History of Greenwich Village Walking Tour

Entries on This Tour

The Minetta Tavern was established in 1937 by Eddie Silieri, who became known as Eddie Minetta, taking his name from the tavern that in turn borrowed its title from the stream that ran through the area. Founded at the height of the prohibition era, The Minetta Tavern became a popular speakeasy for many literary legends, most notably Joe Gould, who frequented the pub so often that he was said to receive his mail there. With perhaps a similar taste for pubs, authors Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Eugene O'Neill, E.E. Cummings, and Dylan Thomas visited the bar to unwind and socialize. Today, The Minetta Tavern retains much of its history, as much of the original design remains, serving to transport patrons back to a time when the world's greatest authors congregated here and wrote their masterpieces.

2. Caffé Reggio

In 1927, a barber named Dominic Parisi opened Caffé Reggio at 119 McDougal Street in Greenwich Village. At its conception, it was actually a spot where Parisi would offer free cups of coffee to his customers who were waiting their turn for a haircut. Soon, however, the delicious brewed drinks became so popular that Parisi decided to open it as an official café. This café was the first in America to serve the cappuccino when Parisi brought his espresso machine over from Italy.

3. Tony Pastor’s Downtown (1939-1967) Gay Community Center (1970-1971)

From 1939 until the New York State Liquor Authority revoked its license, this was the location of a bar that earned a reputation as serving all patrons, including gay and lesbian residents of the community. The bar was raided by police in 1944 for serving gay customers in violation of the era's "morals laws." Although the bar owner was ordered to close for good, he continued to operate and given the bar's mob backing, the police generally looked the other way. The bar was raided again in the 1950s and 1960s and closed in 1967. In 1970, Gay Liberation Front operated the Gay Community Center at the site of the former bar.

4. Site of Eve Adams' Tearoom (1925-1926)

From just 1925 to 1926, a Polish immigrant, Chawe Zlocsewer, made history by operating what was perhaps the first lesbian bar in New York City. Known as Eve Adams' Tearoom (or Eve Adams' Hangout). The basement bar, popular as an after-theater club, made no secret of its clientele. Because it was openly a lesbian bar, Eve Adams' Tearoom was targeted by police and Adams (as Zlocsewer was known) was convicted on obscenity charges and eventually deported.

5. Former Location of Provincetown Playhouse

The Provincetown Players originated in 1915 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, but they are far more well-known for the Greenwich Village theater that bears their name. The theater opened in 1916 and is considered by many to be one of the most significant sites in the history of American drama. Eugene O’Neill, the only American playwright to win a Nobel Prize for literature, was closely associated with the theater, with several of his early plays being produced there. NYU acquired the property and demolished most of the building in 2008, although a theater with the Provincetown name remains at 133 MacDougal.

6. Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village

Constructed between 1833 and 1834, this is the oldest building constructed for the purpose of providing a space for Roman Catholic congregants to worship in New York. The parish is today known for providing a welcoming place for LGBTQIA Catholics and in 1982, it became one of the first Catholic churches to allow a gay-rights organization to use its sanctuary as a meeting space. From that time to the present, the Gay Officers Action League has met at the Church of St. Joseph.

7. Anne Charlotte Lynch's House

The home of Anne Charlotte Lynch served as a gathering place for many up and coming authors residing in New York during the mid 1800s. Every Saturday evening, Lynch welcomed guests such as Edgar Allen Poe, Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and more. At these meetings, it was said that authors would exchange ideas, reflect on their work, and at times, share certain excerpts with their fellow authors. In addition to being a sculptor and hostess, Lynch was also an author herself, though she is most famous for hosting these meetings. She is credited with founding the modern book club in New York.

8. Washington Square Hotel (formerly the Hotel Earle)

Manhattan is full of hotels with storied and colorful histories, but few can match the long and legendary history of the Washington Square Hotel which has operated at this location since the first years of the 20th century. Known for much of its history as the Hotel Earle, the property has played host to some of the twentieth century's most illustrious names in music and literature including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Bo Didley. Located just steps from Washington Square Park in the heart of Greenwich Village, the hotel was a welcoming and affordable temporary home for the Village's bohemian denizens.

9. Former "Little Review" Office

On the upper floor of a nondescript building in Greenwich Village, literary history was made. From 1914 to 1929, the top floor apartment was home to Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, who published the modernist literary journal, the Little Review. The journal published many of the most influential writers of the day, including Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot. But the Little Review is most remembered for its serialized publication of James Joyce's Ulysses, which was considered obscene at the time.

10. Electric Lady Studios

Constructed in 1929 and home to the Film Guild Cinema in its early years, this Greenwich Village building would later become home to the Village Barn, a country-themed nightclub that inspired an NBC spinoff. During the late 1960s, the building was home to the Generation, a legendary but short-lived live music venue, and later, a recording studio owned by Jimi Hendrix. Although Hendrix is most often associated with Seattle and London, this building is an important part of the musician’s legacy and he and his manager purchased the nightclub in 1968 and transformed it into a state-of-the-art recording studio that continues to operate as Electric Lady Studios. Hendrix’s untimely death occurred not long after the studio was completed, but it continues to draw some of the biggest artists of the day, including Lady Gaga and Lana Del Rey.

11. Joffrey Ballet School

The Joffrey Ballet revolutionized the art of ballet and paved the way for the modern ballerinas of today. The Joffrey Ballet School was founded by Robery Joffrey and Gerald Arpino in 1953 in order to create a place to classically train dancers for their professional careers. The studio is made up of three floors; it contains six studios. These studios are the second homes of hundreds of present-day students who, like many before them, aim to become professional ballet dancers. Many big names in the dancing industry have instructed in this company such as Yvonne Rainer and Rudolf Nureyev.

12. Jefferson Market Library (formerly Third District Judicial Courthouse)

The Jefferson Market Library (formerly the Third District Judicial Courthouse) is located in New York City's Greenwich Village, on a triangle of land bounded by Sixth Avenue to the east and 10th Street to the northwest. The area was originally a local market established in the early 1830’s shortly after the death of Thomas Jefferson, and named after him. A new courthouse, built in the Victorian Gothic (or Venetian Gothic) style, as well as a new prison and market, were constructed on the location during the years 1874-1877 by the architectural firm of Withers and Vaux (the old courthouse building is all that remains). It was voted fifth among the ten most beautiful buildings in America by a poll of architects in the 1880s. The building was vacated in 1958 and marked for demolition, but preservationists rallied to save it. In 1961, the city announced that the old courthouse would be converted into a library, and it was opened as the Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library in 1967. In 1972, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

13. Former Residence of Djuna Barnes

This Greenwich Village apartment was home to Djuna Barnes who was one of the first major novelists to make the lives and issue of lesbianism a major focus of her work. Published in 1936, Barnes' novel Nighthawk appears today as a landmark work and is based on Barnes's own relationship with another woman, Thelma Wood. Though she spent a number of years as an expat in Paris, Barnes returned to New York City in 1940 and lived at Patchin Place until her death in 1982.

14. 4 Patchin Place, E.E. Cummings Historical Marker

The three-story houses of Patchin Place were constructed in the 1850s as living quarters for Basque waiters who worked nearby at the Brevoort Hotel. In the early twentieth century, electricity and running water were installed, and Patchin Place began to attract a new type of resident: actors, artists, and writers. On July 1, 1918, the residents even put on a production of Yeats' play, The King's Threshold in the communal backyard, with the orchestra playing through the window of one of the kitchens. Three hundred audience members attended, and the proceeds were donated to the Goodhue Home Fund of The Evening Post. Among Patchin Place's literary residents were poet Edward Estlin Cummings, his wife, and fellow poet Marion Morehouse, and author Djuna Barnes, the couple's reclusive friend and next-door neighbor at #5 Patchin Place from 1940 on.

15. Almanac House (former home of Woody Guthrie)

Folk singer Woody Guthrie lived in various places in New York City, most notably the house on West 10th Street, known as the Almanac House. The name comes from the fact that Guthrie lived in the home with the Almanac Singers, a loose musical collective of which he was a part. Other members of the collective lived in the home at different points and for varied lengths of time. Among those who lived in the building were Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Butch Hawes, and Bess Lomax. The group often gave weekend concerts, which they called hootenannies, in the basement of the building.

16. Julius' in Greenwich Village

Julius' is located in a building that was constructed in 1826 and has been home to a bar since the Civil War. Today, that building is home to the city's oldest continuously-operating gay bar. While Julius' is now a center of the local LGBTQIA community, it was not until 1966 that this bar would openly serve gay patrons. On April 21st of that year, four gay rights activists challenged the city law that required establishments to deny service to homosexuals. Taking inspiration from the sit-ins and other tactics used by civil rights activists, these members of the Mattachine Society, a small national organization that was influential in the early gay rights movement, decided to challenge the city law. The activists chose this bar because it had long served local gay patrons and was known as a safe place, but following several police raids and fearing for the loss of their license, the owners had been less welcoming. The owners were sympathetic but having been raided and harassed by the police for serving gay men just ten days prior. As a result, they denied service to the four men. This provided a test case for attorneys working with the Mattachine Society who successfully challenged and ended the New York City law. In April of 2016, Julius added to the National Register of Historic Places in recognition for the important role it played in ending New York City's discriminatory law.

17. The Village Vanguard

Believed to be the oldest continuously operating jazz club in the world, the Village Vanguard debuted in 1935. Since that time, the club has hosted some of the biggest names in jazz, blues, folk, and even occasional comedy acts. Seating just 132 patrons, the club is famous for its intimacy and its acoustics. The club's original owner was Max Gordon and when he died, his wife, Lorraine, took over the club's operation. Both Gordons are now deceased, and their daughter, Deborah.

18. White Horse Tavern

Dubbed the "Nostalgic Temple of The Alcohol Artist" by NY Magazine, the White House Tavern is best known for the night of November 3, 1953 when Welsh poet Dylan Thomas downed 18 shots of whiskey which led to his demise later the next morning. A common hangout spot for literary figureheads in the 1950s, in addition to Thomas, included regulars such as James Baldwin, Anais Nin, Norman Mailer, John Ashbery, Frank O'hara, Allen Ginsberg, Mary Travers, Jack Kerouc, Bob Dylan, and Jim Morrison. Though not quite as popular today, the spot remains an attraction to those who know its origins, and those who do not quickly learn of it upon entering, as portraits of Thomas adorn the walls.

19. Former Residence of Jane Jacobs

In 1950, Jane Jacobs, her husband, and children moved into a modest rowhouse on Hudson Street. It was from this ordinary home that Jacobs wrote her masterpiece, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The work was a response to a wave of urban renewal in the city which culminated in the destruction of Penn Station and threatened to level much of her colorful Greenwich Village neighborhood. In the book, Jacobs made a forceful case for maintaining unique urban neighborhoods with walkable streets. Though Jacobs eventually moved to Toronto and lived there for many years, she is still intimately associated with the Village, and part of the street in front of her former home was renamed "Jane Jacobs Way."

20. Site of the Snake Pit & Police Raid (March 1970)

Just a few blocks away from the Stonewall Inn, another bar that catered to gay patrons in Greenwich Village called the Snake Pit became the site of another police raid just in the spring of 1970. Only months after the landmark raid at the Stonewall Inn, a mass arrest of over one hundred patrons at the Snake Pit led to increased political activism of the LGBT community in Greenwich Village and beyond.

21. Former Residence of Thomas Paine (Demolished)

Thomas Paine was one of the most significant figures in the years leading to the American Revolution. His pamphlet, Common Sense, helped to convince colonists that the moment had come to demand independence from Great Britain. Paine's later support for the French Revolution led other Founders to distance themselves from the revolutionary author and philosopher. During the final years of his life until his death in 1809, Paine lived here in a simple wooden house in Greenwich Village. This portion of New York was sparsely inhabited at the time and the modest wooden structure was demolished in the 1930s.

22. Greenwich House (former home of Amelia Earhart)

A Village institution, Greenwich House was founded in 1902 at the height of the settlement house movement. It was originally known as the Cooperative Social Settlement Society of the City of New York and remains one of the Village's most active forces for improving the lives of residents. Many people have worked for and benefitted from Greenwich House, but one of its most famous staff members was famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who worked and lived there in the late 1920s.

23. Former Residence of Edna St. Vincent Millay (1923-1925)

In the years between the World Wars, Greenwich Village became home to an astonishing number of writers and artists, some of whom would become luminaries in their fields. Edna St. Vincent Millay, one of the country’s most influential poets, lived in the Village and was an integral part of its cultural life. From 1923 to 1925, she lived on Barrow Street with her husband, Eugen Jan Boissevain. In addition to once being home to Millay, the home has the distinction of reportedly being one of the narrowest in the Village.

24. Cafe Society (1938-1950)

Between 1938 and 1950, the basement of this unassuming wedge-shaped building at 1 Sheridan Square was home to Café Society, one of the few regularly and thoroughly racially-integrated clubs in New York City and the United States. In an era when social spaces like nightclubs drew the color line in both formal and informal ways, Café Society was one of the few upscale spaces where white and Black music lovers regularly gathered. Shortly after the club opened, twenty-three-year-old Billie Holiday performed “Strange Fruit” for a public audience for the first time at Cafe Society. The anti-lynching ballad would become one of the earliest and most powerful protest songs in American history. After Café Society closed in 1950, the building housed several other establishments, most notably the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, an innovative theater troupe led by Charles Ludlam.

25. Kettle of Fish Bar

The Kettle of Fish has been a popular, classic neighborhood bar in Greenwich Village since the 1950s. The bar was originally located on MacDougal Street, but has moved twice and now occupies a spot on Christopher Street. For much of its history, the bar was a literary haunt, and had a particular following among Beat writers, including Jack Kerouac. Nowadays, however, the bar is known as a popular spot for Green Bay Packers fans.

26. The Stonewall Inn

Here, on June 28, 1969, hundreds of people who would now be referred to as LGBT stood up to harassment by the New York City police, rebelling against the habitual mistreatment to which they were subjected. In conscious or unconscious emulation of public confrontations with the law by civil rights and antiwar protesters of the period, the patrons of the Stonewall that night did not meekly submit to injustice, but spontaneously insisted upon their right to associate without fear of arrest. This event is often considered the single most important milestone in the gay and lesbian quest for civil equality, as it galvanized the entire movement.

27. Gay Liberation Monument

Commisioned in 1979 in recognition of the ten-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, this monument to the civil rights activists who participated in the most famous gay rights protest in American history was not actually located next to the Stonewall until 1992. Following its completion in 1980, New York politicians balked at approving the dedication of the monument in their city and the monument was instead dedicated in Madison, Wisonsin.

28. Former Writing Studio of Alex Haley

In the early 1960s, author Alex Haley rented a basement apartment at 92 Grove Street. Haley was living here from 1963 to 1965 when he interviewed Malcolm X and these interviews would form the basis of Haley's first book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The book was published following the civil rights leader's assassination in 1965. In 2019, Village Preservation placed a plaque on the building's exterior which identifies its historical significance.

29. Former Home of Frances Perkins

A native of Boston, Frances Perkins moved to Manhattan in 1909. By this point, she had already graduated college and worked as a teacher and in settlement houses. She came to New York to pursue a master’s degree at Columbia. The future Secretary of Labor would spend several years in Greenwich Village, making important connections and being influenced by the thinkers and writers who made it their home.

30. Northern Dispensary Building

Occupying a corner lot at the intersection of Grove and Christopher Streets and Waverly Place, the Northern Dispensary was built in 1831. The building's deed stipulated that it be used only to house and aid the area's indigent and it originally housed the Greenwich Village Free Medical Clinic. By the mid-1800s, the clinic was treating enough patients that a third floor was added. The Northern Dispensary continued operating until the late twentieth century. The clinic closed in the 1980s after a lawsuit stemming from the clinic's refusal to treat a man who suffered from AIDS. The building has sat vacant for roughly two decades.

31. Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop (1967-2009)

The first bookstore dedicated to offering books and a space for gay and lesbian authors, the Oscar Wilde Bookshop was located here from 1973 until its closure in 2009. The store was not affiliated with Oscar Wilde, but owner Craig Rodwell chose this author owing to the playwright's fame in London as well as imprisonment and early death while in prison for the "crime" being gay. The store was located in a rowhouse that was constructed in 1827.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

History of Greenwich Village Walking Tour

Created by Clio Admin on November 16th 2020, 12:06:58 am.

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Description

This winding walk through New York's Greenwich Village includes historic bookstores, studios, nightclubs, churches, and homes of influential authors, activists, and artists. Highlights of the tour include iconic establishments like the Village Vanguard and stops at former and current landmarks related to LGBTQ history such as the Stonewall Inn as well as the site of Cafe Society, one of the few truly integrated nightclubs in the city and the site where Billie Holiday debuted "Strange Fruit," one of the most stirring and significant protest songs in American history. Many of the stops on this tour are not currently designated by historical markers, and the hope is that this tour will help build more awareness of the influence of Greenwich Village residents such as Jane Jacobs, an activist who challenged urban renewal and Thomas Paine, a revolutionary patriot whose work Common Sense inspired many of the nation's early leaders.

Entries on This Tour

History of Greenwich Village Walking Tour

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