Self-Guided Walking Tour of Greenwich Village

Bryson had the day off from school, so I put together a walking tour of our neighborhood, Greenwich and West Village. Logging the details here - for friends and family when they visit.

Note - if you ever want to do a guided walking tour, there are Free Tours offer by Free Tours on Foot. They have free tours throughout the country. Here is the link for Free Tours in NY.

Length:

• This tour itinerary below takes about 3 hours (with a quick breakfast stop).

How to get to the Start:

• Take the 4/5/6, N/Q/R, L to Union Square. Then head to University Place and go south to 10th Street and University.

Greenwich Village Overview

• The Village is considered to be the Bohemian capital of the world, popular with artists and musicians. It has cafes, bars and restaurants, jazz clubs and Off-Broadway theaters amid the brownstones. Rich, poor, and bohemians all have shared Greenwich Village’s picturesque, winding streets, infusing the neighborhood with dynamic energy.
• On a snowy night in 1917, a ragtag band of artists, poets, and actors occupied the top of Washington Arch to declare the “Free and Independent Republic of Greenwich Village!" That attempt to “secede,” of course, speaks to the fact that “The Village” has long been a world unto itself… with its own mores and manners. 
• Historically, the neighborhood of Greenwich Village included what’s now often separately referred to as the “West Village”… so we’ve done the same here!

History of Greenwich Village

• Back in the 1660s, British settlers joined Dutch farmers in a pastoral hamlet 1.5 miles north of the city; they called it “Grin’wich,” for Green Village. When outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera in the early 19th century sent city dwellers fleeing “to the country,” the village’s population soared.
• By the 1870s, the bucolic enclave for wealthy New Yorkers was filling with poor Irish and Italian immigrants seeking work in the quarter’s warehouses, factories, and sweatshops.
• At the dawn of the 20th century, a bohemian community of artists and activists moved in—advocating radical ideas like women’s suffrage, anarchy, and free love.
• A few famous counterculture figures of the 1950s and '60s: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, James Baldwin, Bob Dylan
• During Prohibition, the “anything goes” neighborhood was teeming with speakeasies, taverns, and jazz clubs. The liberal climate and cheap rents made the Village a refuge for artists, Beatniks, Hippies, and the gay community. 

The Albert, 23 East 10th Street

• To kick us off, as a fun example of the history of the Village, let’s start with our apartment building, the Albert. The Albert used to be the Albert Hotel. For decades, the hotel occupied a vibrant, iconic place in the cultural life of the Village and was listed on the U.S.’s National Register of Historic Places in June 2012.
• From its opening in 1887, the Albert was home, hotel and hang-out for generations of artists, activists, writers, poets and musicians.
• “Meet me in the bar at the Albert Hotel,” Jimmy Stewart instructs Raymond Burr in Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller, Rear Window. Mark Twain lectured at the Albert. Anaïs Nin was a guest. Jackson Pollack visited, as did Andy Warhol. The Mamas & The Papas wrote California Dreamin’ in the Albert. Other artists include: Salvador Dali, Philip Guston, Jackson Pollock, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Augustus St. Gaudens, and Andy Warhol. Walt Whitman also visited.

Walk down University Ave. Between 8th Street and Washington Square North on your right (or west), you'll find the small cobblestone street, private alley called the Washington Mews.

Washington Mews, 15 Washington Mews

• Closed by two gates at both ends and lined on each side with vine-covered two-story houses, the Mews seems to have been transported into the modern city from another age. 
• The place actually has a long historical legacy since it housed the stables servicing the wealthy 19th-century elite's Greek revival rowhouses on Washington Square North. The small homes on the north side were once stables for The Row, while those on the south were built much later (1930s), in former backyard plots.
• In the early 20th century, the stables were converted into carriage houses where a number of artists kept studios. Sculptor Paul Manship rented both 42 (today NYU’s Deutsches Haus) and 44. In 1933, sculptor Gaston Lachaise moved into the studio at No. 42. Also during the 1930s, sculptor Heinz Warneke worked at No. 12 (formerly No. 5). In the 1950s, much of the street was taken over by NYU.
• For the last seven decades, however, the converted staples have been used as private residences, offices, and NYU facilities. 

Continue south on University for a block to Washington Square Park North. Make a right.

Washington Square North (north side of the Park)

• 1-13 Washington Square North was constructed in the 1830s and later became known as “The Row.” 
• The Trustees of Sailors’ Snug Harbor built The Row with the intention of supporting retired sailors through profits from leasing to wealthy bankers and merchants. 
• These thirteen townhouses (only twelve remain) were designed in a Greek Revival Style. There is a distinct uniformity among the townhouses, which are marked by twelve foot deep front yards, white marble stairs leading to classical-style columns flanking each entrance, and a block-long, original iron fence adorned with Greek anthemions, lyres, and obelisks. 
• Famous residents of the Row have included Alexander Hamilton, Edith Wharton, Edward Hopper, and John Dos Passos (he wrote Manhattan Transfer at #3). Henry James’ novel Washington Square is set on the Row.
• Washington Square soon became one of the most coveted addresses in New York City. The Greenwich Village Historic District Designation Report dubs Washington Square North “the most important and imposing block front of early Nineteenth Century town houses in the City.”

Continue east on Washington Square North until you see the Washington Square Park Arch.

Washington Square Park

• The heart of the Village, this park serves as a gathering place for neighbors, students, artists, canines (with their obedient walkers), serious chess players, and street performers.
• Washington Square Park was initially a marshy plot of land, but in 1797 it was drained and turned into a potter’s field for the burial of paupers, criminals, and victims of cholera and yellow fever. It was originally a gruesome gathering spot (in fact, it was a hanging grounds and Potter’s Field).
• In 1826, after its transformation into an elegant park and public square, the surrounding streets became a popular residential area for New York’s wealthy. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw Greenwich Village develop into a bohemian center attracting artists and intellectuals of all kinds.
• The grandiose Washington Arch was erected in 1892, replacing an earlier plaster and wood arch that commemorated the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration (which happened in New York City!). Inspired by Paris’ Arch de Triomphe, Stanford White designed the 77-foot marble arch; the north face features the statues “Washington at War” and “Washington at Peace” to commemorate the centenary of George Washington’s 1789 inauguration. Originally built as a temporary arch for a parade, it was re-constructed in 1895 as a permanent structure in the park. 
• Since then the arch has hosted numerous marches and parades, and its beauty and grandeur have been celebrated by many artists. In 1917, Gertrude Drick, a former student of John Sloan’s, discovered an unlocked door at the base of the arch, which led to a staircase that led to the roof. Joined by Marcel Duchamp, Sloan, and three actors, Drick staged a midnight picnic on the roof, which was followed by the six “revolutionaries” reciting a Declaration of Independence proclaiming Greenwich Village to be the Free and Independent Republic of Washington Square.
• Surrounding the square, meanwhile, is the ever-expanding campus of New York University (look for the purple and white signs and banners), one of the largest private universities in the nation.
• The ornate Romanesque Judson Memorial Church is at Washington Square South

After exploring the park, walk back to the Arch. This is 5th Ave. Walk north.

1 Fifth Avenue 

• 1 Fifth Ave was among the first apartment skyscrapers in New York. Opening on New Year’s Day in 1928, it originally had 196 apartments. Designed by the architects Helme & Corbett and Sugarman & Berger, it loomed with imposing verticality over Washington Square, demanding attention. 
• To meet zoning requirements, the apartments that lacked kitchens instead had “pantries,” and the building included a cafeteria on the ground floor. Twenty-seven stories high, the Art Deco skyscraper contains elements of illusionistic architecture, as its flat brick façade appears three-dimensional due to false shadow detailing. “A striking symbol of modernity, [1 Fifth Avenue] soared sixteen stories above the ground and then receded and soared again for eleven stories with many setbacks, providing multiple roof terraces, and was topped by a tower belching smoke from boilers far below and illuminated at night by searchlights.”

Continuing up Fifth Avenue, you’ll get to 8th Street. Make a left.

8th Street

• Once the “Main Street of Bohemia”—and filled with cafes, galleries, clubs, and head shops. The original Whitney Museum was founded here, and for two decades fans flocked to the 8th St. Playhouse (sadly, now closed) to take part in the cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

Electric Lady Studios 52 W. 8th St. bet. 5th & 6th Aves. 

• One survivor from the street’s glory days is Electric Lady Studios (#52), the recording studio built by Jimi Hendrix where the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, and The Clash all have recorded.
• This world-class recording studio was commissioned by Jimi Hendrix and his desire to have a studio with both a mellow atmosphere and state-of-the-art equipment.
• Tragically, Hendrix spent only two and a half months recording at the Electric Lady Studios in the summer of 1970.
• On September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills.
• Among the musicians who have recorded here are the Rolling Stones, The Clash, and David Bowie, whose final album before his death, Black Star, was made here.

Double back on 8th St back on 5th Ave. Walk north.

5th Ave between 8th and 9th

• This stretch of Fifth Avenue was once lined with elegant mansions, lavish hotels, and churches. While the churches have survived (Church of the Ascension and First Presbyterian), most other structures were replaced by apartment buildings in the early 20th century
• 11 Fifth Avenue also marks the site where Mark Twain lived in 1904–8. Clad in his trademark white flannel suit, he was often seen in Washington Square Park, sometimes conversing on benches provided by Boss Tweed—an ironic twist since Twain satirizes Tweed in his novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873).

Church of the Ascension, 10th Street and 5th Ave

• This Episcopal church of New York’s elites in the 1900s, is a National Historic Landmark and a New York City Landmark. Founded in 1827, the congregation moved to its current location after its previous church, located on Canal Street near Broadway, burned down in a fire in 1839. 
• The new, Gothic-style building, consecrated in 1841, is an early design by the English-born architect Richard Upjohn, who also worked on other New York projects, including Trinity Church, Wall Street, and Christ Church, Brooklyn—both similar in design to the Church of the Ascension.
• Between 1885 and 1889, the church’s interior was remodeled by McKim, Mead and White—then the leading American architectural firm—under the direction of Stanford White (the same architect for the Washington Arch). 
• The interior we see today is the product of this renovation, which involved collaborative work by many great artists. The sculpted angels over the main altar are by Louis Saint-Gaudens, brother of Augutus Saint- Gaudens and an important American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation; the main altar along with the two angels in mosaic are by D. Maitland Armstrong, a prominent stained-glass artist and painter; and the mural over the altar and four of the stained glass windows are by John La Farge. Two paintings by Edwin H. Blashfield hang in the rear of the church. This church is a National Historic Landmark and a New York City Landmark.

Turn left onto 10th Street. 

10th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues

• The block of W. 10th St. between Fifth and Sixth Avenues is one of the village’s most beautiful, lined with elegant townhouses in a variety of styles, including English Terrace Row homes with cast-iron communal balconies on the street’s south side. 
• At 7 E. 10th St., you’ll find the Lockwood De Forest House. De Forest shipped the ornately-carved teak bay and trim intact from India. 
• Mark Twain briefly lived at 14 W. 10th St in the 1850s. This circa-1850s brownstone house is one of the spookiest houses in New York City. It may look pretty on the outside but legend has it that some of the spirits of the 22 deaths that have occurred here have not left the premises. Even though he died in Connecticut, one resident reported seeing a specter resembling Twain.
• 28 West Tenth Street is where Marcel Duchamp lived during the 1960s. He and Man Ray played chess at the Marshall Chess Club, which still stands across the street at No. 23. 

Continue to Sixth Avenue and turn right. Walk one block north to the corner of West Eleventh Street and Sixth Avenue.

West Eleventh Street and Sixth Avenue

• West Eleventh Street and Sixth Avenue is the site of the Old Grapevine Tavern, built in 1830 on the southeast corner. A roadhouse and informal social club for actors, artists, lawyers, politicians, and later for Union officers and Confederate spies, it was named for its vine-covered façade and its role in supplying Village locals with news. 
• The saying “heard it through the grapevine” is said to originate from this gathering spot. The original building was demolished in 1915 and replaced with a six-story apartment complex.

Turn back down Sixth Avenue. You'll see the library with the clock tower.

Jefferson Market Library, 425 Avenue of the Americas, Corner of 6th Ave. and West 10th St.

• The garden was once the site of a bustling outdoor market. In 1833, it was the location of a country market fitted with a wooden fire watchtower and a bell weighing 9,000 pounds. Fishermen, hucksters, and poulterers populated it. 
• The market was then erased to create the Victorian Gothic style building in 1877 as the Jefferson Market Courthouse, with an adjoining prison and market, by architects Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux (of Central Park fame). 
• The first and second floor reading rooms were courtrooms where famous cases were tried—including Harry K.Thaw’s murder of Stanford White, and of strikers from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (two years before the fire that took many of their lives).
• In a 1885 national architectural poll, the High Victorian Gothic-style building was voted among the 10 most beautiful in the U.S. with a 172-foot clock tower.
• By 1927, the courts were devoted entirely to women’s trials. The women prisoners were held in the basement, and for one night, it housed actress Mae West when her stage act became too bawdy and she was arrested.
• In 1929, the market and the prison were torn down and replaced by the enormous, bland Women’s House of Detention, no longer extant.
• By 1945 the building was out of use, but it was brought back to life in 1967 and reopened as a New York Public Library branch.
• The building is now both a New York City Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places,
• If you're looking for a lush retreat, ask for directions to the library garden – a little bastion of greenery that can be enjoyed by everyone. With just a bit of forward planning, it can be the perfect spot for a self-catered lunch, coffee, or reading on a bench.

Patchin Place, West 10th between 6th and Greenwich Aves

• Behind the Library (on W. 10th St. between Sixth and Greenwich Aves.) is Patchin Place, a private cul-de-sac with 10 brick row houses, built in 1848.  
• Many writers and artists have lived there, including Theodore Dreiser, e.e cummings, and Marlon Brando.

Walk one block south down Greenwich Ave. and walk north east to follow this street to 7th Avenue

New York City Aids Memorial, 76 Greenwich Ave

• The New York City AIDS Memorial honors the more than 100,000 New Yorkers who have died of AIDS and acknowledges the contributions of caregivers and activists who mobilized to provide care for the ill, fight discrimination, lobby for medical research, and alter the drug approval process.
• The Memorial aims to inspire visitors to remember and reflect as well as empower current and future activists, health professionals, and people living with HIV in the continuing mission to eradicate the disease through the maintenance of our permanent, architecturally significant Memorial as well as through educational and cultural programming.

Keep walking north east on Greenwich Ave. Make a right on 13th Street 

Keith Haring Bathroom Mural, LGBT Center, 208 West 13th Street

• We have heard of drawing on bathroom walls, but this project takes it to a whole new level.
• The Keith Haring’s Bathroom Mural is an homage to the LGBTQ community.
• The creator, American artist Keith Haring, worked on this project back in 1989 before passing on in 1990 due to HIV complications.
• It was a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and can be found in the 2nd floor men’s bathroom at ‘The Centre’. 
• The mural was put up for auction for a whopping $2.5million – it is safe to say it is the most valuable bathroom in the world. Visitors can still marvel at the artwork for free!
• Note: This is not a PG-13 art presentation. You might want to look up photos online if you have kiddos before bringing them.

Double back on 13th Street. Make a left on Horatio, then a quick left on 8th Ave. Then a right on Hane Street.

Bayard Mansion, 82 Jane Street

• After Alexander Hamilton's fatal duel with Aaron Burr in Weehawken, New Jersey on July 11, 1804. Hamilton spent his final hours at the home of his friend William Bayard, director of the Bank of New York. 
• He received visits from friends and relatives before dying on July 12.

Double back on Jane Street to 8th Ave and make a right.

Le Bonbonnerie, 28 8th Ave

• Looking for a good brunch spot? There are lots of fancy and delicious spots in the Village, and amazingly Le Bonbonnerie is on the list too even though it's not fancy.
• If you want a low-key, quality, and affordable option, Le Bonbonnerie might be a spot for you
• Bryson had the french toast, and I had the veggie omelet. Yum!
• Quick note that this is cash only.

Keep going south on 8th Ave and make a left on Bleecker Street to Magnolia's.

Magnolia's Bakery, 401 Bleecker St, New York, NY

• Before I moved to the Village, I would trek 30 minutes just to get their cupcakes and banana creme pudding. This is the bakery that launched NYC's cupcake trend!

If you're less into sweets and more into liquids, you can check out the White Horse Tavern. Go east on West 11th Street one block to Hudson.

White Horse Tavern, 567 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014

• You won’t want to drink 18 straight whiskeys as poet Dylan Thomas did, but stop in for an afternoon repast and visit the tavern’s historical past dating back to the 1880s. 

Get back to Bleecker from Magnolia. Keep going south on Bleecker one block and make a left on Perry.

Carrie Bradshaw’s Apartment, 64 Perry St.

• This is where Carrie lived in the tv series “Sex & The City” with Sarah Jessica Parker playing Carrie Bradshaw.
• This is the apartment used by Carrie, located in a beautiful street that fills up with orange and red colours in the Fall Season.

If you're in the mood for falafel, the best falafel in NYC (according to this review) is at Taim, a block from this apartment. Go east on Perry for a block, make a left (go north) on Waverly

Taïm, 222 Waverly Pl (btwn Perry & W 11th St)

Double back to Bleecker Street and go south on Bleecker

Bleecker Street

• Bleecker is most famous today as a Greenwich Village shopping and nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was once a major center for American bohemia. 

• The street is named after the family name of Anthony Lispenard Bleecker, a banker, the father of Anthony Bleecker, a 19th-century writer, through whose family farm the street ran.This is the central street of Greenwich with cafes, bars and restaurants left and right.

Continue walking on Bleecker, make a left on Christopher Street, and walk across 7th Avenue to Christopher Park

Gay Liberation Monument, Christopher Park, 204 West 4th

• On the corner of Bleecker and 7th, you'll find the triangular Christopher Park, the historic center of New York’s gay community.
• George Segal’s life-sized bronze sculpture (painted white) of two same-sex couples is titled “Gay Liberation.” They have posed for pictures since their unveiling in 1992, joined by two monuments to Civil War heroes.
• Though newer LGBT generations have taken their business to places like Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, and parts of Brooklyn these days, Christopher Street continues to be the symbolic heart of NYC's lesbian and gay community, having played host to an influential and sexually permissive bohemian scene.

Next to Christopher Park is Stonewall Inn

Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher St.

• In the 1960s, at a time it was still dangerous to be openly gay, the Stonewall Inn was one of the very few bars that were ‘safe’ for gay patrons.
• This was the location of the Stonewall Riots, the watershed event that sparked the Gay Rights Movement. The Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher is not the original bar—although it’s the same spot. Here, among the cafés, leather and adult shops, is the site of the formerly Mafia-run Stonewall Inn (now a gay-pride-flag-waving karaoke bar with the same name) and of the eventual Stonewall Riots of 1969 – a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations described as "one of the most, if not the most, pivotal event leading to the liberation of queer rights". 
• On June 28, 1969, tensions between the police and the gay community resulted in a riot that went on for three nights.
• This was a breakthrough moment in the Gay Civil Rights Movement and one year later, on June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride Parade in New York was held.

At the east end of Christopher Street Park. Make a right and head down Waverly. 

Edgar Allan Poe's Home, 137 Waverly Place 

• This is where Edgar Allan Poe lived between 1844 and 1846. 
• During that time, he was editing articles for the New York Evening Mirror. In 1845 Poe published his best-known poem, The Raven. 
• After becoming a literary sensation, he moved to a country farmhouse located near what is now Broadway and 84th Street—now also known as Edgar Allan Poe Street.
• Interestingly, Waverly Place was originally named Sixth Street—but in 1833 New Yorkers, wishing to honor Sir Walter Scott after his death, petitioned to change the street’s name to Waverly Place in honor of his novel Waverley.

Double back on Waverly and find Gay Street to your right

Gay Street

• This small, curving street used to be a stable alley. Once home to African-American servants, it later became a haunt for Jazz musicians.
• These streets are a great example of the tangle of West Village streets. When Manhattan adopted a street grid, villagers fought hard to maintain their familiar labyrinth of streets (many following original property lines), explaining the confusion here!

Continue to the corner of Christopher St. and Waverly Place, where you’ll find the triangular Northern Dispensary. 

Northen Dispensary, 165 Waverly

• Built in 1831, it provided health care to indigent Villagers (among them Edgar Allen Poe).

Double back to the Stonewall, cross 7th Ave on Grove Street to Marie's Crisis Cafe

• Albeit very short, covering a span of only five blocks, Grove Street retains a rustic, old-world, greener feel, complemented by some of the most quintessential bistros, restaurants and cafés in Greenwich Village.

Marie’s Crisis Cafe, 59 Grove St. bet. 7th Ave. and Bleecker St.

• At No. 59, MARIE'S CRISIS (partly named after Thomas Paine's masterful essay, "The American Crisis") has been around forever and is definitely a good place for both locals and tourists, who will be made most welcome. Characterful, totally NYC, and inexpensive, this piano bar offers a wonderful chance to belt out show tunes – old and new – with the resident pianist. The crowd itself mostly consists of Broadway artists who want to chill off doing what they know to do best: sing!
• If you love a drink and musical theatre, you will feel right at home. This is a dim basement cafe known for its piano sing-along shows. It is originally considered a gay bar, but everyone is welcome. An interesting thing you will notice is that the waiters also double up as the solo performers.
• The owner, Marie DuMont, named it after Thomas Paine’s masterpiece, American Crisis.

• Across the Street is Arthur’s Tavern, where you can see rhythm & blues, Dixieland jazz & more inside a circa-1937 tavern.

Bedford Street

• Grove St intersects Bedford St, one of the oldest Greenwich Village byways. 

Friends Apartment, 90 Bedford St at the corner of Grove St.

• You won’t find Central Perk on the ground level of this six-story apartment building. Six best friends graced our screens for 10 seasons and gave us some of the most memorable tv moments and quotes.
• Right on the corner (above the Little Owl) you will always see a flock of people taking pictures of the building that served as the exterior for Monica's apartment in "Friends" 
• Ironically, Friends was not actually filmed inside the apartment block. The TV sitcom was shot entirely in L.A.'s Warner Bros studios. Only the exterior was used for the TV series. Every episode had a stunning shot of the tan brick building.

• It’s impossible to believe that an oft-unemployed actor, a barista, a masseuse, and a graduate student all lived in this impossibly expensive part of town, but that’s Hollywood for you.  

Keep going on Grove Street to 17 Grove Street

17 Grove Street

• The gated entry between #10 and #12 Grove Street bet. Bedford and Hudson Sts. Peek in the gates at this narrow entryway to one of the Village’s best-kept secrets.
• Between 10 and 12 Grove St. is Grove Court (1853), a quaint private enclave built as homes for workmen. The brick row houses at the back of the courtyard were originally built in 1854 to house workers at a nearby factory.
• Next door are four well-preserved 1834 Federal Houses (numbers 10 to 4).
• The 1822 wooden frame house – one of the most complete such in the city – at 17 Grove Street.
• They weren’t so pretty back then. Now, houses in this quiet enclave cost over $2 million.

Keep going on Grove Street to Hudson Street. Make a left on Hudson Street. At the corner of Hudson and Barrow is an entrance to the garden.

St Luke in the Fields Garden, 487 Hudson Street

• New York City is undoubtedly one of the busiest cities in the world.
• You will not think for a minute that there is a green oasis where you can take a walk and collect your thoughts.
• St Luke in the Fields Garden is one such place among the chaos of NYC.

Go east on Barrow, which changes to Commerce Street

Cherry Lane Theater, 38 Commerce Street

• “It still remains a Greenwich Village paradox that the smallest stage in town is asked to accommodate no end of enthusiastic performers." (The New York Times, Dec 1930)

• This theater is New York's longest continually running Off-Broadway theater. This 180-seat Off-Broadway theater was started in 1924 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and gained its fame for putting on ‘ahead-of-its-time’ plays.

• Mission: In keeping with Cherry Lane's groundbreaking history, to provide a safe experimental space for artists and audiences to explore the boundaries of storytelling.  

• Core Values: Serving women theater makers, artists of color, artists over 60 and homeless theater companies.

Keep going on Commerce. Make a left on Bedford.

Former site of C.I.A. covert LSD experiments, 81 Bedford St.

• In the Cold War era, the CIA attempted to create a “truth serum” to use on captured spies. C.I.A. scientists began experimenting in CIA labs with the hallucinogenic LSD.
• As the program, called MK-Ultra, grew and so an apartment at this building was leased and used to observe experiment participants under the influence of LSD.
• This program and any similar programs were stopped in 1966. A Netflix docu-drama series Wormwood chronicles the MK-ULTRA experiments.

Go north one block on Bedford. Make a right on Barrow Street to 58 Barrow Street

Chumley's, 86 Bedford (58 Barrow Street)

• 86 Bedford is the unheralded entrance to CHUMLEY'S, one of NY's classic Prohibition-era bars (definitely take a peek inside!).
• If you head to 86 Bedford and are wondering why there is no sign for this restaurant, go around the corner to Barrow Street and look for the arched gated entryway that leads into a courtyard. Chumley's is at the back of the courtyard. (Note, that we made this mistake and didn't go to the real Chumley's in this pic.)
• Once a speakeasy that served booze to authors like William Faulkner, Eugene O’Neill, and John Steinbeck, it’s now a restaurant.
• Chumley's is allegedly the birthplace of the professional kitchen term “86” (which means cancel that order). Find out the whacky story behind this on our tour.

Double back to Bedford and make a left so you are headed south

Edna St. Vincent Millay House, Narrowest Building in New York, 75 1/2 Bedford

• Visit the narrowest building in New York, located at 75 1/2 Bedford St.
• Once a freestanding farmhouse, it’s the oldest house in the village (1799). 75½ Bedford is the narrowest building in the city, measuring less than 10 feet wide. It was built on what used to be a carriageway of the home next door.
  
• Sounds like a train station in Harry Potter, doesn’t it?This is a red brick 3-storey building that has been in existence since 1873 but was sold in 2015.
• What makes it a memorable spot, other than its size, is the well-known previous residents.
• Many notable people have lived there over the years including Pulitzer Prize winner Edna St. Vincent Millay, Cary Grant and Margaret Mead.
• If you aren’t already shocked that people would live in such a small home, you will be when you learn how much it cost: its most recent owner in 2011 paid $4.2 million.

Keep going south on Bedford. When you get to Seventh Ave. (again), go down one block and make a right on Leroy Street (which turns into St Luke's Place). 

The Cosby Show House, 10 St. Luke’s Place

• This house was used for the exterior shots of the Huxtables’ brownstone which was, on the show, located at 10 Stigwood Place in Brooklyn Heights.
• No such street exists in Brooklyn Heights!
• I grew up watching this show with my family - here are some clips to bring you back!

After The Cosby Show House, double back on St Luke's Place (which turns into Leroy Street), cross Seventh Avenue until you get to Bleecker. Make a right.

Bleecker Street

• This area was the heart of the Italian immigrant community, and there are still wonderful restaurants and shops like John’s Pizzeria, Faiccio’s butcher, Murray’s Cheese, and Rocco’s Pasticceria.

Rocco’s Pastry Shop, 243 Bleecker St.

• Several generations of Italian families have created delightful pastries and are well known for their cannoli, tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy ricotta cheese filling.
• Bryson and I got the lemon meringue and key lime pie. We think the lemon meringue was pretty good and would pass on the key lime pie next time. I've had the meringue before, and they're good.

Continue east on Bleecker to Murray's.

Murray's Cheese, 254 Bleecker St.

• Foodies love Bleecker for Murray's cheese, offering every kind of temptation associated with cheeses, deli meats, and specialty foods. 

Continue east on Bleecker to Lady of Pompei

Lady of Pompeii, 25 Carmine St. corner of Bleecker St.

• Our Lady of Pompeii, the spiritual hub for neighborhood Italians.
• At the corner of Bleecker and Carmine streets is the unmistakably Renaissance-style church Our Lady of Pompeii where you can witness classical Italian touches everywhere: in the mosaics on the walls, the beautiful paintings on the dome, the elegant altar and the gracious marble floors.
  
• Offering mass in both Italian and English, this beautifully appointed church was built in the early 1900s to serve the large Italian immigrant community that lived in the southern part of Greenwich Village.

Cross Sixth Avenue to your left is Minetta Street, which follows the curve of the brook that still runs beneath. (“Manetta,” the original Native American name, meant “Devil Water!”).

Bleecker between Sixth Ave and West Broadway

• The four blocks of Bleecker between Sixth Ave. and West Broadway were the main stomping ground of the Beatniks, the 60s Folk music revival, and the off-Broadway movement. The street was lined with jazz clubs, coffee houses, and theaters. It’s still a center of nightlife today!
• As you stroll Bleecker, you'll see Village Revival Records, still selling the 70s and 80s records/LPs, an institution in the area. Also look for the old artists’ garrets above #172-176, and the marquee at #159 reading “The Market NYC”; this was once Circle in the Square, an important off-Broadway theater.
• Across the street you’ll see “Mills House No. 1,” above the entrance to #160. This was a hotel and flophouse for poor and working-class men, charging 20 cents a night. Ironically, and in an example of how Greenwich Village has changed, it now houses luxury co-ops! The building also held the famed jazz club, The Village Gate.
• Other notable music venues at hand include Kenny’s Castaways (showcased many famous musicians, including Bruce Springsteen), The Red Lion, the Bitter End (NYC’s oldest rock and roll club), the Terra Blues, which are must-visits for live music lovers. 

Double back on Bleecker and make a right (north) on MacDougal

MacDougal 

• A legendary slice of New York nightlife, MacDougal Street was the dynamic heart of Greenwich cultural life from the 1920s to the '70s, and though it remains clogged with cafés, dives and delicious restaurants (plus interesting record stores), its current patrons are more likely to be students looking for variety, than aspiring artists.
• This block is packed with restaurants, food stands, clubs, and taverns (even a few old-school basement bars!).  
• 189 Bleecker St, on the northwest corner of MacDougal and Bleecker, was the SanRemo Bar, a famous bohemian hangout where William Burroughs, Miles Davis, Tennessee Williams, James Agee and Weegee congregated. It was also a favorite meeting place for the Beat Generation writers Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Joe Gould and their circle who were periodically joined by Abstract Expressionist artists including Pollock, de Kooning and Kline. Nothing remains of this building. The building, however, is immortalized in works by Jack Kerouac in which he describes the bar as, “hip without being slick, intelligent without being corny” in his book The Subterraneans.
• 133 MacDougal is the historic Provincetown Playhouse, a converted stable where Eugene O’Neill premiered many of his greatest plays. 
• Café Wha? (which presented Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Peter, Paul & Mary, and Bill Cosby). Cafe Wha fueled the careers of many individuals in the Beat, Folk, and Rock ‘n‘ Roll generations, Café Wha? is a “must-see” for anyone interested in the Greenwich Village scene of the 1950s, and ’60s.
• Reservation is the key to the COMEDY CELLAR, also. Neither the fare or the drinks are particularly noteworthy, but that's really not why folks go there. A world-renown comedy club with a top-notch show, the venue has a good intimate feel to it, and you never know who could spring up and drop a quick 10-15 minute set. Great talents such as Jerry Seinfeld, Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, or Dave Chapelle come here spontaneously to entertain the crowds. Don't plan on taking photos, recording video or audio.
• Lots of delicious bites here: Artichoke (pizza), Mamoun's (falafel), Saigon Shack (Vietnamese sandwiches), Beatnic (vegan food). Café Reggio (the Village’s oldest coffee house and a hangout for the Beats, including Jack Kerouac). For delicious authentic Indian street food, THE KATI ROLL COMPANY and/or THELEWALA. 
• 113 MacDougal Street is Minetta Tavern, a restaurant that opened in 1937 under its current name but was previously a speakeasy known as The Black Rabbit during Prohibition (starting in 1922, the first issues of the Reader’s Digest were published in its basement). Some of Minetta Tavern’s earliest customers were E.E. Cummings, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kline, Eugene O’Neill, and most infamously the homeless bohemian poet Joe Gould. Here, Beat poet Gregory Corso broke a glass over a man’s hand over an argument about his girlfriend sculptor Marisol Escobar. Today, the Michelin Star rated establishment can be described as “Parisian steakhouse meets classic New York City tavern.”
• 107 MacDougal Street was opened in 1953 as the Rienzi Coffee House. The owners were six artists and writers. The coffee house became a center for the Beat Movement with art exhibitions, music performances, poetry readings, performance art and café theater being held there. Beat poets sought to free poetry from academic preciosity and critique and bring it “back to the streets.” Some notable works to come out of the Beat Generation are Jack Kerouac’s novella Big Sur and Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl.
• Bryson is posing at Cafe Wha... and also in the middle of them filming a movie.

At the corner of West 4th Street, you’ll return to Washington Square Park. Make a right on Washington Square Park South to the Judson Memorial Church

Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Sq S

• Beautiful church to the south of Washington Square Park

Keep walking east on Washington Sq South

New York University Campus

• Most of the buildings surrounding Washington Square Park belong to the university.
• In 1831, NYU was founded as the first public university in New York City.
• It is now a private university with one of the highest tuitions of any university in the country at $56,500 per year in 2022!
• Their School of Law building on the corner of MacDougal Street and Washington Square South is especially lovely. Look for the NYU purple flags everywhere.

Make a left on Washington Square East and go up 1 block north. Make a right on Washington Place.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (Brown Building), 23-29 Washington Pl. bet. Washington Square East & Greene St.

• In 1911, in the sweatshop factory on the top floors of this building, a fire broke out.
• It rapidly spread and within the hour 146 low-paid workers, mostly young immigrant women, were dead.
• Some leaped to their deaths from the windows to escape the blaze.
• The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a turning point in workers’ rights. Laws were enacted and unions formed to protect workers’ safety.

Keep going east on Washington Place. When you get to Broadway, make a Left going north. Go north about 5 blocks until you get to Grace Church.

Grace Church, 802 Broadway

• Grace Church is an historic Episcopal parish church that was for many years the most fashionable in New York City.
• In 1843, James Renwick, Jr., Brevoort’s nephew and a young civil engineer, was appointed architect. He designed the church in the French Gothic Revival style and built it in lath and plaster clad in Sing Sing marble. The church was consecrated in 1846. 
• Some of the elements we see today, including stained glass windows by Henry Holiday and by the famous British stained-glass company Clayton and Bell, as well as the marble steeple designed by Renwick, are later additions. 
• The building is a National Historic Landmark, and the entire complex is a New York City Landmark.

Make a left on 10th Street and head back to the Albert (23 East 10th Street)

Whew! What a fun half-day! Here's our one photo together :)