The Greenwich Village Theatre: A Brief but Fruitful History

The Greenwich Village Theatre only existed for thirteen years, but within that time frame the institution established a lasting legacy within the theater world and in Greenwich Village. Originally designed and built by New York architect Herman Lee Meader, the 500-seat theatre was a landmark of Greenwich Village from 1917 to 1930.

Herman Lee Meader’s Sketch of the Greenwich Village Theatre, 1917

 

Located on the west side of Seventh Avenue South between Christopher and West 4^th Streets overlooking Sheridan Square, the Greenwich Village Theatre was originally built for the Greenwich Village Players, an acting troupe founded by Frank Conroy and featuring a young Clare Eames. The Greenwich Village Players reflected the prevalence of “little theatres” during the teens, in which theatre enthusiasts transformed into amateur actors and playwrights and eventually theater professionals.

 

Despite being known as a locale of bohemia and radicalism, Greenwich Village was also a popular tourist destination during the 1910s and 1920s. The area of Sheridan Square was particularly popular among tourists, due to the development of the west side subway line in 1918. Originally published in the Saturday Evening Post, Sinclair Lewis satirized the influx of tourists in “Hobohemia,” a short story that he adapted into a play that ran at the Greenwich Village Theatre in 1919. The play features the characters of Mr. Brown and Mrs. Saffron. Mr. Brown “decides the only problem with bohemia is that the bohemians don’t know how to make a profit from it,” and encounters Mrs. Saffron, a parody of Mabel Dodge, in Greenwich Village. Lewis’s play satirized prominent Greenwich Village figures, who he clearly thought were taking themselves too seriously. This transition from the serious bohemian theatre troupe of the Greenwich Village Players to an increased willingness to parody themselves set the stage for the Greenwich Village Follies.

 

New York Time’s Review of Sinclair Lewis’s Hobohemia

The Greenwich Village Follies premiered on July 15, 1919 at the Greenwich Village Theatre. Though initially titled “Greenwich Village Nights,” this was quickly changed to the Follies; facing off against the popular Ziegfeld’s Follies. Created by John Murray Anderson alongside lyricist Philip Bartholomae and composer A. Baldwin Sloane, the musical revue more than held its own against Ziegfeld’s Follies. Praised by the New York Times, particularly for its “melody and beauty,” the 1919 Follies emerged as a hit.

 

New York Times review of the Greenwich Village Follies, 1919

Much of the scenes and songs of the Follies parodied Greenwich Village life and current events. Bessie McCoy, the Broadway veteran, sang, “I’m a Hostess of a Bum Cabaret,” satirizing Prohibition, while other songs like “I’ll Sell You a Girl,” poked fun at bohemian concepts such as free love.

 

Following the success of the 1919 Follies, Anderson produced another series of shows in 1920 that played at the Greenwich Village Theatre. However, the 1920 Follies greatly resembled a Broadway musical revue, and the show moved to the Schubert Theatre on Broadway a month after it opened. The Greenwich Village Follies played for six seasons on Broadway and became less associated with the Village after its second season.

 

Despite only running for less than two seasons in Greenwich Village, the legacy of the show has lasted. In 2011, a musical revue detailing Greenwich Village history billed itself as “The Greenwich Village Follies.” The show, performed at Manhattan Theater Source on Macdougal St., covered local history from the 1700s to the Stonewall rebellion in 1969.

 

After the departure of the Greenwich Village Follies, the Greenwich Village Theatre remained a landmark of Sheridan Square and the Village until 1930 when it was demolished.

Sources

Bordman, Gerald. American Musical Theater: A Chronicle. Oxford University Press: 2001.

Gates, Anita. “From George Washington to Beatniks and Beyond.” NY Times, Jul. 3, 2011.

Hischak, Thomas S. Off-Broadway Musicals since 1919: From Greenwich Village Follies to the Toxic Avenger. Scarecrow Press: 2011.

Strausbaugh, John. The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village. Harper Collins: 2013.

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The Bright and the Bold: Chico’s East Village

If you’ve ever walked down the streets between Avenues A and D in the East Village you have no doubt seen some of the paintings by the artist Chico. Although you might not have noticed, Chico’s paintings decorate buildings all over the neighborhood. Many of his works are difficult to spot at first glance as they blend seamlessly into the backdrop of the neighborhood covering local storefronts and restaurants. But a trained eye will notice his distinctive style as they browse the streets and take note of the bright colors and smiling faces that cover walls and roll-down gates of local establishments. Chico has been creating art across the neighborhood for 35 years and his murals reflect the transitions and the rich history of the neighbor throughout the last decades of the twentieth century.

Chico is a graffiti artist who grew up in the part of the East Village which was often referred to as “Loisaida” (a Spanglish adaptation of “Lower East Side”) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Now known as Alphabet City, the area was predominantly made up of immigrants from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. For these immigrants life in the neighborhood was not easy, as building deteriorated and many residents struggled to combat poverty and rising rates of crime and drug use. The blank walls of run-down buildings however, provided an opportunity for Chico who used them as an artistic outlet throughout his youth. Like many graffiti artists in New York City, Chico started his career by sneaking into subway yards and tagging train cars in the early 1980s. Soon after he shifted his focus to murals and found himself spending most of his wages from his Housing Authority job on spray paint. For Chico his murals were a way to shape his community, which was suffering from serious social and economic problems, in a positive way.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, Chico funneled most of his energy into his art, which began to gain notice from a number of people in the community. Some of his first paid work came from individuals who commissioned him to create memorial murals for their lost loved ones. Many these memorials depicted people who had died as a result of gang violence but he eventually he grew tired of creating tributes to individuals affiliated with crime in the neighborhood. These memorials helped Chico make a name for himself as an artist, but he had to step away from them for a period of time because he became concerned that he was glorifying the wrong kinds of images. In a number of interviews he explained his turn away from memorials stating that he did not want to immortalize gang members and instead wanted to focus on more positive messages.

Chico’s murals shifted to focus on positive messages and representations of community solidarity. Many of his paintings were filled with phrases of like “I love L.E.S.” and “Viva Loisaida,” or declared that “Crack Kills,” and encouraged youth to “Stay in School.” Indeed Chico’s love for his neighborhood and the messages he sent with his art garnered a similar affection from the members of his community. Although many of Chico’s early canvasses were abandoned buildings and train cars, which he illegally covered with Krylon paint, many neighborhood businesses began to pay him to cover their walls with similar images. The result has been a neighborhood that is covered in Chico’s murals, many of which have been preserved because the businesses that he painted them for are proud to display his art.

A special thanks to the artist Chico for permission to use select images of his early artwork.

Further Reading:

http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/2004/04/chicos-loisaida

http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/catching-up-with-chico/

http://freshpavedmag.tumblr.com/post/6956128907/art-chico

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A Long History of Community Service at the Church of All Nations

In the documentary The Tao of 9 Second Avenue, architect John Shuttleworth states that the Church of All Nations “was always a community-oriented building…[cutting] across ethnic boundaries.” He continues to recount that it inherited a “great history of community service,” beginning in 1874 when the Germania Assembly Rooms occupied the site at 9 Second Avenue, then alternatively known as 291 Bowery.

Excerpt from ‪The Manhattan Guide‬: ‪Greater New York Red Book‬.

The Germania Assembly Rooms, which are included in The Manhattan Guide’s list of the public halls of greater New York, functioned primarily as a settlement house for German immigrants. In his King’s How to See New York: A Complete Trustworthy Guide Book, Moses King calls the institution “a dance and meeting hall.” The Telegraph Herald adds that members of the Arion Singing Society used the Germania Assembly Rooms as a communal space.

Excerpt from King’s How to See New York: A Complete Trustworthy Guide Book.

By the early twentieth century Hadley Rescue Hall and Wesley Rescue Hall occupied the site, with 293 Bowery as their addresses. Members of the Church of All Nations ran the halls, providing food, shelter, and religious support to “destitute” and “outcast” locals in the Bowery. The Christian Advocate in particular details the Wesley Rescue Hall’s rehabilitation of over 15,000 men and solicits donations of clothing and shoes for its members. The New York Charities Directory lists Hadley Rescue Hall as a place where “drunkards and criminals of both sexes are welcome and assistance is given when necessary.”

After its official opening at 9 Second Avenue on February 15, 1923, the Church of All Nations continued to provide services to the local community. Many interviewees in The Tao of 9 Second Avenue echo Shuttleworth’s comments, noting that the Church accepted and embraced people of all races and religions. Members could attend religious services in its chapel, which were given in Polish, Chinese, Russian, and English. According to Judy Sutula, a local synagogue even used the chapel for its Passover celebrations.

Excerpt from The New York Charities Directory .

The New York Charities Directory chronicles other activities hosted by the  “settlement house,” including the Church’s English, Yiddish, Italian, Chinese, Russian, and German events. It also offered educational classes and kindergarten for young children in addition to gymnastics and sewing school. The Church’s “Fresh Air Fund vacations,” funded completely through donation, sent city children on free summer getaways in June, July, and August.

In 1951 the New York Times advertised free puppet shows and demonstrations hosted by the Church’s Pioneer Youth Camp Program. Older Church of All Nations members could take part in theatre performances, which were either presented as part of the works division of the Department of Public Welfare or held as fundraisers for the Church.

Church of All Nations members in their athletic uniforms. Photograph courtesy of Gloria Weilandis.

Local athletics clubs, like the Chinese Athletic Club and the Young People’s Christian Foundation, used the building’s sports facilities for friendly games. A rent-control station opened in the Church in 1947, allowing Lower East Side tenants to get information about their landlords and apply for rent reductions.

Excerpt from “‪RISE IN MILK PRICE TO BE FOUGHT HERE; Consumers’ Protective Group Calls Public Meeting for Oct. 11 to Plan Action‬” article in the New York Times.

The Church of All Nations also served as a forum where local residents could voice their opinions and exchange ideas about particular issues. In 1928 Russian members attended a speech on Christianity, communism, and materialism hosted by the Reverend Dr. Timothy Peshkoff, the Church’s Russian pastor. Union laborers on strike over low WPA wage scales gathered in the building in 1935 to send a telegram to Mayor LaGuardia refusing to return to work. When the price of milk increased by half a cent in 1939, the Consumers’ Protective Group called a public meeting and planned a protest in the Church’s auditorium.

Image of the Church of All Nations taken in February 1967. Photograph courtesy of Gloria Weilandis.

The Church of All Nations was not the only institution committed to community service in Manhattan in the early part of the twentieth century. Much like other organizations listed in The Manhattan Guide and The New York Charities Directory, it supplied essential social, health, and religious services to local residents. The Church of All Nations also provided its members with a space to form and strengthen communal bonds, which permanently ceased with the building’s demolition in 2005.

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The East Village: Birth of a Neighborhood

The East Village is often viewed as a younger, edgier sibling of Greenwich Village. A depiction that is accurate considering that the neighborhood is quite new as far as New York City neighborhoods are concerned. Throughout much of New York City’s history the area located east of 3rd Avenue between Houston and 14th Street was simply known as the Lower East Side. By the mid-20^th century, however, the neighborhoods of the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village began to merge, and as boundaries changed the area’s population transformed as well.

The term East Village first appeared in the early 1960s when artists from Greenwich Village started moving east to escape the rising cost of rent. This move to the Lower East Side was partly tied to the destruction of the Third Avenue El in 1956 that had served as a physical and social divide between the two neighborhoods. As the artist community spread east, real estate brokers followed closely behind hoping to cash in on the areas’ growing connection to the bohemian scene. Relators began referring to the neighborhood as “East of the Village” or the “Village East” and hippies began flocking to the area. Indeed, the first mention of the East Village in The New York Times came on Feb 7, 1960, and even at this early stage the article remarked upon real estate interests in the neighborhood.

At the same time East Village had begun experiencing other serious demographic changes. The older immigrant community largely of Eastern European descent was being replaced by the city’s rapidly growing Puerto Rican population. Between 1940 and 1970 the city’s Puerto Rican population exploded, growing from a minority of about 100,000 to over a million. Many of the new immigrants settled in the Lower East Side, and by the time the hippies arrived there was a large Puerto Rican presence in the neighborhood.

Through the influence of hippies, artists, and real estate agents the name East Village had become common among New Yorkers by the late 1960s. In a June 5, 1967 article titled “The 2 Worlds of the East Village” the Times pointed to the general acceptance of the term noting that the area had already “come to be known” as the East Village, but it also hinted that some New Yorkers were uneasy with the changes in the neighborhood. Referencing clash between city police and about 200 hippies, the article claimed that there was a large divide between the officers and residents of the “seething streets”. The author, which tellingly only interviewed police officers, declared that cops in their “trim, blue uniforms and highly polished shoes find it difficult to understand the world of the unkempt, long haired hippies, the Puerto Ricans with their strange language and customs, and the Negroes.” Indeed, for this author and the officers he interviewed, the residents of the East Village did not conform to what he called “middle-class society and values”. One of the officers described hippies saying, “You feel like vomiting,” while another complained of Puerto Ricans that they “like to congregate on the streets,” and “play their guitars at all hours of the night”. These descriptions did not represent everyone’s view of the East Village, but for the author and his clean-cut cops, the neighborhood seemed like an unfriendly place.

Despite the critics, the East Village continued to grow in popularity and became a large draw for tourists in the 60s and 70s. One young hippie described the appeal of the neighborhood the best simply stating, “You go where the action is.”

Sources

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/01/nyregion/fyi-649895.html

 

Edmond J. Bartnett, “‘Village’ Spills Across 3D Ave.” New York Times, February 7, 1960: R1.

 

Sylvan Fox, “The 2 Worlds of the East Village,” New York Times, June 5, 1967: 63.

http://search.proquest.com/docview/118054771?accountid=12768

 

Paul Hoffman, “Hippies’ Hangout Draws Tourists,” New York Times, June 5, 1967: 63.

http://search.proquest.com/docview/118054771?accountid=12768

 

Ira Rosenwaike, Population History of New York City (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1972), 174.

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Philip Martiny’s Village Connection

While researching the impact that World War One had on Greenwich Village, I came across the Abingdon Square Doughboy.  This statue, located in Abingdon Square Park near the intersection of 8^th Avenue and Hudson Street, was commissioned by the residents of Greenwich Village in order to memorialize the soldiers from their neighborhood who had lost their lives during World War One.  However, the Doughboy is connected to the Village in more ways than one.  The sculptor who created this particular memorial was a man named Philip Martiny, whose studio was located on MacDougal Alley.

The Abingdon Square Doughboy

Martiny was born in 1858 in France, where he trained under a sculptor by the name of Eugene Dock.  At age 20, he immigrated to America for what was, in his own words, “the most sordid of reasons:” to evade army service in France.  Upon his arrival in America, Martiny began to study with the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was widely considered to be one of the greatest American sculptors of the Beaux Arts movement.   He proved to be an adept student, and by the early 1900’s, Martiny had already received a number of very prominent commissions.

The turn of the 20^th century was a good time to be a sculptor in America, and even more so in New York City.  The Beaux Arts movement, with its goal of beautifying urban environments, was in full swing in New York.  Beautifully decorated classical style buildings were popping up like daisies, and sculptors were in high demand.  Martiny, having been trained by the great Saint-Gaudens, was a highly sought out sculptor for the Beaux Arts projects being erected all over Manhattan.  He created a number of sculptures to be placed on the Chamber of Commerce building on Liberty Street in Manhattan.  These sculptures have disappeared from the side of the building, though, and their current location seems to be a bit of a mystery.  All that remains on the Chamber of Commerce building are empty spaces between the columns where the statues were formerly housed.

The Chamber of Commerce Building with and without Martiny’s statues:

  

However, Martiny’s work is still visible elsewhere in the city.  He, along with other famous sculptors of the day, created sculptures to grace the outside of the Appellate Court on 25^th Street and Madison Avenue.  He also designed the eagles that decorate the famous Greenwich Village Landmark: the Washington Square Arch.

Washington Square Arch (note Martiny’s eagle smack in the middle)

The Arch would have been just a short walk from Martiny’s studio on MacDougal Alley.  The alley was a busy place in the early 1900’s.  A New York Times reporter remarked that the street had “quite as many stables as studios.”  Martiny’s studio, though, was unique.  By 1904, Martiny was receiving so many commissions that he had to hire an office staff of accountants to process them all.

Perhaps Martiny’s status as a local helped him gain one of the last commissions of his career.  The Jefferson Democratic Club selected Martiny to create a World War I memorial across from their headquarters on West 12^th Street. Martiny accepted the commission and in 1921, the Abingdon Square Doughboy was dedicated.   It stands proudly in the park until this day, reminding the Village of their lost sons and the local artist who immortalized them.

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Sources:

New York Times, “A Sculptor Who is Also a Captain of Industry,” March 27, 1904. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40716FB355F13718DDDAE0A94DB405B848CF1D3 (accessed September 30, 2013).

“Abingdon Square Monuments – Abingdon Square Doughboy : NYC Parks.” New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/abingdonsquare/monuments/1942 (accessed October 1, 2013).

Cauldwell, William . “Philip Martiny.” The Succesful American, January 1902.

Van Alfen, Peter. “Monuments, Medals, and Metropolis, part I: Beaux Arts Architecture.” ANS Magazine 2, no. 2 (2003): 17-23. http://ansmagazine.com/Summer03/Monuments (accessed September 29, 2013).

“War Memorials in Parks : NYC Parks.” New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/veterans#world-war-I (accessed October 1, 2013).

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The Origins of Banking in Greenwich Village: Yellow Fever and the Establishment of Bank Street

There are many surprising ways in which issues with the water supply have altered the path of New York City’s history. As the population exploded during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the water supply and its quality shaped the growth of urban development. Poor water supply systems created a constant threat of water-born diseases for early Manhattanites — in particular, yellow fever.  While Lower Manhattan (specifically Wall Street) has been America’s center of finance for over two centuries, for brief periods in the nineteenth century Greenwich Village housed bankers and businessmen (as well as many other New Yorkers) seeking to escape periodically vicious outbreaks of yellow fever.

Aaron Burr, courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog

After a particularly deadly outbreak of yellow fever in 1798, Aaron Burr along with his associates petitioned to create a private company that would supply the city with water from fresher and “safer” sources. The Manhattan Company was thereby created. However, it was actually Burr’s intention to use the company as a front in order to establish a bank — an immensely complicated undertaking in that era. A brief annotation to the Manhattan Company’s charter allowed for excess stock to be used “in the purchase of public stock or in any other monied transactions or operations not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.” Unfortunately, since the company’s main goal was to establish a bank, The Manhattan Company was slow and inept at creating a systematic and safe water supply for the city, and the outbreaks of yellow fever persisted.

The Bank of New York — the oldest bank in the United States and founded by Alexander Hamilton — started a trend of banks moving temporarily northward to escape yellow fever, galvanized by a clerk at the bank’s Wall Street headquarters contracting the disease during the 1798 outbreak. Subsequent epidemics in 1803, 1805, and 1822 pushed other banks, such as Bank of the Manhattan Company and Phenix Bank, to the same block of land inhabited by the temporary sanctuary of the Bank of New York. This cluster of businesses resulted in the naming of the strip “Bank Street,” which is still present today in the West Village.

The Bank of New York, watercolor by John William Hill, The Phelps Stokes Collection, New York Public Library

1822 marked the last great yellow fever outbreak in lower Manhattan. One 1823 report of the epidemic by Dr. Peter S. Townsend recalled “the timely and almost total abandonment of all that part of the city south of Fulton-street…”  One citizen described how “[f]rom daybreak till night, one line of carts, containing boxes, merchandize and effects, were seen moving towards Greenwich Village and the upper parts of the city.” However, business was soon as bustling as before in their temporary Greenwich Village retreat:

Within a few days thereafter, the Custom House, the Post Office, the Banks, the Insurance Offices, and the printers of Newspapers located themselves in the village… where they were free from the impending danger, and these places almost instantaneously became the seat of the immense business usually carried on, in this great metropolis.

Excerpt from James Hardie’s “An account of the yellow fever, which occurred in the city of New-York, in the year 1822”

The rustic appeal of Greenwich Village would not last much longer. By 1837, construction of the Croton Aqueduct would begin: soon the city would have an abundant and clean water supply and the yellow fever outbreaks would subside. Greenwich Village would thereafter become home to factories and tenements — a far cry from its bucolic beginnings. However, before this development, the village provided sanctuary to the citizens of lower Manhattan, and allowed New York bankers to continue business as usual.

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Aldo Tambellini: The Life of an Avant-Garde Artist in the Village

The title of my Digital Archive project is Anarchy in the Village during the Vietnam Era.  As I have conducted research, I have come across some very interesting groups and figures.  One of the most fascinating people is a man named Aldo Tambellini.

Tambellini was a young artist in 1960s Greenwich Village, who encountered early criticism before achieving success.  He was a liminal figure with regard to my larger focus of radical groups.  Tambellini was, however, loosely connected to such groups through an art collective that he helped found in 1959 called the “Group Center.”[i]  The biography section of Tambellini’s personal website says that the Group “organized alternative ways and non-traditional presentation of the artists’ work to the public.”[ii]  Through the Group, Tambellini met Ben Morea, who was an ardent leading member of two anarchy groups with strong presences in Greenwich Village.  These two groups were called Black Mask and Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.  What Tambellini shared with Morea was more antiwar sentiment, location in the Village, and the artistic avant-garde rather than ideology.

 

The Group Center hosted many shows in Washington Square Park.  This provided benefits and detractors to the collective of revolutionary artists.  Susan Sherman of “the village Voice” covered the performance “Outfall” at the Park.  This event took place on a September night in 1965.  Sherman described the initial buzz of excitement that enchanted the crowd.  This, however, was short-lived as cold weather, long breaks, overcrowding, and poor visibility “soon turned the enthusiasm into boredom.”[iii]  Tambellini, in conjunction with Judith Dunn, presented the first event, “Black-Round,” which consisted of “light projections and mechanized sound.”[iv]  The reviewer called it, “The most ambitious event artistically [of the night] and the one that suffered the most from its outdoor presentation.”[v]  Technical and mechanical issues were the cause of long, unexpected breaks and left the reviewer “with a feeling of disappointment.”[vi]

Another of Tambellini’s works was reviewed in “the village VOICE.”  It is not clear where this presentation was held, but it was likely indoors given that it took place in mid-December of 1965.  This piece was titled “Black Zero” and the critic commended it for its “sense stimulation” and its “contrasts between light and dark (white and black) and noise and silence.”[vii]  This appeal quickly wore off as the reviewer explained: “It also made me sleepy.”[viii]  The assessor closed: “When I left the theater I felt disoriented, which I offer as testimony to his effectiveness; but my mind was dulled, which is not so good. For audiences at any future performances of ‘Black Zero,’ I think the secret ingredient is LSD.”[ix]

Tambellini’s career improved from early criticism of his performances.  The artist founded his own theater for countercultural films, which he called the Gate Theater.  Tambellini described this venture in his own words: “On September 16, 1966… I opened the 200 seat Gate Theatre on 2nd Avenue and 10th Street… The Gate Theatre was the only theatre to show avant-garde, underground films in continuous showing, till midnight, seven days a week. The theatre charged $1.50 admission. The Gate was dubbed the ‘Radical Underground in Film.’”[x]  Tambellini grew to be an important figure to come out of the Village’s avant-garde art world.  His works were later shown at, among other places, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and England’s Tate Museum.

Tambellini’s early career parallels the lifespan of the extremist anarchy groups of which he was loosely associated.  Both were flashy and intense at first, but ultimately tired and short-lived.  These dizzying and drug-induced ventures were irrational, but politely described as countercultural or even radical.  The combination of all of the factors that led to the creation of such art and radical groups skewed reality and made something that is bright, loud, and chaotic to a sober person, inspiring to an influenced or inebriated one.  Unlike anarchy groups in the Village during the Vietnam War era, Tambellini was able to continue his work and make a long career out of it.

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Sources

[i] http://www.aldotambellini.com/bio4.html

[ii] http://www.aldotambellini.com/bio4.html

[iii] Susan Sherman, the village VOICE, September 30, 1965, Page 16.

[iv] Susan Sherman, the village VOICE, September 30, 1965, Page 16.

[v] Susan Sherman, the village VOICE, September 30, 1965, Page 16.

[vi] Susan Sherman, the village VOICE, September 30, 1965, Page 30.

[vii] the village VOICE, December 23, 1965, Page 20.

[viii] the village VOICE, December 23, 1965, Page 20.

[ix] the village VOICE, December 23, 1965, Page 20.

[x] http://www.aldotambellini.com/rebel2.html

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GVH Exhibit: Before the Park: Early History of Washington Square

One of the exhibits created by students in the Creating Digital History course:

Before the Park: Early History of Washington Square

by Alyssa DesRochers

At the heart of Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park is a prominent and popular public space in lower Manhattan. Villagers fill the beautiful park to play, work, and gather around the fountain or iconic Washington Arch. But long before the park was officially dedicated as a city public place in 1826, many diverse groups inhabited the area and utilized it for different purposes. Washington Square’s history contains explorations and conflicts, celebrations and executions. Some remnants of this past can still be seen, and its interesting history helped shape the park and surrounding streets into the Washington Square we know today.

Go to exhibit.

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GVH Exhibit: Sailors’ Snug Harbor

One of the exhibits created by students in the Creating Digital History course:

Sailors’ Snug Harbor

by Alison Lotto

In 1801, Robert Richard Randall left a 21-acre farm in Manhattan to create a home for aging sailors that he named Sailors’ Snug Harbor. After years of legal wrangling, the institution he planned was built on farmland on Staten Island, and the land around Washington Square became a hub of commercial and residential growth. The estate that he owned is now bounded by 10th Street to the North, Fourth Avenue to the East, Washington Square North to the South, and Fifth Avenue to the West.

Around 1900, as a part of a survey of their property, the trustees of Sailors’ Snug Harbor had glass plate negative photographs taken of all of their properties. This collection was found in Greenwich Village and was purchased by the New York University Archives.

These glass plate negatives show the history of Sailors’ Snug Harbor as well as a time during which Greenwich Village housed an incredible variety of places and people. Some of the buildings still stand and others have been drastically changed, but the collection shows a particular place at a particular moment in its history in an unparalleled fashion.

Go to exhibit.

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GVH Exhibit: The Stonewall Inn: The Spark of the Revolution

One of the exhibits created by students in the Creating Digital History course:

The Stonewall Inn: The Spark of the Revolution

by Shannon Elliott

The Stonewall Inn, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, is the site of what many believe to be the turning point in the Gay Rights movement. The Stonewall Riots began in the early hours of June 28, 1969 and continued for several nights following. While police raids of gay bars were a fairly common practice at this time, that night the patrons fought back and as a result, changed the course of history. The courage and strength displayed by the men and women outside of the Stonewall Inn that night inspired the gay community to take action and to let their voices be heard.

Not long after the riots the Gay Rights movement began to take shape. Groups like the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance were formed and began to bring the gay community together through political action. These groups took their fight to the streets and captured the country’s attention with a movement that would only continue to gain momentum. The first Gay Pride parade was held a year later in June 1970 to commemorate the events of Stonewall.

The men and women who stood up against police harrassment at Stonewall that night sparked a revolution. Even at a time when few establishments welcomed openly gay people, homosexual sex was illegal in nearly every state, and there were no laws protecting gay me or women from losing their jobs if their sexuality was discovered, they fought back and defended their rights. While the journey is not over, the changes that have occurred throughout the country in support of gay rights in the last 43 years are a testament to the success of the Gay Rights movement that had precipitated from the riot. The legacy that the Stonewall Riots left is a powerful message; a legacy of acceptance, hope, and determination for the LGBT community.

Go to exhibit.

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