Recent times have reminded us that the free press is a fragile institution. The publishing history in our neighborhoods reminds us that it is also an indispensable one. Our neighborhoods have long exerted a magnetic pull on independent spirits and malcontents. It should come as no surprise that many of them exercised their freedom of […]
Malcolm X was a leading Black Muslim minister known for his militant approach to the Civil Rights movement. While one might not immediately associate him with Greenwich Village, some pivotal events in the neighborhood were instrumental in shaping his legacy. Born on May 19, 1925, Malcolm Little joined the Nation of Islam in prison following […]
Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) is one of the most well-known New York Abstract Expressionist painters. Born and raised in Chicago, Mitchell moved to New York City in 1949 after graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago and completing a fellowship in France. Naturally, she settled in Greenwich Village and the […]
Grove Press, arguably the 20th century’s “most explosive and influential publishing house,” profoundly shaped and transformed American literature from a number of buildings throughout our proposed South of Union Square Historic District. Grove Press is associated with a number of buildings in this area: four extant buildings, 80 University Place, 52 East 11th Street, 841 […]
Our South of Union Square map offers an interactive look into this area of Greenwich Village and the East Village that is so rich in history, but also so lacking in needed landmark protections. The platform has information on the 200 buildings within the area as well as over forty themed tours that focus on […]
Our interactive tool “Virtual Village” brings users on unique and unexpected journeys.
Our neighborhoods are not only places where great literature was written. It’s also where great literature was published, sometimes at great legal peril, and where tectonic-shifting battles against censorship were led and won. Nowhere is that more true than in the area South of Union Square, where art, commerce, and activism collided. And perhaps no […]
Irish American figures defined the blocks where Greenwich Village meets the East Village.
The area south of Union Square, on the border between Greenwich Village and the East Village, is changing. The approval of the new 14th Street Tech Hub south of Union Square combined with an explosion of tech-related development in the area has resulted in the demolition of mid-19th-century hotels and Beaux-Arts style tenements, with new office towers like 809 Broadway taking […]
Greenwich Village has long been associated with the arts and countercultural movements. Former publishing house Grove Press in particular exemplifies this history. Founded in 1947 and named for its location on Grove Street in Greenwich Village, Grove Press rose to prominence after it was purchased by Barney Rosset Jr. in 1951. Though the original location is not […]
