breaks up the rectilinear pattern of light and dark.

Christopher Park, the triangular landscape across from the Stonewall Inn, has played an important role in the history of the LGBT rights movement. Interestingly, due to a number of possible factors, including the fact that a statue of General Sheridan was placed here in the 1930s, the park has historically been misidentified as Sheridan Square (this is actually a group of streets with a landscaped median around the corner). As such, accounts of the Stonewall uprising and other LGBT-related events that occurred in or near Christopher Park sometimes incorrectly refer to it as Sheridan Square. Even before the June/July 1969 Stonewall uprising, Christopher Park was a favorite hangout for a diverse group of (often homeless) gay street youth and those who might identify today as transgender. By the time of the uprising, crowds took over the park and Christopher Street and, at its peak, several thousand people filled the streets. In 1999, the 30th anniversary of the uprising, Christopher Park was included in the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Stonewall Inn, a nomination co-written by two founders of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. A month after the uprising, LGBT activists Marty Robinson and Martha Shelley addressed a crowd of several hundred people in the park, capping off a rally that began in Washington Square Park to protest the police’s actions at Stonewall. In 1979, the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, New York City announced that a commemorative statue by sculptor George Segal would be placed in Christopher Park. Activist Bruce Voeller initially proposed the idea to place a statue in the park commemorating LGBT liberation. Due to controversy from Village residents, LGBT activists, and lack of official support, Segal’s Gay Liberation (1980) sculpture was not installed here until 1992, when it was unveiled by Mayor David Dinkins. Executed in bronze, with the artist’s signature white patina, the memorial was commissioned by arts patron Peter Putnam, who stipulated that the figures “had to be loving and caring, and show the affection that is the hallmark of gay people…and it had to have equal representation of men and women.” Mysteriously abstract, Gay Liberation avoids direct reference to the uprising. The sculpture, commissioned through the Mariposa Foundation, has become an important focal point of the park. A second cast was installed on the campus of Stanford University in California in 1984, though it was vandalized and restored that year and again in 1994. In the 1980s, landscape architect Philip Winslow, who later died of AIDS-related causes, redesigned portions of the park. His work included installing new benches and brick paving. The overall park configuration still looks as it did during the Stonewall uprising.

(1877, Benjamin Warner) NYC IL, NYC HD, NR-P Open from 1958-68, Caffé Cino is widely considered to be the birthplace of Off-Off Broadway Theater and was an important incubator space for gay theater. Its founder, Joe Cino, envisioned a café where artists could exhibit their work, and soon began hosting performances of experimental and low-budget theater. At the time, the depiction of homosexual subject matter on stage was illegal, but the café constantly worked around the police through clever advertising and by not requiring a cabaret license since they did not serve alcohol. As such, Caffé Cino became a platform for gay playwrights who had no other venue to experiment so freely. By 1960, it had become an important touchstone for the gay community, but also for unknown artists and playwrights who could not otherwise afford to stage their work. With the burden of theater fees and financial success lifted, creativity flourished and many important playwrights, directors and actors got their start here. The café was also a significant meeting spot for gay men at a time when such places were few. The café closed in 1968, a year after Joe Cino took his own life following the accidental death of his partner, Jon Torrey.

367 Bleecker Street, ca. 1980.

Minetta Lane and MacDougal Street, ca. 1925. Pictured at left is Minetta Tavern. The restaurant, established in 1937, is named after the lost Minetta Brook, which ran southwest from 23rd Street to the Hudson River. Along with Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Eugene O'Neill, E. E. Cummings, Dylan Thomas, and Joe Gould, the eatery has long been a favorite hangout of various artists, writers, and poets since its opening.

Isaacs-Hendricks House, 77 Bedford Street, ca. 1975. 77 Bedford Street is one of Manhattan's oldest surviving homes. Located in the Greenwich Village Historic District, the building was originally a free standing Federal style frame farmhouse with a yard. A Greek Revival brick facade was added to its exterior in 1836 and later, in 1928, the roof was raised to add additional living space. The first homeowner, Joshua Isaacs, was a Jewish-American merchant. He purchased the house in 1794, but soon-after lost the property to creditors. The subsequent homeowner, Harmon Hendricks, was also a merchant. Considered the wealthiest American Jew of the early 19th century, Hendricks famously supplied Robert Fulton with the materials that powered the historic 1807 Clermont steamboat. Other notable customers of Hendricks included the US Navy and Paul Revere, who later became a friend. Hendricks was also the husband of Frances Isaacs, the first owner's oldest child. Alongside his brother-in-law, he opened one of the first copper rolling mills in the United States.

“The Shenandoah”/10 Sheridan Square/80 Grove Street This building was also originally an apartment hotel, albeit presumably intended for more middle-class residents than the intended tenants of 24 Fifth Avenue. It was built in 1928-29 and designed in what the Greenwich Village Historic District designation report refers to as “a severely simple version of Neo-Romanesque” style. The battlements, use of irregular and multi-colored stone and dark brick lend to a medieval feel to the exterior of the building. The living units were designed predominantly as one-room apartments which served as living, dining and sleeping space, with a bathroom and a pantry directly adjacent.

39-41 Commerce Street, February 2, 1937. The L-shaped Commerce Street, which runs between 7th Avenue South and Barrow Street, has a number of, likely apocryphal, stories about its name origins. Some say that it was called Commerce after an early 19th Century smallpox breakout prompted business from downtown to move to this area of the Village. Another suggests that it was named as part of a series of streets named after French revolutionary virtues, including Art, Science, and Reason. This theory though has been thoroughly debunked by Don Rogerson, author of Manhattan Street Names Past and Present. Commerce was truncated in the 1910s when Seventh Avenue South was extended to Varick Street and nos. 1-8 were demolished for the construction of the new Avenue. Nos. 39 and 41, seen here, were constructed in 1832 by Peter Huyler of New Jersey. The original homes were two-and-a-half stories high, with dormers in a peaked roof (the mansards were added by Peter's heirs in 1873). A unique feature of the homes is the shared garden space between them (a large enough space to have been occupied by an additional home). While the entrances to the homes were once on the Commerce Street facades, by 1932 they had been moved into the garden-facing walls . By the time this photograph was taken in 1937 the homes had been long sold away from the Huyler family and had been divided into four apartments in each home.

Photo, left: Ken Lustbader of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, Julius’ owner Helen Buford, Sip-In participant Randy Wicker, author/activist John Cameron Mitchell, Andrew Berman of Village Preservation, and State Senator Brad Hoylman; photo, right: Berman, Wicker, and the plaque.

163 Christopher Street, at the N. W. corner of Washington Street showing "McAvoy's Drug Store" which was operated by a local character lovingly known as "Mother McAvoy." To sailors and truckmen of the neighborhood she was more than a druggist. She was a friendly counsellor, and a 'bank" and "post office" for sailors on their brief stays ashore. From her old-fashioned desk in the store and through her self-acquired knowledge of various foreign languages, and acting as a Notary Public she helped many sailors turn to land lubbering. Proximity to the Federal Building increased her field of operations. She was born in Rome, N. Y. and was graduated from N. Y. C. P. in 1902. After clerking in several drug-stores she bought this little store for $3500. At this time her clientele consisted of many New Jersey people who commuted on the Christopher Street Ferry. She died at the age of 64.

This one got a very liberal application of lipstick. The location is 381 Hudson Street, in the same block. Notice the NRA Blue Eagle in the window; these had just come in that fall. November 30, 1933.

St. Veronica's ca. 1985 St. Veronica’s, located on Christopher Street between Washington and Greenwich Streets, was built to accommodate the growing congregation of St. Joseph’s, as the Irish population of longshoreman who worked along the docks of the Hudson River grew. The parish was formed in 1887 by the Reverend John Fitzharris of St. Joseph’s Church with a collection by local parishes. Services began in a warehouse at the corner of Washington and Barrow Streets. The Irish congregation laid the cornerstone in 1890, but the final dedication would not be until 1903, owing to the limited financial means of the congregation’s working class parishioners. The church is named for named for Veronica, the woman who is credited with wiping the face of Jesus and is depicted on the 6th Station of the Cross.

Call it whatever you’d like: antique, vintage, or historic. If one thing is for certain, the Village is really, really old. Old by New York City standards, and even old by American standards. But which building is the oldest of the old? On this walk, we'll guide you through the Village and show you some of the contenders.

Horse-drawn steam engine apparatus, outside the Engine Co. 24 firehouse at 78 Morton Street, 1911. No. 78 Morton Street served as the firehouse for Engine 24 from 1865 to 1975. Built in 1864 as the ‘Howard Engine Company No. 34,” known affectionately as “Red Rover,” this engine company was first organized in 1807 as a volunteer fire-fighting company. It was eventually absorbed by the FDNY and became Engine No. 24. In 1975 in the middle of the city’s financial crisis it was decommissioned, and lay empty for many years. Much of the facade’s ornament was stripped away, but ealier this decade the elaborate detailing over and around the building’s windows were restored. The building now contains a residence.

Varitype Building, ca. 1985. Designed in an Arts and Crafts style in 1907 by Fred Ebeling, the Varitype Building originally housed studio and manufacturing spaces on its upper floors. Painter John Sloan had studio space in the building in the 1910s and it is featured prominently in his 1922 painting, "City from Greenwich Village." In 1926, 1929, and then again when the building was converted to condos in 1982 the interior, exterior, and ground floor were altered. These modifications including window replacement, a drastic new look (not historically accurate) for the ground floor commercial space, and considerable changes to the facade at the top floor.

GVSHP members, including executive director Regina Kellerman (center), pose while workers set up barricades for the groundbreaking of the Sheridan Square architectural dig, 1982.

555 Hudson Street, Manhattan (1842, attributed to John Cole) NYC HD From 1947 to 1968, this was the home of author, urban theorist and activist Jane Jacobs (1916-2006). While it is not certain that she wrote her 1961 seminal work “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” here, she did often reference her home in Greenwich Village while extolling the virtues of thriving urban settings with bustling sidewalks and small-scale, mixed-use buildings —like 555 Hudson. She wrote and spoke out against the then-rising practice of slum clearance and urban renewal, and was instrumental in the fight to save the South Village, SoHo and Little Italy from Robert Moses’ Lower Manhattan Expressway. Her work heavily influenced contemporary urban thought, despite urban planners who, at the time, criticized her lack of formal education. Today, her legacy is celebrated every May with Jane’s Walks — volunteer-led walking tours in urban neighborhoods — throughout the country. Photo by NYC Municipal Archives

St. Luke's Chapel, October 21, 1935. The parish of St. Luke's was organized by Greenwich Village community members in the fall of 1820. They named the church after St. Luke, the physician, as a reference to the town's use as refuge from the yellow fever epidemics that plagued New York City during the summers. One of the church's founders was Clement Clark Moore, Oriental and Greek Literature scholar, author of "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and real estate developer of Chelsea. The church building was constructed between 1821 and 1822 on a plot of land donated by Trinity Church. In 1891 St. Luke's would become a chapel of Trinity Church. That relationship lasted through 1976, when St. Luke's once again became an independent parish of the Episcopal Church. A major fire in 1981destroyed much of the church building, but thought fundraising the structure was restored. Throughout the later 20th century the church became very active in community ministries, working with people with AIDS and at-risk LGBTQ youth.

Opened in 1938 by Barney Josephson, the Cafe Society was the first racially integrated nightclub in New York City. Though it was only open for a little over a decade (the building is still standing), its legacy has lived on long since its doors closed in 1949. Josephson had been a shoe salesman but quit to pursue his dream of owning a nightclub. He knew that Greenwich Village would be possibly the only place in Manhattan that would welcome the progressive club he hoped to establish. Cafe Society welcomed some of the biggest talents in jazz history during its time in operation, including Billie Holiday. It was here that she first performed "Strange Fruit", an explicit song of protest against lynching and racism.

Produce market, ca. 1935. This long street view depicts the corner of Jones and Bleecker Streets south to the church of Our Lady of Pompeii at Bleecker and Carmine Streets.

Greenwich Village Inn, 1933. The origins of the Greenwich Village Inn date to before the First World War when Polly Holliday ran a restaurant that became a gathering spot for Greenwich Village radicals and bohemians. In 1916 she moved her establishment to 5 Sheridan Square. She also took on a new partner, Barney Gallant, an early nightclub entrepreneur. Though the original venue had been full of tried and true Village bohemians, this new spot, with Gallant's marketing, became more of a place where outsiders came to see the bohemians. Soon the place was flooded with flappers, undergrads, and tourists. Gallant made a name for himself—and become a bit of a local hero— when in 1933 a few of his Greenwich Village Inn waiters were arrested for Prohibition violations. Gallant offered himself up in their place and served 30 days in the notorious Tombs. By the 1940s the venue had suffered in reputation and popularity. According to a 1971 book, the Inn was largely a mafia front in its final years. Closed in 1951 the building was taken over by the newly founded Circle in the Square theater and was demolished for a 17-story apartment house in the late 1950s.

Christopher Street—Sheridan Square Station, 1929.

The former residence of Mayor James Walker, St. Luke’s Place, 1939. One of fifteen relatively uniform Italianate townhouses on St. Luke’s Place, No. 6 was built between 1851-54. James John “Jimmy” Walker was born in 1881 and grew up on St. Luke’s Place. Walker rose quickly through the ranks of the state’s Democratic machine, serving as a New York Assemblyman and State Senator before serving as Mayor from 1926-32. The townhouse on St. Luke’s became the Mayoral residence, as indicated by the twin lanterns framing its stoop (a tradition dating to the city’s Dutch days). Walker, who had a deserved reputation for drinking and carousing, was not up to the task of public office in a post-crash environment. His political career ended in disgrace when an investigation by then-governor Franklin D. Roosevelt uncovered evidence of corruption and Walker was forced to resign. He quickly skipped town, traveling Europe with his girlfriend, the showgirl Betty Compton. Today, the playground across from Mayor Walker’s residence is named in his honor.

David Christie House at 131 Charles Street, next door to the NYPD Sixth Precinct, 1928. Christie, a stonecutter, built this Federal style house in 1834. It retains many of its original features, including Flemish bond brickwork and wooden window frames. Left of the front steps is the alley door, leading to a small outbuilding at the rear of the lot. The photographer Diane Arbus lived in the that carriage house, now known as 131½ between 1957 and 1966.

The White Horse Tavern at Hudson and 11th (formerly Hammond) Streets, 1933. Opened in 1880, the White Horse became known as a hub for literary and “Bohemian” New Yorkers in the 1950s and 1960s. Among its notable patrons was Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet — and prodigious drinker — who was a frequent visitor right up until his death in 1953 (two days after he is said to have ordered eighteen whiskeys at the White Horse).

Jillian Jonas was the house photographer at the legendary boy bar on St. Mark’s Place in the mid 1990’s, where she captured thousands of images of drag performers who mixed gender-bending and illusion with downtown in-your-face attitude. This collection includes images not only from boy bar, but the Pyramid Club, Wigstock, the Gay Pride Festival, Jackie 60 and various other downtown nightlife and performance venues of the early-to-mid 1990s. Her pictures capture a golden age of LGBTQ+ nightlife and performance, as well as an edgy slice of life when drag and blurred boundaries of gender were just beginning to make inroads into the broader public consciousness, largely through this vibrant local scene. From Village Preservation's Historic Image Archive, view more historic photos like this here.

Constructed on a newly laid out street and on land that had most recently been the Newgate State Prison, the wood-frame building at 6 Weehawken Street has a long and varied history. Opened in 1834 by the City as part of an open-air market called the Greenwich Market, its design was purposeful. The deep eaves of the roof protected the produce from the weather. The market lasted just a decade. In 1848 the building was bought and repurposed by a boat builder for his business (and also probably a saloon). The proximity to the water and its related businesses and sea-going, likely hard-drinking populations, made this an ideal location for a tavern. In the late 19th and early 20th century, it served variously as an insurance brokerage, cigar store, and pool hall. By the 1920s it was “Billie’s Original Clam Broth House.” Further tenants in the 20th century included a sort of clothing/accessory shop for dock workers, a trucking company, and a couple of gay bars. In late 2016 the building's owner, Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois, architectural historian and son of the famed sculptor, Louise Bourgeois, announced he was giving the building, and more land it was on back to the original Manhattanites. Having bought it in 2006 for $2.2 million, he was gifting it to a nonprofit controlled by the Lenape tribe. A few years later, it is unclear if the transfer of property went through.

Charles Lane ca. 1938 Abbott called Charles Lane the only genuine back alley she ever found in New York City. The lane was one block long, sandwiched between the New York Central Railroad freight viaduct and the elevated West Side Express Highway. Abbott focused on the south side of the lane, lined with stables and tradesmen shops, as it was in the 19th century. First paved with cobblestone in 1893, the alley is still cobblestoned, but its buildings, both old and new, are now residential. After a successful battle in the late 1960s against a high-rise housing proposal, Charles Lane retains its scale and quaint character.

Weehawken Street, west side, north from but not including Christopher Street (where it commences), to and including West 10th Street (where it terminates), showing an old 2-story house in a state of collapse. On the extreme left appears a portion of the West Side Vehicular Express.

New York City is known for many things: Art Deco skyscrapers, picturesque parks, the world’s greatest theater district, venerable museums and educational institutions, not to mention bagels and pizza! But above all of these, New York is most important as home to some of the world’s most fascinating and significant people and as the site of impactful and significant happenings throughout history. The city’s cultural influence is, perhaps, its greatest contribution to the world, and its built environment stands as a grand scavenger hunt of clues waiting to be uncovered. Lucky for us, the city’s Landmarks Law, passed in 1965, provides the legal framework for protecting the physical reminders of the city’s cultural wealth. In fact, one of the stated purposes of the Landmarks Law is to “safeguard the city’s historic, aesthetic and cultural heritage.” In the first 50 years that landmarks were designated by the City, much emphasis was placed on the historic and aesthetic. In recent years, though, more consideration has been made for the importance of sites associated with people or historical events, rather than just for their architectural or historical value. In 2015, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Stonewall Inn as an Individual Landmark solely for its association with the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. In 2018, the Commission designated the Central Harlem—West 130th-132nd Streets Historic District, describing it as “not only representative of Central Harlem’s residential architecture, but the rich social, cultural, and political life of its African American population in the 20th century.” Also, in recent years, Greenwich Village’s Caffe Cino and Julius’ Bar were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as significant and influential sites connected to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBTQ) community, The New York Times profiled a historian giving tours of Muslim sites of significance in Harlem, and the City is commemorating some of our most storied and accomplished female citizens with the installation of statues in all five boroughs. Indeed, grassroots preservation activism around the city is also swelling around sites of cultural significance: Tin Pan Alley and Little Syria in Manhattan, Walt Whitman’s house in Brooklyn, Arthur Avenue in The Bronx and a recently-rediscovered African burial ground in Queens, to name a few. In response to this movement of interest in cultural landmarks, the Historic Districts Council undertook an initiative to highlight such places as one of its Six to Celebrate in 2018. The culmination of that effort was a conference in October 2018 entitled “Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Rethinking Sites of Cultural History.” The conference convened preservationists, historians, artists, planners, place-makers and more to work together to clarify what cultural significance is and how it can work, how to document and create compelling narratives around cultural sites, and how to identify the specific challenges of cultural sites from a preservationist perspective. This tour provides just a sample of some of the city’s cultural landmarks, organized thematically and representing all five boroughs. The list includes some sites that are legally protected — in some cases by more than one government body — and some that are unfortunately in danger of being lost. Preserving culturally significant sites that may not possess overtly aesthetic value often requires a particularly active and engaged form of advocacy to achieve protection from the wrecking ball. But, as long as there are interesting people making their mark on New York City and crucial events taking place here, that effort will never be in vain, since those stories are the lifeblood of this vibrant place.

68 Bedford Street, 1963.

The wooden house at 17 Grove Street (at Bedford Street) is often assumed to be one of the oldest houses, if not the oldest house, in Greenwich Village. It’s a good guess since wooden house construction was banned in Manhattan starting in the early 19th century in response to fires in these densely-packed precincts. The prohibition was enacted first below Canal Street in 1816, then below 32nd Street in 1849, and finally below 155th Street in 1882. But 17 Grove Street only dates to 1822 (actually, just the first two floors do; the third floor was added in 1870). This makes it a relative youngster compared to some of the houses found in these parts, in spite of its charmingly anachronistic look. But regardless of its date of construction, 17 Grove is one of the most photographed and beloved houses to be found anywhere in the Village. And while there are several wooden houses in the Greenwich Village Historic District (including the 1799 Isaac Hendricks House diagonally across the street at 77 Bedford Street), most of those have been covered in brick. But 17 Grove proudly wears its woodenness on its sleeve. It also improbably maintains the wooden workshop behind it on Bedford Street, built by the original owner William Hyde, a window sash maker. Both the main house and the former workshop are now single-family residences.

The Lucille Lortel Theatre, ca. 1984. This landmark theater is the Lucille Lortel Theater, formerly known to many as the Theatre de Lys. The facade of the theater today does not reflect the rich overall history of the site. In fact, who knew the theater was converted from two row houses and rear stables dating back to 1868? Before becoming a motion picture house and theater, the two homes were owned by a rug and carpet merchant named Jeremiah W. Dimick. It is not certain if he and his family lived at this home because Dimick was a bit of a real estate mogul. Shortly before his death in 1896, Dimick was shamed in the New York Times with other property owners for creating unfathomably terrible housing for lower class tenants. His rear stables at 121 and 123 Christopher Street were converted into housing; piling 14 and 10 tenants into each respectively. His son, also named Jeremiah, would take over the property and allow the site, with rear stables and all, to be converted into a motion picture house, called the New Hudson Theater, around 1913. In 1932, the Dimick family no longer owned the property and the theater would change hands several times as the Hudson Playhouse, Theatre de Lys and finally its current owners, the Lucille Lortel Foundation. The theater today is still going strong with a performance almost every day.

Wood-frame house at the corner of Grove and Bedford Streets, May 12, 1936. This house was built by window sash-maker William Hyde in 1822, the year of a yellow fever outbreak which drove New Yorkers to the safety of rural Greenwich Village. Originally a two-story structure in the Federal style, a third floor and new cornice were added in 1870. No. 17 Grove Street is the Village's largest remaining wood-frame structure, predating Manhattan’s 1866 ban on new construction of wooden homes. In addition to the main house, Hyde’s workshop at 100 Bedford Street (rear, at left) has survived to the present day.

Construction on the Sixth Avenue extension at Bedford Street, 1928. The six-story buildings at left are 174-178 West Houston Street (although the entrances are actually on Bedford). Until 1925, Sixth Avenue extended only as far South as Carmine Street. As it had done for the 1917 Seventh Avenue extension, the city used eminent domain to clear existing structures between Carmine and Canal Streets— including the entirety of the forgotten Hanover, Congress, and Clark Streets — to make way for construction of the IND Eighth Avenue subway under the new Sixth Avenue extension. The new Eighth Avenue line opened in September 1932, seven years after work began on the extension aboveground.

30 Christopher Street ca. 1933 30 Christopher replaced three smaller buildings when it was constructed in 1907 to the designs of the well-known firm Jardine, Kent & Jardine. (This was only a few years after they were commissioned to design the Van Tassell & Kearney Auction Mart, an East Village building we were thrilled to see landmarked last May!) Owned by the Waverly Realty Company, 30 Christopher Street was built to house The Fellows Company of New York, formerly known as The Fellows Medicine Manufacturing Company. According to medical journals of the time, the company produced the “famous” Syrup of Hypophosphites. The advertisements at left tout the syrup as a cure for several illnesses (note: the ads use the address of 26 Christopher). If you happen to be suffering from bronchitis, your ancestor 100 years ago with the same condition might have benefited from the syrup being produced right here in the Village. It’s not clear how long the company stayed in the building, but it did remain in use as a factory and office space for many decades. A 1974 Certificate of Occupancy reveals that, by that time, the building had been converted to residences. The building itself has an irregular floor plan, which is not surprising given the irregular shape of the block as a whole. This is the Village after all! It employed steel frame construction, an engineering feat that allowed for taller buildings without compromising the square footage of the lower floors, and reinforced concrete. For over 100 years, this elegantly-designed building has served as a wonderful contribution to the streetscape, and it’s nice to learn a bit more about it on this cold and blustery day.

Nos. 14-16 Gay Street, October 16, 1937. The provenance of the Gay Street name is unclear, but the name is mentioned in records as early as 1827 before the street was declared official in 1833. No 16 (right) was built for merchant Francis Barretto in 1828. No. 14 was built around the same time for plough manufacturer Curtis Hitchcock. Ruth McKenney published a series of stories in the New Yorker depicting her family’s life in the basement apartment of 14 Gay Street. These stories would be adapted into a 1953 Broadway musical, “Wonderful Town.”

“Twin Peaks” house at 102 Bedford Street, 1932. In its first incarnation, 102 Bedford was an 1830s Federal style wood-frame house. In 1925, Clifford Reed Daily — with financial backing from financier Otto Kahn — bought the house and undertook a whimsical renovation, adding its distinctive peaks and subdividing the interior into small and unusual living quarters. Stranger still was the building’s dedication ceremony, originally reported in the Herald Tribune, reproduced in the New York Times in 2003: “The actress Mabel Normand stood on a platform on top of one of the gables and shattered a bottle of Champagne over the roof. Next to her, Princess Amelie Troubetskoy (an American novelist who had married a Russian prince in czarist days) burned acorns in a charcoal brazier in honor of the Greek god Pan. Holy water, flowers and other rites also inaugurated the building.”

8 Grove Street ca. 1936 When Abbott photographed an old-fashioned milkwagon in 1936, New York City’s milk industry was rapidly changing. Distribution was dominated by Sheffield Farms and Borden Company. One-third of their daily three million quarts of milk and one million quarts of cream was still delivered by horses, the rest by truck. In 1938, Sheffield Farms opened a $2.5 million plant and replaced horse-drawn wagons with motorized vehicles. Abbott took this photograph on Grove Street, a few blocks from her Commerce Street home.

Hudson Park Branch, date unknown (pre-1920). Constructed between 1904 and 1906, the Hudson Park Library was designed by Carrère & Hastings. The library's location was chosen largely due to its proximity to the adjacent Hudson Park. That park, though, was effectively demolished during the south extension of Seventh Avenue. The construction that razed the park though also prompted the construction of a new addition to the building, so that patrons might also enter on the new Seventh Avenue South. The 1920 addition was also designed by the building's original architects. Given its location in an Italian community, the library, from its opening, offered Italian language books. Poet Marianne Moore worked as a library assistant from 1921 to 1925.

Grocery store at the corner of Christopher and Bleecker Streets, June 18, 1936. One of Greenwich Village’s oldest buildings, this corner store was built as a grocery in 1802. Its top floor was reputedly the office of the commission that laid out the 1811 grid plan for the development of Manhattan Island. The structure was itself a victim of urban planning: in 1828, when a bend in Bleecker Street was eliminated to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic across Christopher Street, the store lost 20 feet of its width. Abbott’s photograph shows the brick wall, extending behind and above the old clapboard structure, which marks the building’s truncation. The grocery was run by a single owner for 25 years and remained remarkably unchanged until 1997. It is currently under renovation as a pizza shop.

Throughout the years many artists have called Greenwich Village home. This collection highlights the writers of Greenwich Village.