Walk Around New York: West Village

Photo: Tatiana Borodina

West Village - education is fairly new. Previously, this area was part of Greenwich Village, which really was a village located on the banks of the Hudson. For decades, wealthy New Yorkers traveled here to relax in nature, built their country houses here, owned impressive farms and estates.

A text tour of this district was written by Tatyana Borodina in her blog for Elegant new york.

The Englishman Peter Warren, who settled in his estate in 1731, is considered to be the first settler here. The location of his house on a modern map of New York can be roughly defined as the intersection of Perry Street and 4 Street.

When a plan was laid out in 1811 for dividing the city into parallel-perpendicular streets, large landowners living in Greenwich Village north of Hudson Street and west of 6 avenue did not allow the authorities to run the streets in their sections. So, having shown the wayward character, the locals saved the “village” from a systematic breakdown, which now gives their descendants a lot of trouble.

In the first quarter of the 19th century, numerous people willing to settle in the area poured into Greenwich Village. The owners of the unbroken plots began self-construction, trying to build new streets in such a way as to accommodate as many house facades as possible. It was the facade of the house that meant everything to New Yorkers of that time - no matter what was behind it, the main thing is to show the goods face. Thus, an area with irregular topography, winding streets and small neighborhoods appeared.

Photo: Tatiana Borodina

And although the area west of 6 Avenue, according to all logical laws, must belong to Greenwich Village, it has recently been increasingly identified as the West Village. It is famous for its clubs, coffee shops, eccentric shops and houses in which many of the pillars of literature and art of the 20th century lived. In addition to the memorial addresses, there are few attractions in the West Village: the houses are beautiful, but there are almost no outstanding, there are no museums either. But skyscrapers do not dominate here, and you can always turn into a street where cars are almost not driving.

For 70 for years, the West Village was considered the most bohemian region of the country, and in the 20th century almost all the progressive youth in America at one time or another of their lives sought here. True, over the past 20 years, housing prices have risen to such a level that no student can settle here anymore - except in a tiny apartment in a company with two or three friends. Another thing - movie stars: now among the locals listed Uma Thurman, Demi Moore and Sarah Jessica Parker.

The West Village starts on 6 Avenue. At the corner of 6 Avenue and Washington Place is one of the oldest Catholic churches of St.. Joseph, built in 1833 in the style of classicism, which at that time served as a role model for American architects.

Another old church is located on Christopher Street, the first quarter of 7 Avenue. This unusual for New York small white church with a golden dome - the Lutheran Episcopal Church of St.. John, built in 1821 year.

Photo: Tatiana Borodina

Christopher Street is a good starting point for a stroll through the West Village. Walking westward along this shady street, you can find many interesting places in the neighborhoods between 7 Avenue and Hudson Street.

So, turning onto Bedford Street, and then onto Grove Street, it is worth examining one inconspicuous, but very interesting house. It can only be seen through a small cast-iron gate in the bend of the street between houses No. 10 and No. 12 Grove Street. It's called Grove Court. Looking through the fence (which is generally not customary to do here), you see a picture that is completely uncharacteristic of New York - a courtyard with a flowerbed and shady trees, and in the background - a red house with white shutters.

Such a landscape is more like Chekhov's heroes than about the characters O'Henry, who lived in the “stone jungle” of Manhattan. In the XIX century, this house without a street facade spoke eloquently about the poverty of the owner. Times have changed, and now such a “house in the yard” is a great rarity and the object of desire of many: it is so tempting to isolate oneself from the noise of the city by a courtyard and a cozy garden.

Continuing to walk along Grove Street, on the northeast corner of Bedford Street, it is easy to see a unique wooden house for New York, built by William Hyde in 1822 year. Hyde was a builder, and by the example of this house he advertised his skills. The building looks especially nice from Bedford Street: its wooden fence with a wicket reminds of the provincial towns of Eastern Europe and looks like a stranger on New York Street. The house next to him was built in the Tudor style with Scandinavian motifs, which is also very unusual for this area.

Bedford Street is rich in small architectural surprises. There were no failures in history here, and events of different years, interlacing in a single chain, formed the face of the city. Here, for example, since the times of Prohibition in literary circles, the address of “86 Bedford St” was well known. Behind the door of a house built back in 1852 year there was a skillfully disguised Chumley's drinking establishment that many writers and poets loved to visit. Its uniqueness consisted in the fact that visitors always safely avoided police raids: in the basement there was a second secret access to the inner courtyard, and from there to the next street. The house is still preserved.

This place was so popular that thanks to him, in New York, a popular expression appeared, at first available only to initiates, and then it became a household word: “86” meant jumping through an emergency exit or avoiding a difficult situation at all.

After the abolition of Prohibition, this institution has retained its popularity, local patrons continued to visit it, among them Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Edna Miley, Alain Ginsberg. Now the house is being renovated, but the locals hope that the bar will return to its historic place and will not differ too much from the old one, in which you could feel yourself like a character from a gangster movie of the times of prohibition sitting in the semi-darkness and drinking whiskey from ordinary tea cups .

By the way, in this place, Woody Allen filmed episodes for his film "Sweet and Bitter."

Photo: Tatiana Borodina

Next to it is house No. 77, built in 1799. It is interesting because it is The oldest house in the West Village. Going further along Bedford Street and turning on the dead-end street of Commerce Street, you can find the house number XXUMX, in which Washington Irving lived. It was here that in 11, he wrote The Legend of Sleeping Valley, which entered the classics of American literature and was reborn with the release of a beautiful film featuring the famous actor Johnny Depp.

The area is clearly loved by writers. One block away from Irving, but in another century, Joseph Brodsky rented an apartment in the house number XXUMX in Morton Street. When he was looking for a place he liked, he was captured by the view from the window of a small apartment on the top floor of this 44-storey building. And although the house is quite low, from its windows were visible picturesque New York roofs and treetops. Brodsky lived here for quite a while, until in 3 he moved to Brooklyn Heights.

Turning onto Hudson Street and past the 2 quarter, you will see the St. Luke's Church, built in 1820 year. At that time, the river bank was just a block from this place. The church is considered one of the oldest in New York. At the time of its construction there were only farms around, and the congregation sailed here from the lower city in boats. It was easier than shaking carriages on bad roads and breaking through the canal that cut Manhattan at the site of today's Canal Street.

At the intersection of Christopher Street and 7 Avenue there is an unusual triangular square - Christopher Park. In it are installed white human figures in full size. These are the works of the famous American sculptor George Segal, who are a symbol of the struggle of sexual minorities for their rights and bear the appropriate name - “The release of gays”.

Photo: Tatiana Borodina

This park became the central point of the district in 1920, when the metro station was opened nearby. Nearby, at the Stonewall Inn, local “informals” liked to gather. Here they began their struggle for the rights of sexual minorities. It happened spontaneously, in 1969, during a police raid. On this day, gays gathered in the hotel bar after the funeral of their leader and idol Judy Gerland. When the police came with a regular check, passions became so intense that a serious fight began (it is even called an uprising), as a result of which many participants suffered or were arrested.

A year later, a gay parade was held in honor of the anniversary of the first open protest against the oppression of sexual minorities by the authorities. Since then, these parades have been held annually, and not only non-traditional citizens, but also numerous sympathizers take part in them.

The area is also remarkable for the fact that there are several famous urban jazz clubs here: the old Arthur's Tavern, the claustrophobic Smalls and the Village Vanguard, where Miles Davis played every night.

The peak of the glory of the West Village came in the 60s of the last century, when it became the world center of counterculture in general and the beatniks movement in particular. Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Jimi Hendrix, Jennis Joplin, Jim Morrison, etc. performed in local clubs and coffee houses. Since then, old semi-basement darkened cafes with exhibitions of local avant-garde artists have remained, where the atmosphere is conducive to polemic or just to a glass wine to the sound of jazz. However, you need to be careful with clubs and bars in these places - many of them are visited only by representatives of sexual minorities, and by going there unknowingly, you can find yourself in a rather awkward position.

The West Village is proud of the fact that it was here in the 40s of the 20th century that the flow American abstract expressionism in the visual arts. The birth of this trend was due to the combination of many historical and social aspects. But the atmosphere of the area where local artists gathered in the Caesar Club, and nearby the German painter Hans Hofmann opened his school, played, perhaps, a decisive role.

Photo: Tatiana Borodina

According to popular belief, with the birth of abstract expressionism, the center of art moved from the destroyed post-war Paris to New York: the art “crossed over” across the Atlantic. New York school, gathered around artists of new style - Arshil Gorki, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock - practically supplanted the Parisian one. A new picturesque language was born, as sonorous, audacious and chaotic as the noise of the city itself. Spreading masses, broken color rhythms, erratic strokes, superimposed on everything, from a brush to a rag or just a finger, came to the place of clear forms. “The calling geometry of Cubism exploded with the uncertainty of chaos,” wrote the critic Clement Greenberg of the new style of painting.

New art has changed the minds of people, and for New York opened a new era of life. For 25 years after the end of the Second World War, the city was a kind of magical kingdom, landed from the rest of America, the kingdom of art, where money was not given much importance. Creative youth sought to New York from everywhere and, living in the most Spartan conditions, pursued one goal - to learn the art. These years become the era of great teachers - Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio, Stela Adler and her Conservatory, George Balanchine and the School of American Ballet. "Your imagination is your main talent, the rest is nonsense, ”said Adler, and these words can be considered the motto of New York 40-60's.

If you exit Christopher Park from its narrow side, a triangular house called Northern Dispensary. In 1927, the city purchased a plot to build a free hospitals for workers. Many writers were treated in it, including Edgar Poe, who lived nearby with his young wife.

Photo: Tatiana Borodina

Very near, near the house №104 on West-10-Street Patching Place is a hidden street with small houses, originally intended for the poor servants of a hotel located nearby. Later writers lived here, one of them - John Reed - author of the book "10 days that shook the world." He was a member of the October Revolution 1917 of the Year in Russia and shared his impressions in this book. The book is now of historical interest. However, the old lanterns on this street are no less interesting - the only original gas lanterns in New York. Functioning now as electric, they retained their original appearance.

And finally: walking around the area, walk along the very beautiful, especially in spring, Leroy Street. There are no special attractions on it, except for the house №6 opposite the Hudson Square, where the mayor lived. Evidence of this is two lanterns: this is how the mayor’s house in New York was traditionally designated.

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