Greenwich Village

West 4th and West 12th street intersecting

Greenwich Village is an area on the western part of southern/downtown Manhattan. It is sometimes called The Village. The Village is mainly residential.

Greenwich Village is bordered by Broadway to the east, Hudson River to the west, Houston Street to the south and 14th Street to the north.

Washington Square Arch

Originally, Greenwich Village was a hamlet separate to New York City. The grid plan for its streets is less orderly than in parts of Manhattan that were built later.

History

A map of Greenwich Village c.1760

The village is located on what used to be marshland. In the 16th century, Native Americans called it Sapokanikan which means tobacco field. In the 1630s, it was turned into pasture by the Dutch, who called it Noortwyck. In 1664, when the English captured the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, and Greenwich Village developed as a hamlet.

In 1712, it officially became a village, and was named Grin'wich in the 1713 Common Council records. Following a yellow fever epidemic in 1822, many New York residents moved to the healthier air of Greenwich; where many stayed. In the 19th century, it was known as Washington Square.

Greenwich Village Media

MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village
Street signs at intersection of West 10th and West 4th Streets
Gay Street at the corner of Waverly Place; the street's name refers to a colonial family, not the LGBT character of Greenwich Village
Whitney Museum of American Art's original location, at 8–12 West 8th Street, between Fifth Avenue and MacDougal Street; currently home to the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture.
The Cherry Lane Theatre is located in Greenwich Village.
The annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade is the world's largest Halloween parade, with millions of spectators annually, and has its roots in New York's queer community.
The Stonewall Inn, a designated U.S. National Historic Landmark and National Monument, as the site of the June 1969 Stonewall riots and the cradle of the modern gay rights movement.
Blue Note Jazz Club, New York City

Other websites

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