Suffrage’s Legacy in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and Noho
On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, forever changing the course of American history by prohibiting voting discrimination based on gender. This monumental achievement wasn’t officially certified until August 26th, when U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation. That’s why every year on August 26th, we celebrate National Women’s Equality Day, honoring the courageous and dedicated suffragists who tirelessly fought for this cause.
Village Preservation’s Women’s Suffrage History Map highlights sites in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and Noho which played key roles in the suffrage movement. Today we will take a look at a few of these 25 sites that altered the history of feminism forever, focusing on those where women joined together in organizations or to otherwise take collective action to advance suffrage and women’s equality. Explore the full map to see even more sites, including the homes of leading women suffragists, the men who made significant contributions to the women’s suffrage movement, and more.
The Heterodoxy Club: 137 Macdougal Street
The Heterodoxy Club was a feminist debate group that allowed women to discuss, learn, and debate freely, and was known for providing a home to the more radical wing of the then-growing suffragist movement. It was founded in 1912 by Marie Jenney Howe (1870-1954), a Unitarian minister, who specified only one requirement for membership: that the applicant “not be orthodox in her opinion.”
The meetings first started as lunch gatherings at Polly’s restaurant (135 Macdougal Street), formalizing over time to include more structured conversations and guest speaker sessions. The group included many recognizable names from feminist movements, including Crystal Eastman, the distinguished suffragist and eventual co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Inez Milholland, women’s rights activist and labor lawyer, and Susan Glaspell, a founder of modern American Drama.
During World War I, the Heterodoxy Club was closely monitored by authorities for potentially seditious activities and had to move locations for each meeting. Marie Jenney Howe was taken into custody by the Secret Service in 1919 for questioning about her radical political actions. In 1940, the building housing the Heterodoxy Club was combined with adjacent buildings housing the affiliated Provincetown Playhouse, Washington Square Bookstore, the Liberal Club, and Polly’s Restaurant to become the Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments. That building was demolished in 2008 by NYU to make way for its Wilf Hall, now located on the site.
Women’s Suffrage Parade of 1915: Fifth Ave – Starting at Washington Square Arch
One of the largest marches in the history of the suffrage movement began at Washington Square Arch on October 23, 1915. The Women’s Suffrage Parade had over 25,000 participants marching on Fifth Avenue from Washington Square Park to 59th Street.
The New York Times described the March at the time as “The latest, biggest and most enthusiastic of suffrage parades, and the one which, according to the leaders of the suffrage forces, will be the last ever needed to plead their cause in New York. They marched up Fifth Avenue from Washington Square to Fifth-Ninth Street yesterday afternoon, blazoned the whole city with the yellow of its banners, and brought out what seemed to be the larger part of the population of Manhattan to look at them.”
Mother Zion AME Church: 215 West 10th Street
Mother Zion AME Church, located at 215 West 10th Street between 1864 and 1904, was a spiritual home for three great 19th-century African-American abolitionists and civil rights leaders. Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), Harriet Tubman (1822-1915), and Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) all worshipped at Mother Zion AME at some point and were also all known as dedicated proponents of the women’s suffrage movement.
Mother Zion was the first black church established in New York City, known nationally as “the Freedom Church” for its role as part of the Underground Railroad and in leading abolition and civil rights efforts for African Americans.
Women’s Trade Union League: 210-214 East 5th Street
On July 14, 1907, the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) formally endorsed the women’s suffrage movement, marking a considerable victory and advance for the cause. The WTUL (1905-1950) was an American organization of both working-class and wealthier women, founded to support the efforts of women in organizing labor unions and eliminating sweatshop conditions.
The WTUL played a key role in supporting the massive strikes in the first two decades of the twentieth century that established the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
New York City Woman Suffrage League: 10 East 14th Street
In 1894, the New York City Woman Suffrage League found a home at 10 East 14th Street. This was a significant time in the women’s suffrage movement in New York, and it was here that the Constitutional Amendment Campaign was launched by its leaders to change the New York State Constitution to give women the right to vote.
The New York State Woman Suffrage Association and the New York City Woman Suffrage League were at the forefront of the women’s suffrage movement in New York. Lillie Devereux Blake, while still leading the state organization, became the president of the city organization in 1886. New York held constitutional conventions every twenty years, and New York suffragists, under Blake’s leadership, saw them as an opportunity to secure women the vote with the hope that such an action would influence other states to follow suit. Though New York rejected women’s suffrage amendments to its constitution and in a popular referendum, the State finally enfranchised women in 1917.
To learn more about these and other sites critical to the history of women’s suffrage, check out our Women’s Suffrage History Map. For more information on the suffrage and abolitionist movements, check out our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map.