A remarkable number of people and places in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo played important roles in the move towards women’s suffrage. These neighborhoods were long centers of political ferment and progressive social change, and women and men here played a prominent part in removing barriers to women voting in New York State […]
Spring is here, and people are gaping at the blossoms and stopping for selfies in front of the dogwood and magnolias and tulips. In our city, green space is precious and rare, and we need every bit of it, new or old. One of the local favorites is an oldy but goody –Abingdon Square.
November 11, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended World War I, a war that engulfed most of Europe since 1914. United States troops tipped the balance toward Allied victory, placing the United States on the world stage in a new way. The war came at a great cost, though. WWI claimed […]
On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, an event that led to the start of World War I. While the Archduke himself bears few of any ties to the Village, WWI had a significant impact on the social and cultural life of the neighborhood and beyond. The atrocities of WWI marked an […]
Helen Keller’s connections to New York City and Greenwich Village are numerous but perhaps less well known, as they are largely rooted in her work not as an advocate for the disabled, but in her sometimes controversial work as a suffragette, birth control advocate, antimilitarist, socialist, and an early founder of the American Civil Liberties Union […]
The great modern painter Piet Mondrian was born on this day, March 7th, in 1872. Mondrian (born Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan) is perhaps most closely associated with the De Stijl movement of the 1910’s and 20’s in his native Netherlands, and with ‘mod’ French fashion design of the 1960’s (see Yves Saint Laurent’s iconic Mondrian dresses). But the time and place which […]
On June 28, 1914, in a place far away from Greenwich Village, something happened that changed the world forever. The heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, were assassinated. Of course this act triggered the start of the First World War. Most of Europe was plunged into armed […]
On September 13, 1907, the RMS Lusitania docked at Pier 54 on the Greenwich Village waterfront following its maiden transatlantic voyage. Pier 54, located at West 13th Streets, was the New York home for Cunard Line, a British shipping company. The Lusitania docked safely that day, but eight years later the ship was sunk by a German U-boat […]
Off the Grid will be going, well, off the grid for the holiday weekend. While we’ll be celebrating the last days of summer, we must note that this Monday not only marks Labor Day, but the 50th anniversary of the passing of quintessential Village poet ee cummings. To do so, we are re-posting our salute […]
Ever since Ralph Lee staged the first annual Halloween parade in the courtyard of Westbeth in 1973, October 31st has been a day of heavy reveling in Greenwich Village. But that’s been covered. And anyway, today is Veteran’s Day, not Halloween, so what’s the connection? Well, fifty-two years prior to Lee’s first parade, on the […]
