Escape from New York: The 1822 Yellow Fever Outbreak and the Creation of Greenwich Village with James Nevius

Thursday, August 11th 
6:00pm – 7:15pm ET
Pre-registration is required.

Zoom Webinar.
Registration Fee: $16.00

Join Village Preservation and author and historian James Nevius for a look at another pandemic that profoundly shaped the history and development of our neighborhoods.

The summer of 1822 at first seemed to be typical: it was too hot, the city was too crowded, and the pesky mosquitoes — first introduced by ships from the Caribbean — were biting, as usual. But in August of that year the mosquito annoyance turned into a crisis: a yellow fever outbreak so severe that city was forced into lockdown. Sound familiar?

If you had money and means in 1822, you didn’t escape to Upstate New York — you fled just “up the river” to Greenwich, the quaint village on the banks of the Hudson River. So many people came that summer that not only was the face of the Village forever changed, it grew to such a point that it would become an integral part of the city almost overnight.

James Nevius (He/Him) will lead us through this examination of how modern Greenwich Village was created by the yellow fever outbreak and how we can still see traces of it today. Nevius is the author of a number of books about New York City, including Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City and Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers, both co-written with his wife, Michelle. He is a frequent guest lecturer at Village Preservation.

Date
Thursday, August 11, 2022
Time
6:00 pm
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