Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village , residential district of lower Manhattan, New York City, extending S from 14th St. to Houston St. and W from Washington Square to the Hudson River. North of the main settlement of New York City in colonial times, in the 1830s it became an exclusive residential section, described in Henry James's novel Washington Square (1880). An influx of foreign immigrants settled there after 1880. Around 1910, the Village gained renown as the home and workshop of artists and of freethinkers. Barns, stables, and houses along the narrow, crooked streets were converted into studios, eating places, nightclubs, theaters, and shops, and the Village acquired a reputation for bohemianism. Interesting old buildings, many dating from the early and mid-1800s, remain, although there is an increasing number of modern apartment houses. Washington Square Park, with its McKim, Mead, and White arch (1892) is a popular meeting place. New York Univ.'s campus surrounds the park. Outdoor art exhibits are held in the Village.

Bibliography: See J. S. Ramirez, Within Bohemia's Borders (1990); C. Stansell, American Moderns (2000); R. Wetzsteon, Republic of Dreams, Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910-1960 (2002).

Greenwich Village, district of New York City, situated in lower Manhattan, during the colonial period was a separate village and later became an exclusive residential district. Paine wrote The Crisis in Greenwich Village, and Poe later lived there, but it was not until the end of the 19th century that it became famous for its bohemianism as an artistic and literary colony. Among those who lived in the Village, and among those who contributed to its long succession of little magazines, including The Little Review, The Masses, The Seven Arts, the Bohemian, the Pagan, the Quill, and the Playboy, were E.E. Cummings, Floyd Dell, Mabel Dodge, Max Eastman, Donald Evans, Emma Goldman, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eugene O'Neill, and Carl Van Vechten. The Greenwich Village Theatre was an outgrowth of the Provincetown Players. Authors and artists have continued among the area's residents, including Edward Albee and Gregory Corso, and among its recent playhouses has been the Caffe Cino, where plays of Lanford Wilson were produced. The Village has a lively nightlife, including jazz clubs, and is a great tourist attraction. Students from nearby New York University and other young people live there, but in large part Village residents are now professional people and business executives with some successful writers and artists.