Greenwich
Villages known history dates back to the 16th century, when it was a
marshland called Sapokanikan by Native Americans who camped and fished in the
meandering trout stream known as Minetta Brook. By the 1630s Dutch settlers had
cleared pastures and planted crops in this area, which they referred to as
Noortwyck. Freed African slaves brought here by the Dutch also farmed parcels
of land in this sparsely populated district. After the English conquest of New
Amsterdam in 1664, the settlement evolved into a country hamlet, first
designated Grinwich in 1713 Common Council records. Sir Peter Warren,
Vice-Admiral of the British Navy and commander of its New York fleet, amassed a
vast land tract here in the 1740s, as did Captain Robert Richard
Randall.
Greenwich
Village survived the American Revolution as a pastoral suburb. Commercial
activity after the war was centered near the edge of the Hudson River, where
there were fresh produce markets. In the 1780s the city purchased a parcel of
eight acres for use as a potters field and public gallows, at what is now
Washington Square Park. The comparative seclusion of the area began to erode
when outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera beset the core city in 1799, 1803,
1805, and 1821. Those seeking refuge fled north to the wholesome backwaters of
the West Village, triggering the construction of temporary housing as well as
banking offices. During an especially virulent epidemic in 1822 many who had
intended to remain in the area only temporarily chose instead to settle there
permanently, increasing the population fourfold between 1825 and 1840 and
spurring the development of markets and businesses. Shrewd speculators
subdivided farms, leveled hills, rerouted Minetta Brook, and undertook landfill
projects. Blocks of neat rowhouses built in the prevailing Federal style soon
accommodated middle-class merchants and tradesmen. From 1820 a more affluent
residential development emerged to the east near Broadway. Another fashionable
area developed around Washington Square Park, at the foot of Fifth Avenue. The
potters field was closed in 1826 and transformed successively into a
military parade grounds and a spacious pedestrian commons. On the perimeter of
Washington Square, stately red brick townhouses built in the Greek Revival
style drew wealthy members of society. The crowning addition to this urban
plaza was the triumphal marble arch designed by Stanford White. Erected in 1892
and funded through private subscription, it replaced a temporary portal raised
to commemorate the centenary (1889) of George Washingtons inauguration as
President.
During the
early 19th century new institutions served the spiritual, educational, and
cultural needs of the growing community. Religious denominations commissioned
buildings with elaborate decorative schemes, New York University grew on the
east side of Washington Square from 1836, and the neighborhood soon became the
site of art clubs, private picture galleries, learned societies, literary
salons, and libraries. Fine hotels, shopping emporia, and theaters also
proliferated. The character of the neighborhood changed markedly at the close
of the century when German, Irish, and Italian immigrants found work in the
breweries, warehouses, and coal and lumber yards near the Hudson River and in
the manufacturing lofts in the southeast corner of the neighborhood. Older
residences were subdivided into cheap lodging hotels and multiple-family
dwellings, or demolished for higher-density tenements. Plummeting real estate
values prompted nervous retailers and genteel property owners to move
uptown.
The Village
at the turn of the 20th century was quaintly picturesque and ethnically
diverse. By the start of World War I it was widely known as a bohemian enclave
with secluded side streets, low rents, and a tolerance for radicalism and
nonconformity. Attention became increasingly focused on artists and writers
noted for their boldly innovative work: books and irreverent "little magazines"
were published by small presses, art galleries exhibited the work of the
avant-garde, and experimental theater companies blatantly ignored the financial
considerations of Broadway. A growing awareness of its idiosyncrasies helped to
make Greenwich Village an attraction for tourists. Entrepreneurs provided
amusements ranging from evenings in artists studios to bacchanalian
costume balls. During Prohibition local speakeasies attracted uptown patrons.
Decrepit rowhouses were remodeled into "artistic flats" for the well-to-do, and
in 1926 luxury apartment towers appeared at the northern edge of Washington
Square. The stock market crash of 1929 halted the momentum of new
construction.
During the
1930s, galleries and collectors promoted the cause of contemporary art.
Sculptor Gertrude Whitney Vanderbilt opened a museum dedicated to modern
American art on West 8th Street, now the New York Studio School. The New School
for Social Research, on West 12th Street since the late 1920s, inaugurated the
"University in Exile" in 1934.
The Village
had become the center for the "beat movement" by the 1950s, with galleries
along 8th Street, coffee houses on MacDougal Street, and storefront theaters on
Bleecker Street. "Happenings" and other unorthodox artistic, theatrical and
musical events were staged at the Judson Memorial Church. During the 1960s a
homosexual community formed around Christopher Street; in 1969 a confrontation
by the police culminated in a riot known as the Stonewall Rebellion, regarded
as the beginning of the nationwide movement for gay and lesbian rights.
Greenwich Village became a rallying place for antiwar protesters in the 1970s
and for activity mobilized by the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
The historic
preservation movement in Greenwich Village was begun nearly fifty years ago. In
the 1940s, urban renewal efforts on Washington Square South had altered the
physical character of the neighborhood by demolishing many 19th century
structures. Local resentment of these development initiatives inspired a
preservation movement and helped to defeat a plan by Robert Moses to carve a
roadway through Washington Square. Efforts by preservationists were
strengthened by "downzoning" changes in 1961 and by the designation in 1969 of
a contiguous Greenwich Village Historic District that protected more than 2,035
structures and encompassed one-third of the Village. Currently there is a
movement to protect the waterfront, exempted from earlier landmark designation.
This local preservation initiative is still in progress.
Edited
excerpt from pages 506-509 of The Encyclopedia of New York City edited
by Kenneth T. Jackson, ©1995, Yale University. Reproduced by permission of
Yale University Press. |