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4 Minetta Street
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4 Minetta Street
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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.
Minetta Triangle
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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
4 Minetta Street
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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.
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4 Minetta Street
Manhattan: Minetta Street - 6th Avenue. Minetta Street, nos. 2,4,5, Manhattan Yederal Art Project "Changing iew York' Berenice Abbott, photographer Neg. No. 43 \[Note: negative at Museum of the City ofNew York] Code IA-3 Nov. 21, 1935 p.10S.Cha0gmgBaETEIE 2g-5-g 2~6eE 32Aee2 ere1e. 2e7RR2eR3:N' 4WARe ww ~NeRNN2. A2N 5N32T22eR N4DO 6~ NJJ 2E22N DNe ~8-eS(2R72~R~ ~2A6~e4 Nig, 4 24e5 25R8NN A2A42253R2e2 OO00e2R9R~ z, mgre4e25A AS7o32 7~Re2eRe~ N8 N7N g9s A.a-.2 GG Re PeA4o2eNAe e 776-2Dee..~S~4R .~5S4
4 Minetta Street
Changing New York; Minetta Street, nos. 2, 4, 6
Minetta Triangle
This was taken in 1981 at Minetta Triangle at the intersection of Bleecker Street and Minetta Street facing 6th Aveune in Greenwich Village, in front of what was then Pioneer Supermarket. 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 St. 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. We would love to get any info possible about this photo and the other men in it.
4 Minetta Street
Minetta Street, nos. 2, 4, 6; Changing New York
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