Greenwich Village, which New Yorkers invariably speak of simply as "the Village," enjoyed a raffish reputation for years. The area was originally a rural outpost of the city -- a haven for New Yorkers during early-9th-century smallpox and yellow fever epidemics -- and many of its blocks still look relatively pastoral, with brick town houses and low-rises, tiny green parks and hidden courtyards, and a crazy-quilt pattern of narrow, tree-lined streets (some of which follow long-ago cow paths).
In the mid-19th century, however, as the city spread north of 14th Street, the Village became the province of immigrants, bohemians, and students (New York University (NYU) today the nation's largest private university, was planted next to Washington Square in 1831). Its politics were radical and its attitudes tolerant, which is one reason it became a home to such a large lesbian and gay community.

Several generations of writers and artists have lived and worked here: in the 19th century, Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Stephen Crane; at the turn of the 20th century, O. Henry, Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, and Hart Crane; and during the 1920s and '30s, John Dos Passos, Norman Rockwell, Sinclair Lewis, John Reed, Eugene O'Neill, Edward Hopper, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the abstract expressionist painters Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning congregated here, as did the Beat writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The 1960s brought folk musicians and poets, notably Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul, and Mary.
Today, block for block, the Village is still one of the most vibrant parts of the city. Well-heeled professionals occupy high-rent apartments and town houses side by side with bohemian, longtime residents -- who pay cheap rents thanks to rent-control laws -- as well as NYU students. Locals and visitors rub elbows at dozens of small restaurants, cafés spill out onto sidewalks, and an endless variety of small shops pleases everyone. Except for a few pockets of adult-entertainment shops and divey bars, the Village is as scrubbed as posher neighborhoods.

Greenwich Village lends itself to a leisurely pace, so allow yourself most of a day to explore its backstreets and stop at shops and cafés.

New York City
Highlights
When to go
Arrival
Transportation
Walking
Eating and drinking
Kids New York
Kids activities
Kids toys, clothing
Kids cultural activities
The Giuliani years
September 11, 2001
World Trade Center
Best of New York
Gays and Lesbian
G & L accommodation
G & L bars
G & L Clubs
Media
N Y tours: bus/copter
N Y tours: water/walking
Free museums hours
Staten Island ferry
Parades and Festivals
Shops and markets
Clothes, fashion
Diamond District
Food and drink
Liquor stores
Music
Music-special interest
Art galleries

Google maps

Exploring New York
v 42nd Street and around
v Central Park
v Chelsea
v Chinatown
v City Hall and TriBeCa
v East Village
v Fifth Avenue & around
v Financial District
v Garment District
v Harlem and N Manhattan
v Little Italy and NoLita
v Lower East Side
v Metropolitan Museum of Art
v Midtown East
v Park Avenue (Midtown)
v United Nations
v Midtown West
v Murray Hill
v Outer boroughs
v Bronx
v Brooklyn Heights
v Queens
v SoHo
v Statue of Liberty & Ellis Is
v Union Sq & Gramercy Park
v Upper E side
v Upper W side
v Walking Tours
vWest Village