New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [37]
At Washington Square Park the city’s central business artery, 5th Avenue, officially ends, and the student-bohemian feel of the West Village begins. Circle the recently spruced-up open square, but don’t expect to find a bench or fountain-side seat not occupied by New York University students, professors, pigeon-feeders, or idlers of all sorts. On the park’s north side is the grand Washington Memorial Arch, which looks upon the Row, two blocks of lovingly preserved Greek Revival and Federal-style town houses.
Make sure to stop to take a peek down a few residential streets tucked away in little enclaves in the Village. Washington Mews and MacDougal Alley are two cobblestone private streets just above the park. Grove Court, a cluster of brick-front homes, seems like a precursor to today’s gated communities. West of 6th Avenue on 10th Street is the wrought-iron gateway to a tiny courtyard called Patchin Place. Around the corner is another alley filled with homes, Milligan Place.
The beautiful blocks of 19th-century redbrick town houses that predominate in the Village are occasionally marked by attempts at nonconformity. At 18 West 11th Street sits a home with a modern, angled bay window, a building erected to replace the town house inadvertently blown up by the antiwar group the Weathermen in 1970. The triangle formed by West 10th Street, 6th Avenue, and Greenwich Avenue originally held a market, a jail, and the magnificent towered courthouse that is now the Jefferson Market Library. Where Christopher Street crosses Waverly Place is the triangular 1831 brick Northern Dispensary building.
THE VILLAGE’S GAY COMMUNITY
Christopher Street has long been the symbolic heart of New York’s gay and lesbian community. On this street, among cafés, lifestyle boutiques, and clothing shops, is one of the city’s most acclaimed off-Broadway theaters, the Lucille Lortel, where major off-Broadway playwrights like David Mamet, Eugene Ionesco, and Edward Albee have their own markers in the sidewalk. There’s also an active nightlife scene, anchored by the Duplex piano bar and cabaret at the corner of 7th Avenue. Nearby, at 51–53 Christopher Street, is the site of the Stonewall Inn and the historic Stonewall riots, which marked the beginning of the gay rights movement. Across the street is a green triangle named Christopher Park, where there are commemorative statues of gay and lesbian companions. Far west, where Christopher Street continues to the river, a fountain and a landscaped pier with benches are a green and peaceful part of Hudson River Park.
GETTING LOST ON THE VILLAGE’S STREETS
On purpose, that is. Even long-time residents will reluctantly admit to not knowing their way around this area, as the city’s grid gives way to a maze of streets that date back to the 19th century.
Walk from one end of Bleecker Street to another and you’ll pass through a smattering of everything Village: NYU buildings, used-record stores, Italian cafés and food shops, charming restaurants and bakeries, and funky boutiques, plus a park with a playground and tables and benches. Grab an espresso, check out century-old butcher shops, and sample some of the city’s best pizza. At 119 MacDougal Street is Caffe Reggio, one of the Village’s first coffeehouses, pretty much unchanged since it opened in 1927.
Afterward, make a quick stop at Our Lady of Pompeii Church at Bleecker and Carmine, where Mother Cabrini, a naturalized Italian immigrant who became the first American saint, often prayed.
Partly because of the proximity of NYU, the streets attract a young crowd to its theaters, cabarets, and jazz clubs. Two of the best for getting a jazz fix are the Blue Note, at West 3rd near 6th Avenue, and the Village Vanguard on 7th Avenue South just below West 11th Street, considered by many to be “the Carnegie Hall of jazz.” A more recent but much-loved jazz club is Smalls, a small subterranean club started in 1993 by jazz impresario Mitch Borden. Forced to close after 9/11, Smalls reopened with a full bar in 2007.
West of 7th Avenue South the Village turns into a picture-book