Amidst the hustle and bustle of Greenwich Village, where the buzz of traffic and the rush of pedestrians never seem to slow down, finding a peaceful green space is nothing short of an essential. One such oasis, nestled in the heart of our neighborhoods, has stood as a testament to the transformative power of nature […]
The Women’s House of Detention, which once stood where we can now enjoy the beautiful Jefferson Market Garden, was more than just a prison. Opened in 1932, the Art Deco-style building was a prominent, though controversial, landmark in the area for nearly four decades. It was the only women’s prison in Manhattan, housing inmates ranging […]
Greenwich Village, with its cobblestone streets and historic brownstones, stands as a testament to the rich architectural heritage that defines New York City. Among the many architects who left an indelible mark on this iconic neighborhood, Calvert Vaux emerges as a visionary whose designs seamlessly blend with the bohemian spirit of Greenwich Village, including its […]
Many artists have been inspired by the scenes of life in New York City, particularly Lower Manhattan. But perhaps no artist captures the feeling of New York during the hot, heavy days of August like the painter John Sloan. Sloan was one of the leading figures of the “Ashcan School,” a loose collection of artists who […]
Mae West is well known as being one of America’s earliest and biggest Hollywood starlets. But the struggles of her early years trying to make it big in the Big Apple are less well known. Many of those took place in Greenwich Village, to which she often later returned as a star — willingly or […]
The city might at times feel like its on fire during the summer, but there have been times in the past when it has actually been. In the 1970s the Bronx was burning and Lower East Side was also suffering from fires and abandoned buildings. Before that, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire became one of […]
Acclaimed author and journalist Tom Wolfe is known for his use of New Journalism (employing fiction-writing techniques such as sustained dialogue, well-developed characters, and vivid scenes) and for his best-selling books including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987). After earning his Ph.D. in American Studies in 1957 and […]
I have often noticed these old drinking fountains on historic buildings – there is one at the Jefferson Market Library on the corner of 6th Avenue and 10th Street, one at St. Mark’s Church, on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 10th Street, and one at Judson Memorial Church at the corner of Washington Square […]
There are some people who can make great changes, come up with unique and far-reaching ideas, or create institutions that attain legendary status, yet keep a low profile themselves. By now everyone associates Halloween in Greenwich Village with the annual Village Halloween Parade, an event that draws 2 million people to the 6th Avenue corridor […]
Much of the Village Voice from the 1950s to the mid-2000s is available to view online via a Google digitization project. The huge trove of scanned newspapers helps reveal the changes that have occurred over fifty years to the architecture of the neighborhood, to music and culture, to local businesses, to politics, to the concerns […]
GVSHP works to preserve the architectural and cultural heritage of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo in many different ways. Landmark designations and zoning protections, though challenging to secure, can at least ensure the perpetuation of that special physical fabric. But culture, while inevitably intertwined with that physical fabric, is more ephemeral; harder to quantify, and […]
Dawn Powell lived in Greenwich Village and wrote about it as well as or better than anyone. A fiction writer, playwright and essayist who has attained the cult status of “a writer who should be much better known,” Powell was born in Ohio in 1896, made it to New York City as a young adult, […]
On Monday evening I attended the Jefferson Market Garden Friends’ Annual Garden Party. If you are already familiar with the Jefferson Market Garden (a 1991 Village Award winner), there’s no need for me to tell you what a wonderful place this is. If you are not, then allow me to tell you a story about […]
