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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The stately church building at 141-145 West 13th Street in the West Village is the picture of serene elegance. Built in 1846-47 in the Greek Revival style, the classical balance and symmetry of the façade mask a history full of controversy, including the birth of a notorious slur in American politics, which arguably changed the […]
The former firehouse located at 84 West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village is often noted for being the renovated and restored home of TV personality and journalist Anderson Cooper. But it’s just as noteworthy for an unusual history connected to Benjamin Franklin and insurance underwriters, and for not being the kind of firehouse you think it is at all. […]
On January 3, 2017, GVSHP launched our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map. Something in the air told us there might be a hunger and need for this kind of information. But even we would not have guessed that the map would receive over 70,000 views in that time, with its praises sung in BrickUnderground, […]
This post by Dana Schulz originally ran in 2011. This secluded alley of beautiful pre-Civil War homes made recent real estate headlines when one of its houses, 5 Grove Court, went on the market for $4.2 million. The Corcoran listing describes its drool-worthy details: “exposed beams, 3 fireplaces, handsome working kitchen and a rooftop garden.” In fact, in 2003, Architectural […]
Most New Yorkers spend some time underground every day as part of their daily commute, but some spend eternity beneath our streets, and in a few cases occupy some pretty surprising real estate. Manhattan cemeteries are tougher to get into than Minetta Tavern without a reservation on a Saturday night because as far back as 1823, New […]
Greenwich Village is known as the birthplace of many things – the modern gay rights movement, Off-Broadway theater, the New York School of artists and poets, the “new urbanism” pioneered by Jane Jacobs, among many other trailblazing firsts. Less closely associated with the Village, however, are radical and transformative innovations in transportation technology. But while […]
Perhaps no single photographer could be said to have captured the energy, the cultural ferment, the reverberating social change emanating from New York City in the second half of the 20th century as vividly as Fred W. McDarrah. McDarrah got his start covering the downtown beat of the Village Voice in the 1950s and ’60s, as that […]
Jimi Hendrix would have turned 75 this week. In his brief 27 years and even briefer musical career, Hendrix left an indelible mark upon guitar playing and rock music, permanently transforming both art forms. But perhaps in some ways his most lasting impact came from a project completed just three weeks before his death–the opening of Electric […]
The renowned painter Wolf Kahn was born on October 4, 1927. In his oral history with GVSHP, Wolf Kahn brought wit, snark, and great, detailed memories about his time in the Village and the role he played in the art scene there, attending salons, renting half his apartment to Robert De Niro Sr., and spending […]
GVSHP is happy to announce a new program “Community Conference: The Village Past, Present, and Future with GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman,” that will be taking place on Sunday, October 15th from 1:30-6:00 pm at the Jefferson Market Library…
There’s no shortage of sites in the Village and East Village where great makers of popular music lived or performed. Less well known, however, are the multitude of sites that were the backdrop for iconic album covers, sometimes sources of inspiration for the artists or just familiar stomping grounds. Today, many are hiding in plain […]
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. Sometimes you just have to attend to […]
Greenwich Village is often referred to as the Paris of this side of the Atlantic. I’m not sure I would go quite that far, but truly the Village is glorious and unique in its own way. The look, the feel, and most importantly, the boîtes are a real draw for native New Yorkers and visitors […]
Everyone knows the folk-rock classic “Summer in the City” by the Lovin’ Spoonful, which topped the charts 51 years ago this August in 1966. But fewer know the song’s roots in Greenwich Village–lead singer John Sebastian actually grew up in the neighborhood and the act got their start in the local clubs–and fewer still know […]
On August 6, 1966, the first known recording of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” was made by the Miracles. Written by Motown pioneers Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, the song was re-recorded several times, most famously by Gladys Night and the Pips and Marvin Gaye, whose version landed on the top of the charts […]
The streetscapes and street life of New York City are some of the most robust sensorial experiences. From towering skyscrapers to bright flashing lights to pungent (sometimes fragrant) smells and blaring sounds, the city runs on energy. It has been said that if the United States were a car, New York City would be its […]
From the Center for An Urban Future Report Greenwich Village has long enjoyed a reputation as a mecca for artists. The same can be said of nearby NoHo and SoHo, though the reputation for those neighborhoods is slightly newer (about fifty years, as opposed to well over a hundred for the Village). The list of […]
In the wake of the Stonewall anniversary last month, it’s a good time to look back at some of the inspiring figures that were involved with the uprising that helped cement Greenwich Village as the birthplace of the modern Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) right’s movement. Marsha P. Johnson, a black transwoman, is iconic […]
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month (LGBT Pride Month) is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village. The Stonewall Riots were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation movement in the United States. Celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia, and concerts. […]
EXPLORE SIX STATELY GREENWICH VILLAGE HOMES ON THE 19TH ANNUAL SPRING HOUSE TOUR BENEFIT
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. When New Yorkers lament […]
He blew into town on a cold January day in 1961, slammed the door of his car, walked into Café Wha and landed a gig that night. That’s the legend, anyway. Truth is that he slogged around uptown hustling for gigs in the Theater District for months before the Village beckoned. But once he found […]
This Saturday and Sunday, expert tour guide Joyce Gold will lead tours celebrating the radical, notorious women of Washington Square. The square and its environs have a long been home to creative, politically active, and influential women. In the spirit of these women and Joyce’s upcoming tours, I’ve been thinking a bit about another innovative […]
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. The march of time […]
Three years ago today, Village Preservation conducted an oral history with Gloria McDarrah, a Village resident for over 60 years and a longtime member of GVSHP. She worked in publishing, education, and for a while in the 1990’s, at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Gloria has lived in a variety of locations throughout the Village and […]
It was 100 years ago on January 23rd that a group of Village bohemians – artists, poets, writers, actors – had had enough. They had moved to Greenwich Village to live their own kind of lives, free of convention, free of rampant capitalism and moralizing, free of strict social rules they felt degraded society rather […]
Uncertain times bring a certain amount of anxiety. Concern about the future of our basic constitutional rights is something many of us are currently feeling. While the new era of political discourse has raised the specter of silencing citizens, it is good to remember those institutions created to protect our liberties. The ACLU, founded on this […]
It seems that President-elect Donald Trump is having a difficult time filling the roster for his inauguration ceremony. In previous years, the inauguration festivities have included extensive and star-studded ceremonies featuring speeches, musical performances, dance numbers, and dramatic readings. But this year, many artists have shown an unwillingness to participate, or have their work featured, in […]
This past Saturday and Monday, many dedicated souls braved the winter weather to celebrate the local businesses of Greenwich Village. With tour guide Joyce Gold, GVSHP and our partners at Village Alliance, Washington Square Park Conservancy, and many local businesses, celebrated the holiday cheer and local atmosphere that is abundant in our neighborhood at this […]
One of my favorite two-block sections in Greenwich Village may be an unlikely one – East 9th Street between Broadway and 5th Avenue. It’s not the oldest strip in the neighborhood, or the one with the best shops. In fact, it’s home to a rather uniform group of mid-century apartment houses, with almost no ground-floor […]
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. For twenty one years, […]
Where can you enjoy the best of Greenwich Village bars, restaurants, and shops, all in one handy (and beautiful) location? At Washington Square Park on September 14th, where thirty of the neighborhood’s best food and drink purveyors will be in one place for the 14th annual Taste of the Village! The event has been very popular since […]
On this day in 1885, poet and novelist Elinor Wylie was born. Wylie’s writings were popular in the 1920’s and 30’s, and lived in Greenwich Village from 1921 until her death.
Waverly Place and Mercer Street is just east of Washington Square Park. This unique part of town is still world renowned for history, culture, arts, creativity and university intellect. Just the place we need… another Starbucks.
The landmark documentary Paris Is Burning was released in New York on March 13, 1991. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, the film is an intimate peek into New York’s LGBTQ culture, specifically ball competitions, where participants dress, dance, and compete in a number of themed categories. Paris Is Burning received rave reviews upon its release, […]
A year ago today, Bert Waggott passed away, surrounded by loved ones. Bert was a long-time Greenwich Village resident, graphic designer and professor of graphic design at Pratt Institute. Bert accepted our Village Award in June of 2013 for his work in the Winston Churchill Square garden. Anyone who has walked by the small but […]
This iconic image of activism and advocacy was taken just outside the NAACP’s headquarters on 5th Avenue and 14th Street. The year was 1936, and it was speaking to the crisis of violence and inequality in America. It is estimated that between 1882 and 1951, 4,700 people were lynched in the United States. An overwhelming majority […]
This is part 3 in a series discussing the Village’s role in the development of Modern American Theatre. Click here to read parts 1 and 2. Today we turn our attention to the South Village where GVSHP has been fighting for landmark protections and appropriate zoning for decades. The Circle in the Square Theater, which […]
On this day in 1984, the movie The Pope of Greenwich Village was released in theaters. It starred Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts as Charlie and Paulie, cousins and would-be gangsters who attempt to make some fast money with an ill-conceived scam. In the backrooms of downtown bars and restaurants, the two characters fumble their […]
Happy Pride Week! Each June during the week leading up to the Gay Pride March, NYC celebrates Pride Week. Throughout the week, different groups and organizations will host events, throw parties, and do general outreach and advocacy to promote the history and visibility of the LGBTQ community. Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has always worked […]
A generous GVSHP supporter dropped off a fun treat to our offices a few weeks ago – old matchbooks from Greenwich Village bars and restaurants. They’re a philluminist’s dream! (Did you know that “philluminist” is the official term for a matchbook collector?) I love how these books meld historic graphic design with New York City […]
On April 24, 1904 artist Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. de Kooning was one of the major figures of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Abstract Expressionism was an art movement developed in New York City and the “first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of the […]
Artist Max Ernst was born on April 12, 1891. Ernst was a pioneering figure in both the Dada and Surrealist movements. The former, often referred to as “anti-art,” emerged after World War I as an anti-war, anti-bourgeois far left movement. Dadaist art pieces generally included readymade objects, a critique on the establishment of traditional art making, […]
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 26, 1944. Greenwich Village has always been a breeding ground for movers and […]
Greenwich Village is home to what is considered by many one of the finest examples in the nation of a mid-century modern residential complex: the University Village/Silver Towers. Designed by I.M. Pei & Associates with James I. Freed as lead project architect, the complex was built between 1964 and 1966. Critics from the time of […]
Acclaimed author and journalist Tom Wolfe is known for his use of New Journalism (employing fiction-writing techniques such as sustained dialogue, well-developed characters, and vivid scenes) and for his best-selling books including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987). After earning his Ph.D. in American Studies in 1957 and […]
On July 9th, 1819, Rose Butler was executed in the Potter’s Field located in what is now Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Rose, a nineteen year old black female slave, was convicted of arson. She had set fire to the residence of her owners, though there were no reported injuries or casualties other than […]
Long-time Off the Grid readers will remember the stir that was caused last summer when an ill-informed real estate listing described the property at 121 Charles Street as a development site. GVSHP was quick to let people know that the property’s location in the Greenwich Village Historic District meant that any proposed work would require […]
Okay, everyone, if you’ve been considering joining us for our annual house tour, but haven’t yet purchased tickets,then now is your chance! It’s this Sunday, May 3rd from 1 – 5:30 PM. Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind opportunity to see six beautiful homes in Greenwich Village. This is also GVSHP’s biggest annual fundraiser, so […]
It seems like there are countless mentions on the Internet of the apartment building in which Monica, Rachel, Chandler, and Joey lived on “Friends,” the hit show that ran from 1994-2004. Even we here on Off the Grid wrote about it and several other locations. In that post we also mentioned that, in addition to […]
After a long, cold, and snowy January and February, Mother Nature decided we weren’t quite ready for spring just because our calendars told us it was March. Only a few days into the month, the city was covered in snow. While we weren’t exactly thrilled, we couldn’t help but notice how pretty the neighborhood looked. […]
If you love walking our Village streets, chances are you’ve come across the neglected little building at 237 Bleecker Street. Once a stagecoach house when it was built c. 1835, the wood structure is a cherished piece of Village history, yet it’s fallen on hard times. A proposal to reconstruct most of the facade and […]
Today, the building that houses the Salmagundi Club at 47 Fifth Avenue is a bit of an odd duck. At four-and-a-half stories, the 1853 Italianate style rowhouse is sandwiched by taller apartment buildings on either side. To someone walking by, the stately old brownstone may almost look like the Little House from the Stuart Little […]
Union Square is known today as a site of public gathering and for expressions of discontent. This is built upon Union Square’s rich, multi-layered history as a public space in Manhattan. The name of the park comes from its location within the downtown area, placed between, or at the “union,” of the then-Bloomingdale Road and […]
As part of GVSHP’s ongoing programming, native New Yorker and world renowned artist Frederick Brosen will give a free talk and slideshow at Theater 80 on Tuesday, December 9th at 6:30pm. Brosen’s presentation will feature his selected watercolor works of locations in New York City, including paintings featured in GVSHP’s book Greenwich Village Stories. For his […]
After a nearly half-century wait, last week the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission finally voted to approve landmark status for the 150-year old religious building located at 334 East 14th Street, now the Tifereth Israel Town & Village Synagogue, and prior to that a German Baptist and a Ukrainian Autocephalic Church. Ironically, the Commission’s decision was followed soon […]
Completed in 1853, by architect James Renwick, the St. Denis Hotel stood at the corner of East 11th Street and Broadway. The property, which was owned by the Renwick family, had been given to them by their relative, Henry Brevoort, a successful farmer and prominent landowner during the late eighteenth century. The hotel was named […]
This is the latest installment of the Off the Grid series in which we highlight the people, places and events featured in our new book Greenwich Village Stories, available for purchase now. Visit our Facebook page for the latest on book contributors, release events and readings. My first winter in New York was hard for reasons far greater than the polar […]
At 293 and 297 West 4th Street, between Bank and West 11th Streets in the Greenwich Village Historic District, sit two new townhouses that, at first glance, look like three. The façade of no. 293 was designed to resemble two three-bay wide rowhouses that are prevalent in the neighborhood, but in actuality it is one […]
For today’s post in our Then & Now series, we thought we’d feature a few locations in our neighborhoods as they looked in the 1980s. Similar to last week’s post on using historic maps, the City of New York’s 1980s tax photos are an invaluable resource in helping us understand our built past. As with […]
Here we are in the midst of the holiday season. The city was blanketed with snow this weekend and shoppers are frantically working through their holiday gift-giving lists. For today’s Building Broadway post, I’d like to share a wonderful gift that was left to all of us almost 100 years ago: Arthur Hosking’s photographs of […]
If the “art deco masterpiece” that is 570 Lexington Avenue no longer stood on the southwest corner of Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, perhaps affordable housing could be constructed in its place. But this “suave fantasy of polished marble and modern metals,” built in 1931 for the Radio Victor Corporation and since known as the […]
On this particularly rainy Monday, an image of Gene Kelly singin’ and dancin’ in the rain sure does come to mind. Lo and behold, an exciting discovery was made: the writers of the classic 1952 movie musical Singin’ in the Rain (and countless other Broadway shows and Hollywood musicals) got their big break at the […]
We hope you can join us for The Village and All That Jazz, an evening of music and history at Zinc Bar Monday, March 4th presented by GVSHP’s Brokers Partnership – RSVP here. Pianist Joe Alterman will perform and award-winning music critic Gary Giddins will explore the jazz scene of the Village during the 1960s, […]
Off the Grid has featured many posts about some of the place names within Greenwich Village and the East Village, including Bleecker Street, Taras Shevchenko Place, and Father Demo Square. So a series of posts on how some Manhattan neighborhoods have gotten their names, particularly Greenwich Village, caught our eye.
Although more and more of the research that GVSHP documents and shares is done online today, we also house a modest non-circulating resource library which contains fiction and non-fiction books, reports and guides on the subject areas of Greenwich Village, Historic Preservation, and New York City history. The library also contains hard copies of designation […]
On this day in 1895 (that’s 117 years ago if you’re counting), Washington Square Arch was dedicated. The above image shows what the arch looked like that year. Designed by Stanford White of McKim, Meade & White, the arch has become one of the most prominent symbols of Greenwich Village. Off the Grid went into […]
Image via Gothamist. It was five years ago today at 86 Bedford Street that a chimney separated from an interior wall and collapsed into the world-famous Chumley’s bar in Greenwich Village.
In an article from the October issue of O Magazine actress Katie Holmes declares, “I love Greenwich Village.”Back in 2009 it was widely speculated that Holmes and her husband Tom Cruise purchased a $15 million townhouse at 42 West 12th Street in the Greenwich Village Historic District.
This secluded alley of beautiful pre-Civil War homes made recent real estate headlines when one of its houses, 5 Grove Court, went on the market for $4.2 million. The Corcoran listing describes its drool-worthy details: “exposed beams, 3 fireplaces, handsome working kitchen and a rooftop garden.” In fact, in 2003, Architectural Digest featured the gorgeous […]
This is an updated version of a post from 2011. The Washington Square Ghost! That’s right folks, we’re talking about Ghostbusters! Today marks the anniversary of the release of the classic film, which spawned a sequel, two animated television series, and a 2016 reboot. When released, the film was the most successful comedy in film […]
