History in Asphalt: The Street Patterns of Greenwich Village
A Lecture with Joyce Gold

Manhattan historian Joyce Gold will present an illustrated talk about Greenwich Village and the forces that shaped its pattern of streets.
Village streets can bring even seasoned New Yorkers to their knees. Streets bend, diagonals come out of nowhere, roads stop for no good reason, and thoroughfares change direction. Such intersections as Waverly Place & Waverly Place, and W 4th Street & W 10th Street do little to help.

There are good reasons behind the confusion, but it takes some digging to uncover them. Joyce Gold will explain how topography, natural boundaries, Indian paths, and estate ownership carved the first convoluted pattern of roads. And she will also show the strange result of the city’s insisting upon connecting areas north and south of the Village.