Greenwich Village

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Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village , often simply called the Village, is a largely residential area on the lower west side of southern Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
in New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class

Upper middle class

The 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 other end of the middle class scale and the regular middle class....
families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th – earlier to mid 20th centuries as the bohemian

Bohemianism

The term bohemian, of French origin, was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities....
capital and the birthplace of the Beat Movement. Ironically, what provided the initial attractive character of the community eventually contributed to its gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification, or urban gentrification, is the change in an urban area associated with the population mobility of more affluent individuals into a lower-class area....
and commercialization.

The Village was named seemingly after Greenwich

Greenwich

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Encyclopedia

Greenwich Village , often simply called the Village, is a largely residential area on the lower west side of southern Manhattan

Manhattan

New York City

Upper middle class

Bohemianism

Gentrification

Greenwich

'Greenwich' 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....
, London, England. However, it was called Noortwijck ("Noort" or "North" because of its location north of the original settlement on Manhattan Island) or Groenwijck by the Dutch founders before the British takeover, so Greenwich is possibly an Anglicization of the Dutch name.

Location

The neighborhood is bounded by Broadway on the east, the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
on the west, Houston Street

Houston Street (Manhattan)

Houston Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan 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, Manhattan, to the East River, and serves as the boundary between the neighborhoods of Greenwich...
on the south

South

South is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western world Norm , the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180?....
, and 14th Street

14th Street (Manhattan)

14th 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 north

North

North is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:...
. The neighborhoods surrounding it are the East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It lies east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy, Manhattan and Peter Cooper Village?Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side, Manhattan....
to the east, SoHo

Soho

Soho is an area in the centre of the West End of London of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is an entertainment district which for much of the later part of the 20th century had a reputation for its sex shops as well as its night life and film industry....
to the south, and Chelsea

Chelsea, Manhattan

Chelsea 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, Manhattan and the Garment District, Manhattan, and north of Greenwich Village, and the Meatpacking District, Manhattan that centers on West 14th Street ....
to the north. The East Village

East Village, Manhattan

West Village, Manhattan

The 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 Houston Street ....
is the part of Greenwich Village west of 7th Avenue, though realtors say the dividing line is 6th Avenue.

Greenwich Village was better known as Washington Square based on the major landmark Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's List of New York City 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 SoHo

Soho

Grid plan

As Greenwich Village was once a rural hamlet

Administrative divisions of New York

File:Town and village halls, Monroe, NY.jpgAdministrative divisions of New York State differ from those in certain other countries and most U.S....
, 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 plan

Grid plan

The grid plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at Angle#Types of angless to each other, forming a wikt:grid. In the context of the culture of Ancient Greece the grid plan is called Hippodamian plan....
(based on the Commissioners' Plan of 1811

Commissioners' Plan of 1811

File:NYC-GRID-1811.pngThe Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was a proposal by the New York Legislature adopted in 1811 for the orderly development and sale of the land of Manhattan between 14th Street and Washington Heights, Manhattan....
). 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 Commission

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 Historic preservation Law....
. 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

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 bedrock

Bedrock

File:Rockhead1.jpg.JPGIn stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated Rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth....
.

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 African

Freedman

Freedman is the term used to describe a former Slavery who has been Manumission or Emancipation. The first means the freeing of an individual by the owner, often through deed or will, and sometimes by legislative petition....
settlers in the 1630s, who named their settlement Noortwyck. The English conquered the Dutch settlement of New Netherland

New Netherland

File:Seal of new netherland.jpgNew Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the seventeenth-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the Eastern Seaboard of North America....
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 fever

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is an acute Virus disease. It is an important cause of hemorrhage illness in many African and South American countries despite existence of an effective vaccine....
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 bohemian

Bohemianism

The term bohemian, of French origin, was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities....
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-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-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 culture

Alternative culture

Alternative 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 Manhattan

Manhattan

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Gertrude 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....
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 Art

Whitney Museum of American Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", harbors one of the most important Collection of 20th century United States art....
, on the site of today's New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture

New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture

The 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 the mid 1960s....
. The Whitney was founded in 1931, as an answer to the then newly founded (1928) Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The 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....
's collection of mostly European modernism

Modernism

Modernism, 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 culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
and its neglect of American Art

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. Gertrude Whitney decided to put the time and money into the museum after the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile, New York City in New York City, USA....
turned down her offer to contribute her twenty-five-year collection of modern art

Modern art

Modern art is a term that refers to artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s through the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era....
works. In 1924 the Cherry Lane Theatre

Cherry Lane Theatre

The 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-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of Play , musical theater 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, New York, the hub of the theater industry in the United States, the term later becam...
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 Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyric poetry and playwright and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was also known for her unconventional, Bohemianism lifestyle and her many love affairs....
and other members of the Provincetown Players

Provincetown Players

The Provincetown Players are an acting troupe that started on July 15, 1915....
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 Theatre

The Living Theatre

The Living Theatre is an United States 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 Absurd

Theatre of the Absurd

The Theatre of the Absurd is a designation for particular Play 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 Hofmann

Hans Hofmann

Hans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionism painter. He was born in Wei?enburg in Bayern, Bavaria on March 21, 1880 the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann....
moved his art school 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

Joe Gould's Secret

__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....
(profiled at length by Joseph Mitchell

Joseph Mitchell

Joseph 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 Bodenheim

Maxwell Bodenheim

Maxwell Bodenheim was an United States poet and novelist who was known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemianisms. His writing brought him international fame during the Jazz of the 1920s....
, the dancer Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan

Isadora 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....
, as well as greats on the order of Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize 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 Strindberg....
. Political rebellion also made its home here, whether serious (John Reed) or frivolous (Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp was a France artist whose work is most often associated with the Dada and Surrealism 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 Weavers

The Weavers

The Weavers were an influential 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 popularity....
played at the Village Vanguard

Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard is a jazz nightclub in Greenwich Village in New York City on 7th Avenue South. The club was founded in 1935 by Max Gordon ....
.

The Village again became important to the bohemian scene during the 1950s, when the Beat Generation

Beat generation

The Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and also 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 Beats

Beat generation

North Beach

North Beach may refer to a number of places in the world:United States*North Beach, San Francisco, California*North Beach, Florida, a census-designated place in Indian River County...
in San Francisco; in many ways creating the east coast-west coast predecessor to the Haight-Ashbury-East Village

East Village

East Village is the name given to neighborhoods in a number of cities:Canada*Downtown East Village, Calgary, AlbertaUnited Kingdom*East Village, Devon...
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 Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was an American author, poet and Painting. Alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is considered a pioneer of the Beat Generation....
, Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an United States poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , celebrating his friends who were members of the Beat Generation and attacking what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States....
, William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II was an United States novelist, essayist, social critic, Painting 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....
, and Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh people poet 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 Tavern

White Horse Tavern (New York City)

The White Horse Tavern, located in New York City's The Five Boroughs of Manhattan at Hudson Street and 11th Street, is known for its 1950s and 1960s Bohemian culture....
on November 5, 1953.

Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of Play , musical theater 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, New York, the hub of the theater industry in the United States, the term later becam...
, 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 critic

Critic

The word critic comes from the Greek language ' , "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 Cino

Joe Cino

Joseph Cino , was an Italian-American theatrical producer and caf?-owner. The beginning of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino?s Caffe Cino....
, 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 Stewart

Ellen Stewart

Ellen Stewart , is an United States theater director and Theatrical producer and the founder of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club ....
at La MaMa, and Al Carmines

Al Carmines

Reverend 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 Church

Judson Memorial Church

The 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....
.

Greenwich Village played a major role in the development of the folk music

Folk music

Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including:* Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous with the term "Traditional music", also often including World Music and Roots music; the term "Traditional music" was given its more specific meaning to distinguish it from the other definition...
scene of the 1960s. Three of the four members of The Mamas and the Papas

The Mamas & the Papas

The 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 ten hit singles....
met there. Guitarist and folk singer Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk

Dave 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 Dylan was one of the foremost popular songwriters in the country, and often developments in New York City would influence the simultaneously occurring folk rock

Folk rock

Folk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and Rock and roll.In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and Canada 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 Streisand

Barbra Streisand is an United states singer and film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, political activist, film producer and film director....
, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel

Simon and Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel were an American singer-songwriter duo consisting of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. They formed the group "Tom and Jerry" in 1957, and had their first taste of success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl"....
, Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne

Clyde Jackson Browne is an American rock music singer-songwriter and musician. His introspective lyrics made him the poster boy of the Southern California confessional singer-songwriter movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s....
, Eric Andersen

Eric Andersen

Eric Andersen is an United States singer-songwriter....
, Joan Baez

Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez is a Mexican-United States folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style. Many of her songs are Topical song and deal with social issues....
, The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground was an American Rock music band first active, in various incarnations, from 1965 to 1973. Their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists....
, Richie Havens

Richie Havens

Richie Havens is an United States folk music singer and guitarist. Havens is perhaps best known for his intense rhythmic guitar style, soulful cover version of pop music and folk music songs and his opening performance at the Woodstock Festival....
, Maria Muldaur

Maria Muldaur

Maria Muldaur is a roots-folk music and blues singer best known for her song "Midnight at the Oasis"....
, Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton

Thomas Richard Paxton is an United States folk music singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years....
, Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs

Philip David Ochs was a United States protest song and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice....
, Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall Hendrix was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter whose guitar playing continues to be a considerable influence on rock music....
and Nina Simone

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was a Grammy Award-nominated American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist....
. The Greenwich Village of the 1950s and 1960s was at the center of Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs, Order of Canada, Order of Ontario was an United States-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 Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is arguably the most influential book written on urban planning in the 20th century....
, which defended it and similar communities, while critiquing common urban renewal

Urban renewal

File:Melbourne docklands urban renewal.jpgUrban renewal is a program of land re-development in areas of moderate to high density urban land use....
policies of the time.

Founded by New York based artist Mercedes Matter and her students the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture

New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture

The 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 the mid 1960s....
is an art school formed in the mid 1960s. The school officially opened September 23rd 1964, it is still currently active and it is housed at 8 W. 8th Street, the site of the original Whitney Museum of American Art

Whitney Museum of American Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", harbors one of the most important Collection of 20th century United States art....
.

Greenwich Village was also home to one of the many safe houses used by the radical anti-war movement known as the Weather Underground

Weatherman (organization)

Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an United States radical left organization founded in 1969 by leaders and members who split from the Students for a Democratic Society ....
. On March 6, 1970, however, their safehouse was destroyed when an explosive they were constructing was accidentally detonated, costing three Weathermen (Ted Gold

Ted Gold

Theodore "Ted" Gold was a member of Weatherman ....
, Terry Robbins

Terry Robbins

Terry Robbins was a United States 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....
, and Diana Oughton

Diana Oughton

Diana Oughton was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society Michigan Chapter and later, a member of the 1960s radical group Weatherman....
) 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 liberation

Gay Liberation

Gay 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 Inn

Stonewall Inn

The Stonewall Inn in New York City, and its surrounding area also known as Stonewall, was the site of the famous Stonewall riots of 1969, which have come to symbolize the beginning of the gay liberation movement in the United States....
, important landmarks, as well as the world's oldest gay and lesbian bookstore, Oscar Wilde Bookshop

Oscar Wilde Bookshop

The Oscar Wilde Bookshop was the first and oldest bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors. The bookstore was founded by Craig Rodwell in 1967 as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore....
, founded in 1967. In 2006, the Village was the scene of an assault involving seven lesbians and a straight man

2006 Greenwich Village assault case

The 2006 Greenwich Village assault case was an altercation on August 18, 2006 between Dwayne Buckle and a group of seven women 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.

See also :Category:Greenwich Village

Since the 1960s

Currently, artists and local historians bemoan the fact that the bohemian

Bohemianism

The term bohemian, of French origin, was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities....
days of Greenwich Village are long gone, because of the extraordinarily high housing costs in the neighborhood. The artists have fled to first to SoHo

Soho

TriBeCa

TriBeCa is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. The name is a abbreviation#Syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street." It runs roughly from Canal Street, Manhattan south to Park Place , and from the Hudson River east to Broadway ....
and finally Williamsburg

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and Bushwick, Brooklyn....
and Bushwick

Bushwick, Brooklyn

Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by East Williamsburg, Brooklyn to the northwest, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn to the southwest, the Cemetery of the Evergreens, Brooklyn and other cemeteries to the southeast, and Ridgewood, Queens to the northeast....
in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is one of the five Borough of New York City, located at the western end 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 DUMBO

DUMBO, Brooklyn

DUMBO, 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 Bridge and Brooklyn Bridges, which connect Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, and another which continues east from the Manhatta...
. 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. Indeed, its cultural uniqueness and apartness are felt so strongly, and so many of its residents' lives are so locally focused, that it is sometimes said thereabouts that "upstate" New York is anywhere north of 14th Street.

Greenwich Village is now home to many celebrities, including actresses/actors Julianne Moore

Julianne Moore

Julianne Moore is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning and four time Academy Award-nominated United States actress....
, Liv Tyler

Liv Tyler

Liv 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....
, Uma Thurman

Uma Thurman

Uma Karuna Thurman Hawke , better known as Uma Thurman, is an American actress. She performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedy film and dramas to science fiction film and Action movie Thriller s....
, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American stage and film actor and director.Hoffman began his professional acting career in television in 1991, and the following year began appearing in films....
, Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price

Mary Violet Leontyne Price in Laurel, Mississippi in the United States is one of America's most beloved and widely recorded operatic sopranos....
, Amy Sedaris

Amy Sedaris

Amy Sedaris is an United States actor, author and comedienne. She is perhaps best known for playing the character Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central television series Strangers with Candy....
, and Barbara Pierce Bush

Barbara Pierce Bush

Barbara Pierce Bush is the elder of the Twin#Dizygotic_twins daughters of the 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush and former First Lady of the United States Laura Bush, and granddaughter of the 41st US President George H....
, the daughter of former U.S. President

President of the United States

The 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. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
; Thurman and Bush both live on West Ninth Street. Alt-country/folk musician Steve Earle

Steve Earle

Stephen 'Steve' Fain Earle is an United States singer-songwriter, well known for his rock music and country music, as well as his political views....
moved to the neighborhood in 2005, and his album Washington Square Serenade
Washington Square Serenade

Washington 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 the Hole," by Tom Waits, was used as the...
is primarily about his experiences in the Village. The Village also serves as home to Anna Wintour

Anna Wintour

Anna Wintour Order of the British Empire is a British fashion editor & the editor-in-chief of Media in the United States Vogue , a position she has held since 1988....
, the imperial editor-in-chief of Vogue Magazine.

Greenwich Village includes the primary campus for New York University

New York University

New York University is a private university, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan....
(NYU), The New School

The New School

The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly around Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research....
, and Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a leading research institution, ranked 50th in the United States among national universities in 2008.....
's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school in the United States of Yeshiva University, located in the New York City borough of Manhattan....
. The Cooper Union

Cooper Union

The 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 Village

East Village, Manhattan

Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's List of New York City 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 Courts

West 4th Street Courts

The 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 basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a basketball through a 10 feet high hoop under organized rules....
and American handball

American handball

American handball, usually referred to simply as handball, is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against one or more walls....
players from all over New York. The Cage has become one of the most important tournament sites for the city-wide "Streetball

Streetball

Streetball is a less formal variant of basketball, played on playgrounds and in gymnasiums across 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-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway refers to theatrical productions including Play , musical theater or performance art pieces performed in New York City in smaller theatres than Broadway theatre productions and Off-Broadway productions....
theaters; for instance, Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group

'Blue 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 Show, Scrubs , and Arrested Developme...
has taken up residence in the Astor Place Theater. The Village Vanguard
Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard is a jazz nightclub in Greenwich Village in New York City on 7th Avenue South. The club was founded in 1935 by Max Gordon ....
and The Blue Note hosts some of the biggest names in jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American 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, while a plethora of lower profile clubs arguably keep Greenwich Village the underground jazz epicenter of New York City. Other music clubs include The Bitter End
The Bitter End

File:Beast 0114.jpgThe Bitter End is a nightclub in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened its doors in 1961 at Bleecker Street under the auspices of original owner Fred Weintraub....
, Cafe Wha?
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, and many others all began their careers at th...
and Lion's Den
Lion's Den (nightclub)

Lion'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 Orchestra
Greenwich Village Orchestra

The 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 Cellar
Comedy Cellar

The 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 and Bleecker Street....
, where many American stand-up

Stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy is a style of comedy where the performer speaks directly to the audience, with the absence of the theatrical "fourth wall". A person who performs stand-up comedy is known as a stand-up comic, stand-up comedian or more informally stand up....
comedians got their start.

Each year on October 31, it is home to New York's Village Halloween Parade

New York's Village Halloween Parade

New York's Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade and street festival presented the night of every Halloween in New York City?s Greenwich Village....
, a mile-long ad hoc pageant of masqueraders, mummers, drag queens, exhibitionists, drunkards, druggies, puppets and pets that draws an audience of two million from throughout the region, the largest Halloween event in the country. The delighted and high-spirited throngs include everyone from the smallest children dressed in the simplest homemade or store-bought costumes on up to adults bedecked in the most elaborate and ingenious guises and disguises that professional and amateur costume designers and makeup artists can conceive and create with a year's notice.

Several publications have offices in the Village, most notably the newsweekly The Village Voice
The Village Voice

The 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....
.

Sullivan St. was home to Genovese crime family

Genovese crime family

The 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 ....
godfather Vincent "The Chin" Gigante

Vincent Gigante

Vincent "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....
. Born and raised in the Village he would spend most of his adult life there. Shortly before his death in federal prison, he told a fellow inmate: "Greenwich Village is the greatest place in the U.S."

In media

From 1948-1950, Village Barn
Village Barn

Village Barn was the first country music program on Big Three television networks. Broadcast by NBC from May 17, 1948 - September 1949 and from January 16, 1950 - May 29, 1950, the live television weekly series originated from the Village Barn, a country music nightclub that belonged to Rudy Vall?e in the basement of Electric Lady Studios...
, the first country music
Country music

Country music is a blend of popular American music forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in Traditional music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s....
show on network television (NBC) originated from a nightclub of the same name in the basement of 52 West 8th Street
Electric Lady Studios

Electric 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 television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
comedy
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
Barney Miller
Barney Miller

Barney Miller is a sitcom television series set in a New York City Police in Greenwich Village that ran from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on American Broadcasting Company....
was set at a fictional police station in Greenwich Village.
The 1994–2004 NBC sitcom Friends
Friends

Friends is an American situation comedy created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolves around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City, who occasionally live together and share living expenses....
is set in the Village (Central Perk was apparently on Mercer or Houston Street, down the block from the Angelika Film Center
Angelika Film Center

Angelika Film Center is a movie theater chain in the United States that features independent film and foreign films. It operates theaters in New York City and Texas....
, and Phoebe
Phoebe Buffay

Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character from the popular United States TV series sitcom Friends , played by Lisa Kudrow. Her claims to fame include her guitar playing in Central Perk and her elaborate, improbable stories about her previous lives....
lived at 5 Morton Street), though it was filmed and produced in Burbank, California
Burbank, California

Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 100,316 at the United States Census, 2000.Burbank is located in the eastern region of the San Fernando Valley, north of Downtown Los Angeles, California....
. The exterior shot of Chandler
Chandler Bing

Chandler Muriel Bing is a fictional character on the popular United States TV series sitcom Friends , played by Matthew Perry ....
, Joey, Rachel
Rachel Green

Rachel Karen Green is a fictional character on the popular United States TV series sitcom Friends , played by Jennifer Aniston, who received Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Awards for her performances....
, and Monica
Monica Geller

Monica E. Geller is a fictional character on the popular United States TV series situation comedy Friends , played by Courteney Cox. 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

Audrey Hepburn was a Belgian-born, Dutch-raised actress of British and Dutch ancestry.Born in Brussels, Hepburn lived in Arnhem in The Netherlands during her childhood and for the duration of the World War II....
movie Wait Until Dark
Wait Until Dark

Wait Until Dark is a play by Frederick Knott.The Crime fiction thriller 's heroine is Susy Hendrix, a blind Greenwich Village housewife who becomes the target of three thugs searching for the heroin hidden in a doll, which her husband transported from Canada as a favor to a woman who since has been murdered....
, the main character, Susy, lives in an apartment located at 4 St. Luke's Place in Greenwich Village.
The short story The Last Leaf by O'Henry is entirely set in Greenwich Village.
In the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics is an American comic book and related media company owned by Marvel Publishing, Inc., a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. Marvel counts among as its List of Marvel Comics characters such well-known properties as Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk , Iron Man, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and many others....
universe, Master of the Mystic Arts and Sorcerer Supreme
Sorcerer Supreme

Sorcerer Supreme is a title granted in the fictional Marvel Universe to the most powerful wizard of a given dimension.Doctor Strange was the most recent Sorcerer Supreme, and has been almost continuously since the transcendence of his mentor, the Ancient One, later reaffirmed when he was the winner of the Trial of the Vishanti....
, Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange is a Character , a comic book Magician and superhero in the Marvel Comics Marvel Universe. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Steve Ditko, he First appearance in Strange Tales #110 ....
, lives in a brownstone mansion in Greenwich Village. Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum is located at 177A Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street

Bleecker 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

Wonderful Town is a musical theatre 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, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the Capital , the largest, and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. Located near the Geographic centers of the United States, Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County, Ohio, although parts of the city also extend into Delaware County, Ohio and Fairfield County, Ohio 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

Caroline Marie "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 City
Sex and the City

Sex and the City is an United States 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
Mickey Rourke

Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an United States actor who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and Thriller films....
film The Pope of Greenwich Village
The Pope of Greenwich Village

The Pope of Greenwich Village is a 1984 in film United States film starring Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page, Kenneth McMillan and Burt Young....
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

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 MTV
MTV

MTV is an United States cable television network based in Media of New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJ ....
reality television
Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors....
series The Real World
The Real World

The 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....
, was filmed in the Village.
The Greenwich Village KFC/Taco Bell infested with rats appeared on many TV networks worldwide.

Education

Greenwich Village residents are zoned to schools in the New York City Department of Education

New York City Department of Education

The 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 1,400 separate schools....
.

Residents are jointly zoned to two elementary schools: P.S. 3 Melser Charrette School and P.S. 41 Greenwich Village school. Residents are zoned to Baruch Middle School 104.

Residents must apply to New York City high schools.

Notable residents

Many notable individuals have resided in Greenwich Village, including many artists and political figures.

External links

- map from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
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 Historic preservation Law....
, by Anna Alice Chapin
Anna Alice Chapin

Anna Alice Chapin was an United States author, born in New York City. She received a private education and studied music under Harry Rowe Shelley....
, 1919, from Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works, as founder Michael Hart said "To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."....