Greenwich Village , often simply called
"the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of
Lower ManhattanLower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. A large majority of the district is home to
upper middle classThe upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term lower middle class used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum and the regular middle class. There is...
families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th – earlier to mid 20th centuries as the
bohemianBohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits, with few permanent ties...
capital and the birthplace of the
Beat movementThe Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired...
. What provided the initial attractive character of the community eventually contributed to its
gentrificationGentrification and urban gentrification denote the socio-economic, commercial, and demographic change in an urban area resulting from wealthier people buying housing property in a poor community...
and commercialization.
It has been conjectured that the name of the village is an Anglicized version of a
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
name
Groenwijck, meaning "
PinePines are coniferous trees in the genus Pinus , in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Distribution:...
District", rather than connected with
GreenwichGreenwich is a district in south-east London, England, on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Greenwich. It is best known for its maritime history and as giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time.The town became the site of a Royal palace, the...
, London, England.
Location
The neighborhood is bounded by Broadway on the east, the
Hudson RiverThe Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. It rises at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains, flows past Albany, and finally forms the border between New York City and New Jersey at its mouth before emptying into...
on the west,
Houston StreetHouston Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in downtown Manhattan. It runs crosstown across the full width of the borough of Manhattan, from Pier 40 on the Hudson River, through the Port Authority Truck Terminal on Greenwich Street, to the East River, and serves as the boundary between the...
on the
SouthSouth is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western convention, the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180°....
, and
14th Street14th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street rivals the size of some of the well-known avenues of the city and is an important business location....
on the
NorthNorth is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:* North is used to define all other directions....
. The neighborhoods surrounding it are the
East VillageThe East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It lies east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
to the east,
SoHoSoHo is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Originally associated with the arts, it has since become famous for both destination shopping and its downtown scene...
to the south, and
ChelseaChelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the Manhattan borough of New York City. It is located to the south of Hell's Kitchen and the Garment District starting at 34th Street, and north of Greenwich Village, and the Meatpacking District that centers on West 14th Street. West - East boundaries...
to the north. The
East VillageThe East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It lies east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
was formerly considered part of the
Lower East SideThe Lower East Side is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, E. Houston, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street...
and never associated with Greenwich Village. The
West VillageThe West Village is the western portion of the Greenwich Village neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Though there are no defined boundaries, the area is usually defined as bounded by the Hudson River and either Sixth Avenue or Seventh Avenue, extending from 14th Street down to...
is the part of Greenwich Village west of 7th Avenue, though Realtors say the dividing line is 6th Avenue. The neighborhood is located in
New York's 8th congressional districtNew York's Eighth Congressional District district for the United States House of Representatives in New York City. It is split into two sections. The northern portion of it includes most of Manhattan's Upper West Side, and continues south to include most parts of Hell's Kitchen, East Village,...
, New York's 25th State Senate district, New York's 66th State Assembly district, and New York City Council's 3rd district.
Greenwich Village was better known as Washington Square based on the major landmark
Washington Square ParkWashington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
or Empire Ward in the 19th century.
Encyclopedia Britannica's 1956 article on "New York (City)" (subheading "Greenwich Village") states that the southern border of the Village is Spring Street, reflecting an earlier understanding. The newer district of
SoHoSoHo is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Originally associated with the arts, it has since become famous for both destination shopping and its downtown scene...
has since encroached on the Village's historic border.
Grid plan
As Greenwich Village was once a rural hamlet, to the North of the earliest European settlement on Manhattan Island, its street layout is more haphazard than the grid pattern of the 19th-century
grid planThe grid plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. In the context of the culture of Ancient Greece the grid plan is called Hippodamian plan.-Ancient grid plans:...
(based on the
Commissioners' Plan of 1811The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was a proposal by the New York State Legislature adopted in 1811 for the orderly development and sale of the land of Manhattan between 14th Street and Washington Heights. The plan is arguably the most famous use of the grid plan and is considered by most historians...
). Greenwich Village was allowed to keep its street pattern in areas west of Greenwich Lane (now Greenwich Avenue) and Sixth Avenue that were already built up when the plan was implemented, which has resulted in a neighborhood whose streets are dramatically different, in layout, from the ordered structure of newer parts of town. Many of the neighborhood's streets are narrow and some curve at odd angles. Additionally, unlike most of Manhattan above Houston Street, streets in the Village typically are named rather than numbered. While some of the formerly named streets (including Factory, Herring and Amity Streets) are now numbered, even they do not always conform to the usual grid pattern when they enter the neighborhood. For example, West 4th Street, which runs east-west outside of the Village, turns and runs north, crossing West 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th Streets.
A large section of Greenwich Village, made up of more than 50 northern and western blocks in the area up to 14th Street, is considered part of a Historic District by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation CommissionThe New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year to make way for...
. The District's convoluted borders run no farther south than 4th Street or St. Luke's Place, and no farther east than Washington Square East or University Place. Redevelopment in that area is severely restricted, and developers must preserve the main facade and aesthetics of the buildings even during renovation.
Most parts of Greenwich Village comprise mid-rise apartments, 19th-century row houses and the occasional one-family walk-up, a sharp contrast to the hi-rise landscape in
Mid-Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
and Downtown Manhattan, due to the lack of shallow
bedrockIn stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
.
History
Greenwich Village is located on what was once marshland. In the 16th century Native Americans referred to it as Sapokanikan ("tobacco field"). The land was cleared and turned into pasture by Dutch and
freed AfricanA freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation, ....
settlers in the 1630s, who named their settlement Noortwyck. The English conquered the Dutch settlement of
New NetherlandNew Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the seventeenth-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
in 1664 and Greenwich Village developed as a hamlet separate from the larger (and fast-growing) New York City to the south. It officially became a village in 1712 and is first referred to as Grin'wich in 1713 Common Council records. In 1822, a
yellow feverYellow fever is an acute viral disease. The virus, a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus of the family of Flaviviridae is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes...
epidemic in New York encouraged residents to flee to the healthier air of Greenwich Village, and afterwards many stayed.
Greenwich Village is generally known as an important landmark on the map of
bohemianBohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits, with few permanent ties...
culture. The neighborhood is known for its colorful, artistic residents and the alternative culture they propagate. Due in part to the progressive attitudes of many of its residents, the Village has traditionally been a focal point of new movements and ideas, whether political, artistic, or cultural. This tradition as an enclave of
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and
alternative cultureAlternative culture is a type of culture that exists outside or on the fringes of mainstream or popular culture, usually under the domain of one or more subcultures...
was established by the beginning of the 20th century when small presses, art galleries, and experimental theater thrived.
In 1914, in one of the many
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
properties
Gertrude Vanderbilt WhitneyGertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, who was born into the United States Vanderbilt family and married into the Whitney...
and her husband owned, Gertrude Whitney established the
Whitney Studio Club at 8 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village as a facility where young artists could exhibit their works. The place would evolve to become her greatest legacy, the
Whitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, on the site of today's
New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and SculptureThe New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at 8 West 8th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York State is an art school formed in 1963 by a group of students and their teacher, Mercedes Matter, all of whom had become disenchanted with the fragmented nature of art instruction...
. The Whitney was founded in 1931, as an answer to the then newly founded (1928)
Museum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been singularly important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the...
's collection of mostly European
modernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late...
and its neglect of
American ArtThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Gertrude Whitney decided to put the time and money into the museum after the New York
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, USA. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial...
turned down her offer to contribute her twenty-five-year collection of
modern artModern art refers to artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
works.
In 1924 the
Cherry Lane TheatreThe Cherry Lane Theatre, located at 38 Commerce Street in the borough of Manhattan, is New York City's oldest, continuously running off-Broadway theater....
was established. Located at 38 Commerce Street it is New York City's oldest continuously running
off-BroadwayOff Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of plays, musicals or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, the hub of the theater industry in the United...
theater. A landmark in Greenwich Village’s cultural landscape, it was built as a farm silo in 1817, and also served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory before
Edna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet and playwright and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was also known for her unconventional, bohemian lifestyle and her many love affairs...
and other members of the
Provincetown PlayersThe Provincetown Players was an amateur group of writers and artists who, at the early part of the 20th Century, wanted to see a change in American theatre and created a company committed to producing new plays by exclusively American playwrights...
converted the structure into a theatre they christened the Cherry Lane Playhouse, which opened on March 24, 1924, with the play
The Man Who Ate the Popomack. During the 1940s
The Living TheatreThe Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group still existing in the U.S...
,
Theatre of the AbsurdThe Theatre of the Absurd is a designation for particular plays written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work....
, and the Downtown Theater movement all took root there, and it developed a reputation as a place where aspiring playwrights and emerging voices could showcase their work.
In 1936, the renowned Abstract Expressionist artist and teacher
Hans HofmannHans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter. He was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880 the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann...
moved his
art schoolArt school is a colloquial term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially graphic design, illustration, painting, photography, and sculpture...
from E. 57th Street to 52 West 9th Street. In 1938, Hofmann moved again to a more permanent home at 52 West 8th Street. The school remained active until 1958 when Hofmann retired from teaching.
During the golden age of bohemianism, Greenwich Village became famous for such eccentrics as
Joe Gould__FORCETOC__Joe Gould's Secret is a 1965 book by Joseph Mitchell. The book details the true story of the titular Joe Gould, a writer who lived on the streets of Greenwich Village in the first half of the 20th century. He was an eccentric, bridging the gap between bohemianism and the beat...
(profiled at length by
Joseph MitchellJoseph Mitchell was an American writer who wrote for The New Yorker. He is known for his carefully written portraits of eccentrics and people on the fringes of society, especially in and around New York City....
) and
Maxwell BodenheimMaxwell Bodenheim was an American poet and novelist who was known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians. His writing brought him international fame during the Jazz Age of the 1920s.-Biography:...
, dancer
Isadora DuncanIsadora Duncan was an American dancer. She was born Angela Isadora Duncan in San Francisco, California. Isadora Duncan is considered by many to be the mother of modern dance...
, writer
William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.Most of Faulkner's works are set in his native state...
, and playwright
Eugene O'NeillEugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature. His plays are among the first to introduce into American drama the techniques of realism, associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August...
. Political rebellion also made its home here, whether serious (John Reed) or frivolous (
Marcel DuchampMarcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
and friends set off balloons from atop Washington Square arch, proclaiming the founding of "The Independent Republic of Greenwich Village"). In Christmas 1949,
The WeaversThe Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, selling millions of records at the height of their...
played at the
Village VanguardThe Village Vanguard is a jazz club in Greenwich Village in New York City on 7th Avenue South. The club opened on February 22, 1935 by Max Gordon...
.
The Village again became important to the bohemian scene during the 1950s, when the
Beat GenerationThe Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired...
focused their energies there. Fleeing from what they saw as oppressive social conformity, a loose collection of writers, poets, artists, and students (later known as the
BeatsThe Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired...
) and the Beatniks, moved to Greenwich Village, and to
North BeachNorth Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf. It is the Little Italy of the city...
in San Francisco; in many ways creating the east coast-west coast predecessor to the Haight-Ashbury-
East VillageThe East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It lies east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
hippie scene of the next decade. The Village (and surrounding New York City) would later play central roles in the writings of, among others,
Jack KerouacJack Kerouac was an American author, poet and painter. Alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is considered a pioneer of the Beat Generation....
,
Allen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , in which he celebrates fellow members of the Beat Generation and critiques what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States.-Early life and family:Ginsberg was born into...
,
William S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life...
,
James BaldwinJames Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist.Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century in the United States...
,
Truman CapoteTruman Garcia Capote , born Truman Streckfus Persons, was an American writer, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel"...
,
Marianne MooreMarianne Moore was a Modernist American poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.- Life :Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in the manse of the Presbyterian church where her maternal grandfather, John Riddle Warner, served as pastor. She was the daughter of construction engineer and...
,
Maya AngelouMaya Angelou is an American autobiographer and poet. Having been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton, she is best known for her series of six autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adulthood experiences...
,
Rod McKuenRod McKuen is a bestselling American poet, composer, and singer, instrumental in the revitalization of popular poetry that took place in the 1960s and early 1970s.-Biography:...
, and
Dylan ThomasDylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer[, Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 11 January 2008.] who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
who collapsed while drinking at the
White Horse TavernThe White Horse Tavern, located in New York City's borough of Manhattan at Hudson Street and 11th Street, is known for its 1950s and 1960s Bohemian culture. It is one of the few major gathering-places for writers and artists from this period in Greenwich Village that remains open...
on November 5, 1953.
Off-Off-BroadwayOff-Off-Broadway refers to New York theatrical productions in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats...
began in Greenwich Village in 1958 as a reaction to
Off-BroadwayOff Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of plays, musicals or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, the hub of the theater industry in the United...
, and a "complete rejection of commercial theatre". Among the first venues for what would soon be called "Off-Off-Broadway" (a term supposedly coined by
criticThe word critic comes from the Greek , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation...
Jerry Tallmer of the
Village Voice) were coffeehouses in Greenwich Village, particularly the Caffe Cino at 31 Cornelia Street, operated by the eccentric
Joe CinoJoseph Cino , was an Italian-American theatrical producer and café-owner. The beginning of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino’s Caffe Cino.
-Pioneer of the off-off Broadway movement:...
, who early on took a liking to actors and playwrights and agreed to let them stage plays there without bothering to read the plays first, or to even find out much about the content. Also integral to the rise of Off-Off-Broadway were
Ellen StewartEllen Stewart , is an American theater director and producer and the founder of La MaMa, E.T.C. .- Biography :...
at La MaMa, originally located at 321 E. 9th Street and
Al CarminesReverend Alvin Allison 'Al' Carmines, Jr. was a key figure in the expansion of Off-Off-Broadway theatre in the 1960s.Carmines was born in Hampton, Virginia...
at the Judson Poets' Theater, located at
Judson Memorial ChurchThe Judson Memorial Church is located in Greenwich Village of Manhattan on the south side of Washington Square Park. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and with the United Church of Christ.-History:...
on the south side of
Washington Square ParkWashington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
.
Greenwich Village played a major role in the development of the
folk musicThe term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer...
scene of the 1960s. Three of the four members of
The Mamas & the PapasThe Mamas & the Papas were a vocal group of the 1960s. The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
met there. Guitarist and folk singer
Dave Van RonkDave Van Ronk was a folk singer born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York City, and was nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street."...
lived there for many years. Village resident
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
was one of the foremost popular songwriters in the country, and often developments in New York City would influence the simultaneously occurring
folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
movement in San Francisco, and vice versa. Dozens of other cultural and popular icons got their start in the Village's nightclub, theater, and coffeehouse scene during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, notably
Barbra Streisand Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of...
, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel,
Jackson BrowneClyde Jackson Browne is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician. His political interest and personal angst have been central to his career, resulting in popular songs such as "Somebody's Baby", "These Days", "The Pretender" and "Running On Empty"...
,
James TaylorJames Vernon Taylor is an American singer–songwriter and guitarist born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Carrboro, North Carolina...
,
Eric AndersenEric Andersen is an American singer-songwriter.- Overview :Eric Andersen was born in Pittsburgh. In the early-1960s, he was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City...
,
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style...
,
The Velvet UndergroundThe Velvet Underground was an American art rock band formed in New York City, New York. First active from 1965 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists...
,
The Kingston TrioThe Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group originated as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
,
Richie HavensRichard P. "Richie" Havens is an American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
,
Maria MuldaurMaria Muldaur is a folk-blues singer who was part of the folk music revival of the early 1960s...
,
Tom PaxtonThomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
,
Phil OchsPhilip David Ochs was a U.S. protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
,
Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter.Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto...
,
Laura NyroLaura Nyro was an American composer, lyricist, singer, and pianist. Her style was a hybrid of Brill Building-style New York pop, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, show tunes and rock....
,
Jimi HendrixJames Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter...
and
Nina SimoneEunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist....
. The Greenwich Village of the 1950s and 1960s was at the center of
Jane JacobsJane Jacobs, OC, O.Ont was an American-born Canadian urbanist, writer and activist. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
's book
The Death and Life of Great American CitiesThe Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is a greatly influential book on the subject of urban planning in the 20th century...
, which defended it and similar communities, while critiquing common
urban renewalUrban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of reconstruction...
policies of the time.
Founded by New York based artist
Mercedes MatterMercedes Matter née Carles was an American painter and draughtswoman. Her father was the American modernist painter Arthur Beecher Carles who had studied with Henri Matisse. Her mother, Mercedes de Cordoba, was a model for Edward Steichen. Ms...
and her students the
New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and SculptureThe New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at 8 West 8th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York State is an art school formed in 1963 by a group of students and their teacher, Mercedes Matter, all of whom had become disenchanted with the fragmented nature of art instruction...
is an art school formed in the mid 1960s. The school officially opened September 23 1964, it is still currently active and it is housed at 8 W. 8th Street, the site of the original
Whitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
.
Greenwich Village was also home to one of the many safe houses used by the radical anti-war movement known as the
Weather UndergroundWeatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization...
. On March 6, 1970, however, their safehouse was destroyed when an explosive they were constructing was accidentally detonated, costing three Weathermen (
Ted GoldTheodore "Ted" Gold was a member of Weatherman.-Early years and education:Gold was a red diaper baby. He was the son of Hyman Gold, a prominent Jewish physician and a mathematics instructor at Columbia University who had both been part of the Old Left. His mother was a statistician who taught at...
,
Terry RobbinsTerry Robbins was a U.S. leftist radical activist. A key member of the Students for a Democratic Society Ohio chapter, he led Kent State into its first militant student uprising in 1968. Robbins was credited for drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s song Subterranean Homesick Blues which later...
, and
Diana OughtonDiana Oughton was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society Michigan Chapter and later, a member of the 1960s radical group Weatherman. Oughton received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr. After graduation, Oughton went to Guatemala with the VISA program to teach the young and older indigenous Indians...
) their lives.
In recent days, the Village has maintained its role as a center for movements which have challenged the wider American culture: for example, its role in the
gay liberationGay Liberation is the name used to describe the radical lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand...
movement. It contains Christopher Street and the
Stonewall InnThe Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall is an American bar in New York City and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which are widely considered the start of the modern gay liberation movement. It is located at 51-53 Christopher Street, between West 4th Street and Waverly Place, in...
, important landmarks, as well as the world's oldest gay and lesbian bookstore,
Oscar Wilde BookshopThe Oscar Wilde Bookshop was the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors. It was founded by Craig Rodwell in 1967 as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore. Initially located on Mercer Street , it later moved to Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York, United States...
, founded in 1967. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center - best known as simply "The Center" - has occupied the former Food & Maritime Trades High School at 208 West 13th Street since 1984. In 2006, the Village was the scene of
an assault involving seven lesbians and a straight manThe 2006 Greenwich Village assault case was an altercation on August 18, 2006 between Dwayne Buckle and a group of seven young black lesbian friends from Newark, New Jersey, outside of the IFC Center movie theater in Greenwich Village...
that sparked appreciable media attention, with strong statements both defending and attacking the parties.
Since the 1960s
Currently, artists and local historians bemoan the fact that the
bohemianBohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits, with few permanent ties...
days of Greenwich Village are long gone, because of the extraordinarily high housing costs in the neighborhood. The artists have fled to first to
SoHoSoHo is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Originally associated with the arts, it has since become famous for both destination shopping and its downtown scene...
then to
TriBeCaTriBeCa is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. It takes its name from the acronym TriBeCa, for Triangle Below Canal Street.-Etymology of the name:The name has an interesting etymology...
and finally
WilliamsburgWilliamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Bushwick. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th Precinct....
and
BushwickBushwick is a neighborhood in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by East Williamsburg to the northwest, Bed-Stuy to the southwest, the Cemetery of the Evergreens and other cemeteries to the southeast, and Ridgewood, Queens to the northeast. The...
in
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
, Long Island City, and
DUMBODUMBO, an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is a neighborhood in the New York City, New York borough of Brooklyn. It encompasses two sections; one located between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, which connect Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, and another which...
. Nevertheless, residents of Greenwich Village still possess a strong community identity and are proud of their neighborhood's unique history and fame, and its well-known liberal live-and-let-live attitudes.
Greenwich Village is now home to many celebrities, including actresses/actors
Julianne MooreJulianne Moore is an American actress.She began her acting career in 1983 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the soap opera, As the World Turns, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988...
,
Liv TylerLiv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...
,
Uma ThurmanUma Karuna Thurman is an American actress. She has performed predominantly in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action thrillers. She is best known for her work under the direction of Quentin Tarantino...
,
Philip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour Hoffman is an American stage and film actor and director.Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year began appearing in films. His work in a diverse range of supporting films roles brought him recognition over the following decade. This recognition helped...
,
Leontyne PriceMary Violet Leontyne Price is an American operatic soprano. She was best known for the title role of Verdi's Aida. Born in the segregated Deep South, she rose to international fame during a period of racial change in the 1950s and 60s, and was the first African-American to become a leading prima...
,
Amy SedarisAmy Sedaris is an American actress, author and comedienne. She is perhaps best known for playing the character Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central television series Strangers with Candy. Sedaris regularly collaborates with her older brother, humorist and author David Sedaris...
, and
Barbara Pierce BushBarbara Pierce Bush is the elder of the fraternal twin daughters of the 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, and the granddaughter of the 41st U.S. President George H. W. Bush...
, the daughter of former
U.S. PresidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
; Thurman and Bush both live on West Ninth Street. Alt-country/folk musician
Steve EarleStephen 'Steve' Fain Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and country music as well as his political views. He is also a published writer, a political activist and has written and directed a play...
moved to the neighborhood in 2005, and his album
Washington Square SerenadeWashington Square Serenade is an album by alternative country singer Steve Earle. The album features the singer's wife, Allison Moorer on the track "Days Aren't Long Enough," and the Brazilian group Forro in the Dark on the track "City of Immigrants." The track "Way Down in...
is primarily about his experiences in the Village. The Village also serves as home to
Anna WintourAnna Wintour OBE is an English American fashion editor and the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. She became interested in fashion as a teenager. Her father, Charles, editor of the Evening Standard, often consulted with her on how to make the newspaper's...
, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Magazine as well as
Calvin TrillinCalvin Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.-Biography:Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on...
, a feature writer for
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications...
magazine.
Greenwich Village includes the primary campus for
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(NYU),
The New SchoolThe New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
, and
Yeshiva UniversityYeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is classified as a very high research activity university and it ranked as 50th in the US among national universities by U.S...
's
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of LawThe Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University, located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo....
. Parsons School of Design is located at 66 Fifth Avenue on 13th Street in the newly renovated, award winning design of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center. Parsons is now a division of The New School. The
Cooper UnionThe Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a privately-funded college in Downtown Manhattan, New York City. Cooper Union, founded in 1859, established a radical new model of American higher education...
is also located in Greenwich Village, at Astor Place, near St. Mark's Place on the border of the
East VillageThe East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It lies east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
.
Pratt InstitutePratt Institute is a specialized private college in New York City with campuses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Utica, New York. Pratt is one of the leading art schools in the United States and offers programs in art, architecture, fashion design, illustration, interior design, digital arts, creative...
established its latest Manhattan campus in an
adaptively reusedAdaptive reuse is the process of adapting old structures for purposes other than those initially intended.When the original use of a structure changes or is no longer required, as with older buildings from the industrial revolution, architects have the opportunity to change the primary function of...
Brunner & TryonArnold William Brunner was an American architect who was born and died in New York City. Brunner was educated in New York and in Manchester, England. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied under William R. Ware. Early in his career, he worked in the architectural...
designed
loft building on 14th Street just east of Seventh Avenue,
The historic
Washington Square ParkWashington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
is the center and heart of the neighborhood, but the Village has several other, smaller parks: Father Fagan, Minetta Triangle, Petrosino Square, Little Red Square, and Time Landscape. There are also city playgrounds, including Desalvio, Minetta, Thompson Street, Bleecker Street, Downing Street, Mercer Street, and William Passannante Ballfield. Perhaps the most famous, though, is "The Cage", officially known as the
West 4th Street CourtsThe West 4th Street Courts, also known as "The Cage", in New York City's Greenwich Village, are a notable public athletic venue for amateur basketball...
. Sitting on top of the West Fourth Street–Washington Square subway station at Sixth Avenue, the courts are easily accessible to
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a
10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
and
American handballAmerican handball, usually referred to simply as handball, is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against one or more walls using their hands.- History :...
players from all over New York. The Cage has become one of the most important tournament sites for the city-wide "
StreetballStreetball is a less formal variant of basketball, played on playgrounds and in gymnasiums around the world. Often only one half of the court is used, but otherwise the rules of the game are very similar to those of basketball...
" amateur basketball tournament.
The Village also has a bustling performing arts scene. It is still home to many
Off-BroadwayOff Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of plays, musicals or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, the hub of the theater industry in the United...
and
Off-Off-BroadwayOff-Off-Broadway refers to New York theatrical productions in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats...
theaters; for instance,
Blue Man GroupBlue Man Group is a creative organization founded by Phil Stanton, Chris Wink and Matt Goldman. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight...
has taken up residence in the Astor Place Theater. The
Village VanguardThe Village Vanguard is a jazz club in Greenwich Village in New York City on 7th Avenue South. The club opened on February 22, 1935 by Max Gordon...
and
The Blue Note hosts some of the biggest names in
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
on a regular basis. Other music clubs include
The Bitter EndThe Bitter End is a nightclub in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened its doors in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of original owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to The Other End during the 1970s...
, Cafe Au Go GoThe Cafe au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of 152 Bleecker Street, New York, NY.The club was the first New York venue for the Grateful Dead. Richie Havens and the Blues Project were weekly regulars. Jimi Hendrix sat in with blues harp player James Cotton there in...
,
Cafe Wha?Cafe Wha? is a club in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City that has been home to various musicians and comedians. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Kool and the Gang, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan Rivers, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor,...
The Gaslight CafeThe Gaslight Cafe was a coffee house located in the basement of 116 Macdougal Street in Greenwich Village, New York City-History:The Gaslight was originally a "basket house" where unpaid performers would pass around a basket at the end of each set and hope to be paid...
, and
Lion's DenLion's Den was a music club located at 214 Sullivan Street, between Bleecker Street and West 3rd Street, in the Greenwich Village section of New York City...
. The village also has its own orchestra aptly named the
Greenwich Village OrchestraThe Greenwich Village Orchestra is a semi-professional orchestra based in the heart of Greenwich Village. It is made up of volunteer musicians and performs six scheduled concerts per season from September to June...
. Comedy clubs dot the Village as well, including
The Boston and
Comedy CellarThe Comedy Cellar is a famous comedy club in Manhattan, where many top New York comedians perform. It is located in the heart of Greenwich Village on 117 Macdougal Street between West 3rd Street and Minetta Lane....
, where many American
stand-upStand-up comedy is a style of comedy where a comedian performs for a live audience, usually speaking directly to them. It is usually performed by a single comedian with the aid of a microphone, either hand-held or mounted on a stand...
comedians got their start.
Each year on October 31, it is home to
New York's Village Halloween ParadeNew York's Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade and street pageant presented the night of every Halloween in New York City’s Greenwich Village...
, the largest Halloween event in the country, drawing an audience of two million from throughout the region.
Several publications have offices in the Village, most notably the citywide newsweekly
The Village VoiceThe Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper in New York City, United States featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City...
, and the monthly magazines
FortuneFortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc.'s Fortune|Money Group. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner...
and
American HeritageAmerican Heritage is a monthly magazine dedicated to covering the history of the United States for a mainstream readership. Up to 2007, the magazine was published by Forbes, and since then, by Edwin S. Grosvenor.-History:...
. The National Audobon Society, having relocated its national headquarters from a mansion in Carnegie Hill to a restored and very
greenA sustainable building, or green building is an outcome of a design philosophy which focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource use — energy, water, and materials — while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building's lifecycle, through better siting,...
, former industrial building in
NoHoNoHo, for North of Houston Street is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, roughly bounded by Houston Street on the south, The Bowery on the east, Astor Place on the north, and Broadway on the west. NoHo is wedged between Greenwich Village, west of Broadway, and the East Village...
, relocated to smaller but even greener
LEEDLEED or Leed may refer to:*Low-energy electron diffraction*Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, standard for Green Building design*Leed *LEED Publishing Co., Ltd., a Japanese publishing company of works including work by Go Nagai...
certified digs at
225 Varick Street, a short ways down Houston Street from the
Film ForumFilm Forum is a nonprofit movie theater in New York City. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a US$19,000 annual budget. Karen Cooper became director in 1972. Film Forum moved downtown to the Vandam Theater in 1975. In...
.
Preservation
Historically, local residents and preservation groups, including the
Greenwich Village Society for Historic PreservationThe Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is a non-profit organization that seeks to preserve the architectural heritage and cultural history of several neighborhoods of New York City: Greenwich Village, the East Village, the Far West Village, the South Village, Gansevoort Market,...
(GVSHP), have been concerned about development in the Village and have fought to preserve the architectural and historic integrity of the neighborhood. In the 1960s,
Margot GayleMargot McCoy Gayle was an American historic preservationist and author who helped save the Victorian cast-iron architecture in New York City's SoHo district.-Life and career:...
led a group of citizens to preserve the Jefferson Market Courthouse (later reused as Jefferson Market Library) while other citizen groups fought to keep traffic out of
Washington Square ParkWashington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
and
Jane JacobsJane Jacobs, OC, O.Ont was an American-born Canadian urbanist, writer and activist. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
, using the Village as an example of a vibrant urban community, advocated to keep it that way.
Since then, preservation has been a part of the Village ethos. Preservation success stories abound in the neighborhood, which was landmarked in 1969 by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation CommissionThe New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year to make way for...
. Victories for preservationists, oftentimes spearheaded by
GVSHPThe Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is a non-profit organization that seeks to preserve the architectural heritage and cultural history of several neighborhoods of New York City: Greenwich Village, the East Village, the Far West Village, the South Village, Gansevoort Market,...
, include the preservation of the Greenwich Village waterfront and Meatpacking District; the inclusion of the Far West Village in the Greenwich Village Historic District; the creation of the Weehawken Street Historic District; and the downzoning of the Far West Village. Additionally, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation CommissionThe New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year to make way for...
began the process of landmarking the
South VillageThe South Village is a largely residential area in the middle of Lower Manhattan in New York City, directly below Washington Square Park. Known for its immigrant heritage and Bohemian history, the South Village overlaps areas of Greenwich Village and SoHo...
in June 2009.
More recent and on-going preservation issues in the Village include: NYU’s expansion into the neighborhood; St. Vincent’s Hospital’s renovation plans;
[ ] overdevelopment in the Far West Village; and threats to local theaters, including the
Provincetown PlayhouseThe Provincetown Playhouse was a theater in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. It is named for the Provincetown Players, who converted the former bottling plant into a theater in 1918. The original players were Eugene O'Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Djuna Barnes. Paul Robeson performed at the...
, the Yiddish Art Theater, and the Variety Theater.
In media
- From 1948-1950, Village Barn
Village Barn was the first country music program on American network television. Broadcast by NBC-TV from May 24, 1948–September 1949 and from January 16–May 29, 1950, the live weekly variety series originated from The Village Barn, a country music nightclub in New York City's Greenwich...
, the first country musicCountry music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
show on network television (NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
) originated from a nightclub of the same name in the basement of 52 West 8th StreetElectric Lady Studios, at 52 West 8th Street, in New York City's Greenwich Village, is a recording studio originally built by Jimi Hendrix and designed by John Storyk in 1970...
.
- The 1970s ABC
The American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
sitcomA situation comedy, usually referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy programs which originated in radio. Today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television as one of its dominant narrative forms...
Barney MillerBarney Miller is a comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village that ran from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...
was set at a fictional police station in Greenwich Village.
- The cover of Bob Dylan's hit album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's second studio album, released in May 1963 by Columbia Records.Dylan's debut album, Bob Dylan, had featured just two original songs. Freewheelin' contained just two covers, the traditional tune "Corrina, Corrina", and "Honey, Just Allow Me...
with his then-girlfriend Suze RotoloSusan Elizabeth Rotolo , nicknamed Suze Rotolo , is an American artist, perhaps best known as the woman walking with Bob Dylan on the cover of his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The pair dated on-and-off during the early 1960s...
is taken on Jones Street in Greenwich Village.
- The 1994–2004 NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
sitcomA situation comedy, usually referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy programs which originated in radio. Today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television as one of its dominant narrative forms...
FriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolved around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City, who occasionally live together and share living expenses. The series was produced by...
is set in the Village (Central Perk was apparently on Mercer or Houston Street, down the block from the Angelika Film CenterAngelika Film Center is a movie theater chain in the United States that features independent and foreign films. It operates theaters in New York City and Texas.-History:...
, and PhoebePhoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character from the television series, Friends , portrayed by Lisa Kudrow, who won an Emmy Award, as well as receiving a Golden Globe nomination for her performances.-Early life:...
lived at 5 Morton Street), though it was filmed and produced in Burbank, CaliforniaBurbank is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The estimated population in 2007 was 107,921.Burbank is located in two distinct areas, with its downtown, civic center and key neighborhoods nestled on the slopes and foothills that rise to the Verdugo Mountains, and other areas...
. The exterior shot of ChandlerChandler Muriel Bing is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends , played by Matthew Perry.-Background:...
, Joey, RachelRachel Karen Green is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends , played by Jennifer Aniston, who received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her performances.-Background:...
, and MonicaMonica E. Geller-Bing is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends , played by Courteney Cox Arquette. Monica is known as the "Mother Hen" of the group and her Greenwich Village apartment was one of the group's main gathering places...
's apartment building is actually located at the corner of Grove Street and Bedford Street in the West Village. One of the working titles of Friends was Once Upon a Time in the West Village.
- In the 1967 Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian.Born in Ixelles as Audrey Kathleen Ruston, Hepburn spent her childhood chiefly in the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem, Netherlands, during the Second World War...
movie Wait Until DarkWait Until Dark is a suspense thriller starring Audrey Hepburn and directed by Terence Young.In 1966 Warner Bros.-Seven Arts purchased the rights to Frederick Knott's play and in 1967 made the famous film adaptation. The script was written by Robert Howard-Carrington and directed by Terence Young...
, the main character, Susy Hendrix, lives in an apartment located at 4 St. Luke's Place in Greenwich Village.
- The short story The Last Leaf by O. Henry
O. Henry was the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...
is entirely set in Greenwich Village.
- In the Marvel Comics
Marvel Publishing, Inc., a company doing business as Marvel Comics, produces American comic books and related media. It forms a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, Inc....
universe, Master of the Mystic Arts and Sorcerer SupremeSorcerer Supreme or Sorceress Supreme is a title granted in the fictional Marvel Universe to the "practitioner of the mystic or magic arts who has greater skills than all others or commands a greater portion of the ambient magical energies than any other organism on a given world or dimension". By...
, Doctor StrangeDoctor Strange is a fictional character that appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko and first appeared in Strange Tales #110 ....
, lives in a brownstone mansion in Greenwich Village. Doctor Strange’s Sanctum SanctorumThe Sanctum Sanctorum is a fictional building in the Marvel Universe. It first appeared with Doctor Strange in his debut in Strange Tales #110 .-Location:...
is located at 177A Bleecker StreetBleecker Street is a famous street in New York City's Manhattan borough. It is perhaps most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district...
.
- In the musical comedy, Wonderful Town
Wonderful Town is a musical with a book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Leonard Bernstein...
, the main characters, Ruth and Eileen Sherwood, move from Columbus, OhioColumbus is the capital and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is the county seat of Franklin County, although parts of the city also extend into Delaware and Fairfield counties...
to Greenwich Village to pursue their dreams. The apartment that they move into is located on Christopher Street.
- The building used for exterior shots of Carrie Bradshaw
Carrie Bradshaw is the fictional narrator and lead character of the HBO sitcom/drama Sex and the City, played by actress Sarah Jessica Parker...
's apartment in Sex and the CitySex and the City is an American cable television series. The original run of the show was broadcast on HBO from 1998 until 2004, for a total of six seasons....
is located at 66 Perry St (even though her address in the series is the fictional address of 245 East 73rd Street on the Upper East Side).
- The 1984 Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor and screenwriter who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....
film The Pope of Greenwich VillageThe Pope of Greenwich Village is a 1984 American film starring Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page, Kenneth McMillan and Burt Young. Page earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her one-scene role in the film. It was adapted by screenwriter Vincent...
centers on a restaurant maître d' in the Italian section of the Village.
- The Real World: Back to New York
The Real World: Back to New York is the tenth season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships...
, the 2001 season of the MTVMTV is a cable television network based in New York City and launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs...
reality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors...
series The Real WorldThe Real World is a reality television program on MTV originally produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. First broadcast in 1992, the show is the longest-running program in MTV history. Following Bunim’s death from breast cancer in 2004, Bunim/Murray Productions continues to produce the...
, was filmed in the Village.
- The Greenwich Village KFC/Taco Bell infested with rats appeared on many TV networks worldwide.
- Greenwich Village is a playable multiplayer map in the 2003 video game Freedom Fighters
A freedom fighter in politics.Freedom Fighter may also refer to:*High Times Freedom Fighters, a marijuana legalization group created by High Times magazine...
.
Education
Greenwich Village residents are zoned to schools in the
New York City Department of EducationThe New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. These schools form the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,600 separate schools...
.
Residents are jointly zoned to two elementary schools: PS3 Melser Charrette School and PS41 Greenwich Village School. Residents are zoned to Baruch Middle School 104.
Residents must apply to New York City high schools.
Greenwich Village also houses two major universities -
The New SchoolThe New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
and
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, as well as
Cooper UnionThe Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a privately-funded college in Downtown Manhattan, New York City. Cooper Union, founded in 1859, established a radical new model of American higher education...
, which is one of the most selective art schools in the world.
Notable residents
Sullivan St. was home to
Genovese crime familyThe Genovese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that controls organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the "Ivy League" and "Rolls Royce" of organized crime...
boss
Vincent "The Chin" GiganteVincent "The Chin" Gigante was a New York mobster who headed the Genovese crime family. Gigante was one of five brothers: himself, Mario, Pasquale and Ralph all became mobsters in the Genovese family. Only one brother, Louis, did not become a Genovese mobster and instead became a priest...
. Born and raised in the Village he would spend most of his adult life there during the day. According to F.B.I. surveillance reports, after midnight, he would be driven to a townhouse at East 77th Street near Park Avenue where he actually lived. Popularly known as the "Oddfather," Gigante allegedly feigned senility by walking around the area in a bathrobe, in the hopes of eventually entering an insanity plea.
Justice
Sonia SotomayorSonia Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. Sotomayor is the Court's 111th justice, its first Hispanic justice, and its third female justice....
, former judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, later a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and current member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
See also
- Cedar Tavern
The Cedar Tavern was a bar and restaurant in New York City last at 82 University Place between 11th and 12th Streets. It was famous as a former hangout of many prominent Abstract Expressionist painters and beat writers...
- Gay Street, Manhattan
- The Church of the Ascension
The Church of the Ascension is an Episcopal church in the Diocese of New York, located at Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street in New York City's historic Greenwich Village neighborhood. From an austere beginning as a bastion of the evangelical movement it has become internationally known for its art,...
- Village Care of New York
Village Care of New York is a community-based, not-for-profit organization in New York City. The agency is dedicated to improving the lives of New Yorkers in need, especially the elderly and New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS....
- Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is a non-profit organization that seeks to preserve the architectural heritage and cultural history of several neighborhoods of New York City: Greenwich Village, the East Village, the Far West Village, the South Village, Gansevoort Market,...
- Village People
Village People is a concept disco group formed in the late 1970s, well known for their on-stage costumes as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics. Original members were: Victor Willis , Felipe Rose , Randy Jones , Glenn Hughes , David Hodo and Alex Briley...
External links
- Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
- Village Voice
- Official Tourist map (controversially showing Greenwich Village to include the East Village
- Greenwich Village Historic District - map from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year to make way for...
- Greenwich Village, by Anna Alice Chapin
Anna Alice Chapin was an American author, born in New York City. She received a private education and studied music under Harry Rowe Shelley. Published in 1897, her first book, The Story of the Rhinegold, was written when she was 17 years old...
, 1919, from Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain...