Exploring the Original West Village

Alfred Winters, Eleanor Winters

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2011
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781614230885
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Greenwich Village is a tourist's dream and a favorite weekend destination for New Yorkers. A part of Manhattan Island that holds its own amid the noise and confusion of the twenty-first century, it still retains much of the character of the old farming community that was part of the original settlement of Manhattan. The West Village, the northwest section of the neighborhood, is bounded by the Hudson River on the west and Greenwich Avenue on the east and is where it all began. Famous people such as Sinclair Lewis, Fiorello LaGuardia, William "Bill the Butcher" Poole, Frank Serpico, James Baldwin and Jackson Pollock, among dozens of others, called this neighborhood home. Stroll down the back streets and along the waterfront and peer behind the facades of these historic structures to discover its fascinating history, hidden secrets and little-known tales.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Development of Greenwich Village: A Little Background
• 2. Christopher Street, the Ninth Avenue El and the Story of William “Bill the Butcher” Poole
• 3. Christopher Street Continued: The Fighting Marine, the Stonewall Inn, Lucille Lortel and the Theater de Lys
• 4. Weehawken Street (the Shortest Street in Manhattan), Newgate Prison and the Empire Brewery
• 5. West Tenth and Charles Streets: Pig Alley, The Runaway Bunny and Diane Arbus
• 6. Onward Down Charles Street: Writers, Musicians and a Future Mayor
• 7. Perry Street: Frank Serpico, Jane Jacobs, Sir Peter Warren and Bleecker Gardens
• 8. Up and Down West Eleventh Street: The White Horse Tavern, a Palazzo and Many Writers and Poets
• 9. Busy Bank Street
• 10. West Street: Superior Ink and Herman Melville, Gansevoort Market, the Meatpacking District and the Death Avenue Cowboy
• 11. Up on the High Line, Down on Horatio Street: Odets, Baldwin, Pollock and the Hudson Dusters
• 12. Jane Street and Back to Bank Street: Alexander Hamilton and Max Eastman, Auntie Mame and Abingdon Square
• About the Authors