A Stroll Down West 14th Street: The Residences

West 14th Street has a multilayered history preserved in its architecture which reflects the development of the surrounding area as well as New York City itself. West 14th Street is also a border street, separating Greenwich Village to the south from Chelsea to the north. Save Chelsea’s President Laurence Frommer and I teamed up for […]

Watercolor Magic in the Village, thanks to Kazuya Morimoto

Street artists lend a special charm to a city. The dedication to walk about with an easel, large or small, to paint a scene can imbue any street corner with a greater sense of importance.  We are fortunate to have in our neighborhood an exquisite artist of the highest caliber painting love letters to the Village […]

Spring House Tour Benefit Surprises and Delights

  The 20th Annual Spring House Tour Benefit on May 6th, 2018 featured an array of homes unlike any others in the tour’s twenty year history.  Tour goers and volunteers alike were delighted by the variety and depth of interest in each and every dwelling.  Today we have a round up of those gorgeous homes.

Anthology Film Archives — 2018 Village Awardee

Anthology Film Archives is an international center dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. GVSHP is proud to honor Anthology Film Archives with a 2018 Village Awards at our upcoming June 6th Annual Meeting & Award Ceremony. Click here for more information about the event and […]

Jane Jacobs’ NYC: The sites that inspired her work and preservation legacy

Jane Jacobs’ birthday on May 4 is marked throughout the world as an occasion to celebrate one’s own city — its history, diversity, and continued vitality. “Jane’s Walks” are conducted across the country to encourage average citizens to appreciate and engage the complex and dazzling ecosystems which make up our cityscapes (Here in NYC, MAS is […]

Announcing the 2018 Village Awardees

Over the past 28 years, GVSHP has honored the unique and outstanding people, organizations, places, and business that make the Village what it is with our Village Awards. You can RSVP to this year’s June 6th Awards Ceremony here. This year we will be honoring an amazing group of awardees, each with an incredible story:

Remembering the Ritz

There are a number of legendary rock venues in our neighborhood, many an integral part of the 1980s NYC club scene. One of the leading ones was ‘The Ritz,’ located in Webster Hall, designated a New York City landmark in 2008, on East 11th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues.  The Ritz opened on May […]

(the former) Trump SoHo, and Years of Non-Compliance

The building formerly known as the Trump Soho has made the national and international news. But GVSHP was protesting it over ten years ago when its construction was first announced on “The Apprentice.”  We fought the City hard to prevent its construction, which we contended violated zoning laws.  But then-Mayor Bloomberg and elected officials like then-Borough […]

Smells Like The Pyramid Club

Nirvana is one of the most influential alternative rock bands of all time.  They helped to popularize this genre of music and brought the Washington State grunge scene that emerged in the 1980’s-90’s to the masses.  Though most closely associated with that other coast, on April 26th, 1990, the band played a highly important gig […]

Remembering Willem de Kooning

On April 24, 1904, artist and former resident of our neighborhood, Willem de Kooning, was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He would go on to be one of the 20th century’s leading artists within the Abstract Expressionist movement, a key figure in making New York the center of the art world.

Edward Hopper’s Greenwich Village: The real-life inspirations behind his paintings

There’s no lack of artists deeply associated with New York. But among the many painters who’ve been inspired by our city, perhaps none has had a more enduring and deeper relationship than Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882–May 15, 1967), particularly with Greenwich Village. Hopper lived and worked in Greenwich Village during nearly his entire adult life, […]

Immigrant Heritage Week

Immigrant Heritage Week is held by NYC each year to honor our collective immigrant heritage. Here at GVSHP, we held a walking tour on Tuesday, April 17th to honor that history. On April 17th, 1909, 11,747 immigrants entered the U.S. through Ellis Island, more than any other day in history. If you missed the tour, […]

Marlis Momber, an East Village Icon

NYC has designated the week of April 17 as Immigrant Heritage Week, because on April 17, 1907, more immigrants entered the U.S. through Ellis Island than any other day in history. April 19th happens to be the birthday of one of our neighborhood’s many incredible immigrants, noted East Village photographer Marlis Momber.  In 2015, GVSHP […]

Village Preservation Oral History: Merce Cunningham

Village Preservation shares our oral history collection with the public, highlighting some of the people and stories that make Greenwich Village and the East Village such unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Each of these histories includes the experiences and insights of long-time residents, usually active in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life. Merce Cunningham […]

Valerie Solanas: Questions, Context, and a Messy Legacy in the Village

Valerie Solanas (April 9, 1936 – April 25, 1988) is nothing if not divisive. She was a mysterious Villager known for being a radical lesbian feminist separatist, for writing the wild, controversial SCUM Manifesto, for shooting Andy Warhol and two others at Warhol’s Factory in Union Square and defending herself at her trial. It’s clear that what is known […]

The Who, live at the Fillmore East

On April 6th, 1968, The Who rocked the Fillmore East as part of a two-night residency.  On April 20th, they will release a double CD and triple LP of that seminal two-night stint, in honor of its fiftieth anniversary.  The Who have played around the world for decades, but among their many performances they chose to […]

From Condemned Land to National Monument: Christopher Park

Christopher Park has come a long way; beginning its life as a condemned parcel of land on April 5, 1837, the park was born, transformed, and eventually born again as a National Monument.  The park is public space, historic space, and adored by Village residents and visitors alike.  In many ways, Christopher Park reflects everything […]

How Greenwich Villager Howard Bennett fought to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This ended the life of one of the 20th century’s most revered and influential figures. It also began a 15-year campaign to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday — the first-ever honoring an […]

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Mountaintop

On April 3rd, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered what would become both his last and one of his most powerful speeches, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” In it, he called for unity and non-violent protests while challenging the United States to live up to its promise and ideas, saying he could see the day […]

Gerde’s Folk City: The End of a Greenwich Village Icon

Gerde’s Folk City was a Greenwich Village music venue central to the folk and rock scenes in this neighborhood for a quarter century.  Though always moving locations, the club finally came to an end on March 26, 1986 after an iconic 25-year run.  Today we take a look back at the history of this once […]

History Lost to NYU

We all know that New York University has an enormous presence in Greenwich Village and the East Village — one that has grown tremendously in recent decades, and is continuing to grow with the construction of their “NYU 2031” expanded campus on the Washington Square Village and Silver Towers superblocks south of Washington Square. The […]

Carole Teller’s ‘Changing New York’ captures the city’s 20th-century transformation

Change in New York is an expected norm, sometimes so constant it almost goes unnoticed. It’s such an ingrained part of the New Yorker’s experience, we often forget just how much our city has transformed, and what we have left behind. To help us remember, we have Carole Teller. A Brooklyn-born artist who’s lived in the […]

Tennessee Williams: A Restless Fugitive

Born Thomas Lanier Williams, III, on March 26th, 1911, playwright Tennessee Williams was as much a New Yorker as anyone, really. While his place of birth was really Columbus, Mississippi, he was an itinerant traveler of the world, but spent much of his professional career in New York City, primarily in Greenwich Village. Much like […]

    Snow and the City

    Only three months into the year and we have already experienced four Nor’easters here in NYC! Though a definite inconvenience, snow is nothing new to New Yorkers, and many have stories and memories of other winter woes from years gone by and how that affected the city and their neighborhoods.  One Nor’easter that has stood […]

    Westbeth – Adaptive Reuse Trailblazer, Home, Studio, and Community for Over 50 Years

    1968 was a big year for New York City and the world – music, arts, staggering political and social change. And, in the midst of it all, a tan block-square collection of connected buildings known as the Bell Telephone Laboratories was transformed into the Westbeth Center for the Arts.  A key component of that transformation […]

    Irish Bars of the Village

    As we approach St. Patrick’s Day, we realized we’ve discussed Irish churches, Irish heritage, Irish parade riots, and have written about cool East Village bars,  East Village sports bars, historic bars, many posts on LGBT bars, and bars in general.  But we have never done a post to highlight our favorite Irish bars. There is no […]

    Be Aware! The Ides of March and the Village

    Beware the Ides of March! Though Caesar may have had cause to worry, thankfully the Village is a little more manageable than the Roman Republic.  However, that doesn’t mean this Ides we can’t be aware of it with our own twist.  Below are a few tidbits of Village history that hopefully help you notice the […]

    (Re-)Remembering Diane Arbus

    Diane Arbus was born on March 14, 1923, and died by her own hand a mere forty-eight years later on July 26, 1971.  The acclaimed and celebrated photographer’s body of mid-20th century work focused largely on people marginalized by “mainstream” society.   Arbus’s first Greenwich Village address was a rear carriage house at 131 1/2 Charles Street where […]

    Women’s Work: Celebrating (More) Amazing Female Artists of the Village

    Scrolling through Off the Grid or any other collection of New York history, we’ve all become familiar with the legendary characters of the Village – Dylan, Kerouac, Hendrix, Duchamp, and the countless figures who have become synonymous with the neighborhood. Alongside them were incredible female creators who, although undoubtedly well-known, are sometimes forgotten. Today we […]

    When Delmonico’s Was On 14th Street

    Delmonico’s, synonymous with elegant dining and fine cuisine in the heart of the Financial District, has enjoyed a long history in New York City. The restaurant was first started by Swiss brothers John and Peter Delmonico (originally Giovanni and Pietro) in 1830 at 25 Williams Street, next to their confectionery at 23 Williams Street. According […]

    Rock On, Fillmore East!

    No. 105 Second Avenue, located between 6th and 7th Streets, was the home of the legendary Fillmore East from its opening on March 8,1968 until its closure on June 27, 1971 — a short period of time in which legendary status was quickly achieved. The building today is narrow with a brick facade and a domed […]

      The Founding of Our Lady of Pompeii

      On March 7th, 1898, Our Lady of Pompeii Church was incorporated as a separate parish.  This South Village icon has been serving the neighborhood since 1926, but Our Lady of Pompeii has been a part of the Village since 1892.  In addition to serving the neighborhood, Our Lady of Pompeii also has a connection to […]

      Many Layers of History between 3rd and 2nd Avenues

      Scratch the sidewalk anywhere in the Village or East Village and you’ll always find interesting layers of history.  Last month, we went out on a limb and talked about 2nd Avenue and 2nd Street in honor of February 2nd (2/2), but today, March 2nd (3/2) we’re expanding our focus.  Both 3rd and 2nd Avenues run through the […]

        15 Trailblazing Women of Greenwich Village and the East Village

        Greenwich Village is well known as the home to libertines in the 1920s and feminists in the 1960s and ’70s. But going back to at least the 19th century, the neighborhoods now known as Greenwich Village, the East Village, and Noho were home to pioneering women who defied convention and changed the course of history, […]

        My Favorite Things: Women’s History Month Edition

        When March finally rolls around, I feel the need for celebration! Not only does it mean that we have weathered the January/February doldrums, but also because March is Women’s History Month! We have several exciting programs in store for the month long celebration. On Monday, March 26th, we will host and evening of Women Poets […]

        GVSHP Oral History: Paula DeLuccia Poons

        GVSHP is excited to share our oral history collection with the public, highlighting some of the people and stories that make Greenwich Village and the East Village such unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Each of these histories includes the experiences and insights of long-time residents, usually active in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life. […]

        Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish Written Here

        Over the past six months, GVSHP has participated in the CUNY Corp service-learning program that places students in paid internships throughout the City. GVSHP’s intern, Oluwaseun Eleyinafe, a Lehman College Senior, wrote the post below on Allen Ginsberg and his poem ‘Kaddish.’ As one of the writers at the heart of the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg […]

          A New Chapter for Local Bookstores

          Some good news for small businesses and the written word in our neighborhoods.  Bucking the prevailing trend of disappearing bookstores, we actually have two new ones in our neighborhood, and more may be on the way!  This is a welcome development, and one worthy of celebration. First we welcome Codex Books to the neighborhood.  Located […]

          Help us Solve Some Historic Photo Mysteries

          Over 80 new historic photos taken by Carole Teller were recently added to the GVSHP Image Archive. Every time we add photos to our collection, we uncover some great stories, like when a woman emailed us that her mother was the subject of this photo, a man let us know this is the only existing photo of his grandfather, […]

          Edward Hopper’s Village Muses

          This weekend I went to the Whitney Museum, and as I was wandering around on the 7th Floor I found images of the Village that are familiar, nostalgic, bright, and utterly unique. Identifiable from a distance, Edward Hopper’s paintings live in moments of light, clear and still, while also evoking movement like film stills, eerie […]

            Elizabeth Jennings Graham — New York’s Rosa Parks, A Century Earlier

            Exploring African American history in our neighborhoods, today we look at Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a woman who, in her simple quest to get to her church on East 6th Street sparked one of earliest challenges to institutionalized racial discrimination in public accommodations.  In 1854  Graham challenged the segregation of New York City’s trasportation system, about […]

            President’s Day Roundup!

            Happy President’s Day! Though the Village is only one neighborhood in our great, big country (though ask any resident and they will say the Village should be its own country!), it has some distinct connections to several few of our nation’s past presidents.  To celebrate the day, we are doing a roundup of our presidential […]

            15 Sites of Critical African American History in Greenwich Village

            Greenwich Village has been known throughout its existence for breaking new ground and embracing outsiders. One often-forgotten but important element of that trailblazing narrative is the extraordinary role the Village played in relation to African American history. The neighborhood was home to North America’s earliest free Black settlement in the 17th century, to some of America’s […]

            North America’s First Freed Black Settlement Right in our Neighborhood

            In continuing our celebration of black history, we have a new and exciting entry to our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map: North America’s First Freed Black Settlement.  According to historian Christopher Moore, the first legally emancipated community of people of African descent in North America was found in Lower Manhattan, comprising much of present-day […]

            “Shampoo” and Other Inspirations Found on St. Mark’s Place

            Shampoo, the iconic movie satire, was released on February 11, 1975, but is set on Election Day 1968, the day Richard Nixon was first elected President of the United States.  Released in 1975 soon after the Watergate scandal had reached its conclusion, the political atmosphere provides of the time provides a source of dramatic irony […]

            The Village is our Valentine!

            Happy Valentine’s Day! For us at GVSHP, the Village, East Village, and NoHo are our Valentine, and we find new reasons to fall in love with them each and every day. In honor of the holiday, we are listing a few of the reasons why we love our neighborhoods, and ways you can get involved […]

            Saluting Peter Cooper

            Born on February 12, 1791, Peter Cooper left his mark on the world as a pioneering industrialist and inventor, and his mark on the Village as a great philanthropist.  Cooper began his career as a coachmaker’s apprentice, although he had only one year of formal schooling. He also worked as a cabinet maker, hatmaker, brewer, and grocer. From these humble […]

              It Happened Here: Taxi Driver

              The innocuous-looking apartment building at 226 East 13th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, may raise few eyebrows now.  But on February 8, 1976, the building became synonymous in the popular imagination with drugs, prostitution, runaways, murder and mayhem,  steeped in the urban decay which many saw as defining New York City in the 1970’s.

              The “East Village” Is Born, In Print

              On February 7, 1960 the New York Times wrote an article discussing changes in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side.  Four years beforehand the El (above ground subway) had been removed from Third Avenue.  With that barrier dismantled, Villagers from the west began to move east as “new shops, luxury and middle-income housing, and […]

              The Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union

              The presence of banks in neighborhood retail spaces often elicit mixed feelings at best. Typically these tend to deaden the streetscape and are owned and operated by some faceless, distant multinational corporation. But banks also perform an incredibly necessary and important function for local residents.  According to americanbanker.com, only 18% of seniors use mobile banking […]

              Hats Off to John Guare

              I’ll take Manhattan! If you had to draw a picture of a New York playwright, you would probably draw someone like John Guare.  Guare was born on February 5, 1938. A New Yorker’s New Yorker, he has lived in Greenwich Village with his wife, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, for 43 years.  In his delightful piece in our […]

              Many Layers of History on Second Avenue and Second Street

              Our neighborhood has many wonderful intersections, where generations of history and culture intersect — too many, in fact, to easily do them all justice. But on February 2nd, the second day of the second month, we thought we’d take a closer look at just one of those intersections, Second Avenue and Second Street.  It may […]

              How an East Village building went from gangster hangout to Andy Warhol’s Electric Circus

              Fifty years ago this week, the Velvet Underground released their second album, “White Light/White Heat.” Their darkest record, it was also arguably the Velvet’s most influential, inspiring a generation of alternative musicians with the noisy, distorted sound with which the band came to be so closely identified. Perhaps the place with which the Velvets have come to […]

              Black History Month 2018 – Learn and Celebrate with Us!

              Black History Month gives us the opportunity to look at an important and too often overlooked or undervalued part of American, New York, and neighborhood history and highlighting.  Within our neighborhoods, there is an incredible array of African American histories, contributions, and culture all around us — sometimes hiding in plain sight. African Americans have […]

              Philip Glass: A Life in Music, and in the East Village

              World-renowned composer and East Village denizen Philip Glass was born on January 31, 1937  in Baltimore.  The child of Jewish emigrants from Lithuania, his mother aided Holocaust survivors and recent arrivals to America by allowing them to stay at their home until they could find a job and a place to live. In 1964, Glass […]

              The Velvet Underground Make Some White Light and White Heat

              On January 30, 1968, the Velvet Underground released their second studio album, White Light/White Heat.  Following the band’s first album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, released in 1967, the band parted ways with manager Andy Warhol and vocalist Nico. White Light/White Heat came out several months later to mixed reviews and barely cracked the Billboard 200, hitting 199 for only […]

                The Women’s House of Detention

                To walk by the verdant, lush garden behind the graceful Jefferson Market Library today, one can scarcely imagine that it was once the site of an eleven-story prison, the notorious Women’s House of Detention. Found on our Civil Rights and Social Justice map, this former imposing edifice served as a prison from its opening on […]

                Angela Davis: Her Greenwich Village Connections

                This is an updated reposting of a blog by staffer, Matthew Morowitz, January 26th, 2016. Activist, leftist, and radical feminist — these are just some of the words used to describe Angela Davis, a scholar and civil rights leader and fighter who came to prominence in the countercultural era of the 1960’s.  Davis was born on January […]

                Remembering the Arch (and other) Conspirators

                On January 23, 1917, poet Gertrude Drick, painters John Sloan and Marcel Duchamp, and actors Russell Mann, Betty Turner, and Charles Ellis climbed to the top of Washington Square Arch. Drick read a declaration of independence for the “Free and Independent Republic of Washington Square” with the intent of having a neighborhood free from mainstream convention. 

                Business of the Month — Eva’s Kitchen, 11 West 8th Street

                Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite.  Want to help support small businesses?  Share this post with friends. What’s the West 8th Street stop for […]

                Will the Real Petrus Stuyvesant Please Stand Up?

                In this part of New York, the Stuyvesant name is all around us: Stuyvesant Street, Stuyvesant Town, Stuyvesant Square, the old Stuyvesant Casino (a former East Village jazz club, now the site of the Ukrainian National Home) and, Stuyvesant Polyclinic, just to name a few. Many know that this stems from the Stuyvesant clan being the […]

                Remembering Jodie Lane

                On January 16, 2004, Jodie Lane was walking her dogs in the East Village, where they began to act erratically around the corner of 11th Street and 1st Avenue (about a block away from GVSHP’s offices).  When Jodie went down to investigate, she received a fatal dose of electricity coming from a metal ConEd junction […]

                Landmarks vs. National Monuments: How Safe is the Stonewall Inn?

                In late April of last year, President Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at reviewing all National Monuments created under the Antiquities Act since 1996.  As the Stonewall National Monument, designated in 2016, would fall within this review, many individuals and advocacy groups have voiced their concerns that the current administration might strip the monument […]

                The Lasting Imprint of Stuyvesant Street

                Nearly all of the East Village falls in line with the Manhattan street grid, dating back to the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811. However, one defiant street, only one block long, stands at odds with the grid, Stuyvesant Street. Running true East – West, it was named for Petrus Stuyvesant (1727-1805), the great-grandson of Petrus Stuyvesant […]