New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [40]
WORTH NOTING IN GREENWICH VILLAGE AND THE WEST VILLAGE
Christopher Park.
You might have to share a bench in this tiny park with George Segal’s life-size sculptures of a lesbian couple. A gay male couple is also captured in mid-chat nearby. The park was a punch line in the ‘90s gay comedyJeffrey. | Bordered by W. 4th, Grove, and Christopher Sts., Greenwich Village | 10014 | Subway: 1 to Christopher St./Sheridan Sq.
The Row.
Built from 1833 through 1837, this series of beautifully preserved Greek Revival row houses along Washington Square North, between University Place and MacDougal Street, once belonged to merchants and bankers, then writers and artists such as John Dos Passos and Edward Hopper. | 1–13 and 19–26 Washington Sq. N, between University Pl. and MacDougal St., Greenwich Village | 10003 | Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th St./Washington Sq.
St. Luke’s Place.
Steeped in New York City history and shaded by graceful gingko trees, this street officially called Leroy Street has 15 classic Italianate brownstone and brick town houses (1851–54). Novelist Theodore Dreiser wrote An American Tragedy at No. 16, and poet Marianne Moore resided at No. 14. Mayor Jimmy Walker (first elected in 1926) lived at No. 6; the lampposts in front are “mayor’s lamps,” which were sometimes placed in front of the residences of New York mayors. This block is often used as a film location: No. 12 was shown as the Huxtables’ home on The Cosby Show (although on the show it was in Brooklyn), and No. 4 was the setting of the Audrey Hepburn movie Wait Until Dark. Before 1890 the playground on the south side of the street near Hudson was a graveyard where, according to legend, the dauphin of France—the lost son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette—is buried. | Between Hudson St. and 7th Ave. S, Greenwich Village | 10014 | Subway: 1 to Houston St.
Washington Mews.
A rarity in Manhattan, this private, gated street is lined on one side with the former stables of the houses on “The Row,” as it’s know, on Washington Square North. | Between 8th St. and Washington Sq. N, between 5th Ave. and University Pl., Greenwich Village | 10003 | Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th St.
CHELSEA AND THE MEATPACKING DISTRICT: TOP TOURING EXPERIENCES
THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS
North of the Meatpacking District, Chelsea is the nexus of the American art scene, with a thriving gallery culture that spans from 20th to 27th streets, primarily between 10th and 11th avenues. The range of contemporary art on display includes almost every imaginable medium and style; if it’s going on in the art world, it’ll be in one of the 300 or so galleries here. Standouts include the enormous David Zwirner Gallery on West 19th Street, across from the amazing Frank Gehry–designed IAC office building; the Robert Miller Gallery on West 26th Street, whose proprietor is a titan in the New York art world and represents the estate of Diane Arbus, among others; and the galleries of Gagosian and Matthew Marks, both showing the latest in painting, photography, and sculpture. For a taste of the artistic past, there’s the Chelsea Art Museum on West 22nd Street, housed in a former Christmas ornament factory. If it’s performing arts that you’re more interested in, the Joyce Theater on 8th Avenue and 19th Street showcases modern dance troupes like Pilobolus, Elisa Monte Dance, and Momix.
ARCHITECTURAL ICONS
The neighborhood’s history is on display a few blocks east on West 23rd Street at the legendary Chelsea Hotel, one of the best-known reminders of the street’s heyday as a gathering point for the literati and creatures of counterculture. Equally distinguished long-term digs can be found on West 20th Street in the Cushman Row town houses, dating from the 1820s, and at London Terrace on West 23rd Street, home to such notables as Isaac Mizrahi and Annie Leibovitz. Regardless