CHRISTMAS IN THE VILLAGE

by Kevin Walsh

December 5, 2003 wasn’t exactly a great day in Forgottenville — it was a Saturday, I was working at Macy’s, as all of us at Macy’s had to do on Saturdays during the holiday season, and I was screamed at by the boss, an almost comically ill-tempered woman, over a ridiculous matter. It was, however, snowing heavily and before leaving the house that morning I made sure to take my camera with me, because snowstorms are for photography. After they let us out of the cage around 2 PM, I made my way down to Greenwich Village for this series of pictures, that originally appeared in my late unlamented Forgottenblog that year (I took it down after becoming too embarrassed about my non-FNY blatherings). Though we don’t have any snow in NYC this year in December, I thought I should repost something from a year in which we did..

BLEECKER STREET AT MORTON STREET. Bleecker, along this stretch between 6th and 7th Avenues, is where many streets begin and end. Morton and Leroy arrive from the Hudson River to have their northeastern progress ended here, while Jones and Cornelia, two of the Village’s one-block streets, start northeast. The stretch of Bleecker shown here, between 6th and 7th (South) is home to many used-record shops, while Matt Umanov’s guitar shop has been well-known among NYC musicians for over 40 years.

{NOTE: Umanov and next door neighbor Noi have now been closed about a decade]

COMMERCE STREET. A myth holds this L-shaped street was once known as Cherry Lane. it turns northwest at an acute angle to join Barrow Street. The Cherry Lane Theater is seen at left. We are standing just off Bedford. The Grange Hall restaurant can be seen directly ahead.

More on Commerce Street from FNY [2013]

 

#17 Grove Street was built in 1822 by window sash maker William Hyde, and is one of Manhattan’s few remaining wood-frame houses (as is 100 Bedford, seen just behind the house to the left; it was also built by Hyde). The unusual building at the rear, 102 Bedford, is known as “Twin Peaks”: built in 1835, it was controversially renovated in 1926.

About as Christmas as it gets in New York City

CHRISTOPHER STREET at GREENWICH AVENUE. The Jefferson Market Library (ex-Courthouse) is not often photographed from this angle, as most photographers tend to catch it from 6th Avenue. The building was constructed beginning in 1874 and was inspired by Ludwig II’s Bavarian castle, Neuschwanstein. Ludwig built three magnificent castles; he later went insane and was found drowned.

JONES STREET. If you don’t recognize Jones Street by its album cover, you can be forgiven. It was fully 47 years ago [as of 2010] that Bob Dylan was captured strolling down Jones toward West 4th Street by photographer Don Hunstein, with then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo, for the cover shot of his 1963 LP The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. For a time Dylan lived on West 4th Street and his relationship with Rotolo, according to legend, inspired songs such as “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” and “Boots of Spanish Leather.”Freewheelin’ introduced “Blowin’ In The Wind”, “Masters of War” and “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.”

GAY STREET, another of the Village’s crooked lanes, runs from Waverly Place north to Christopher Street. Author Ruth McKenney, whose book My Sister Eileen was adapted for stage and screen, and radical attorney William Kunstler have lived on this short street. Gay Street is either named for an early 19th Century landowner in the area named Gay, as Henry Moscow (of The Street Book) says, citing a reference to it in NYC Common Council minutes of April 23, 1827; Sanna Feirstein, of Naming New York, says it is named for Sidney Harold Gay, managing director of the New-York Times (which spelt it that way when he was there). Since Sidney Gay was alive between 1814-1888, I’d say Moscow’s is probably the more likely scenario.

WASHINGTON MEWS, between 5th Avenue and University Place north of Washington Square Park, was originally used for hostelry: stables servicing the expensive homes facing the park were originally located here. The stables were converted to human housing several decads ago. The lane still has its distinctive Belgian block pavement, and in some cases, like that shown here, the stones are worn down sufficiently enough to resemble cobblestones.

Photographed December 2003; page completed December 22, 2010

 

21 comments

Vi December 10, 2011 - 10:08 am

These are absolutely beautiful.

Reply
billwa December 14, 2012 - 3:20 pm

It makes me sad to think how much of NYC I have missed in my 62 years. Thanks for the wonder-filled photos.

Reply
J. Milazzo December 25, 2013 - 11:36 am

These photos are magnificent. Although they were taken relatively recently, they look
like the old Village we knew and loved.
Thanks for going downtown after work that day. You got some beautiful photos.

Reply
B Towey January 1, 2014 - 10:31 pm

I was born and raised in GV. Lived at 25 Grove, then at 25 Charles until I was married. Pics are great. Thank you.

Reply
KayCee October 27, 2014 - 11:21 pm

70 East 7th Street and Thompson Street my former residences. God I miss it! Photos awesome! Thanks for the memories.

Reply
joe bernstein December 15, 2014 - 4:05 pm

Great stuff Kevin!!It’s like a super Xmas card to FNY fans.

Reply
Liz Marraffino December 1, 2018 - 8:31 am

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Reply
John Fuchs December 4, 2018 - 5:34 pm

You have captured the timeless beauty of New York. Thank you!

Reply
James December 20, 2018 - 9:56 am

Lived in GV while I was at NYU in the 70’s and my Dad lived at Waverly & 11th for 48 years…the pictures bring back many fond memories!

Reply
David December 22, 2018 - 9:56 am

My parents lived at ‘Nine and a half Gay Street’ before my father was transferred during WWII. I still have the hand-written six-month lease agreement from 1942, and that is the address on it. Jazz musicians Mildred Bailey and Red Norvo lived above them. My mother showed me the house in the Seventies. The address had been updated. My father got a kick out of a split street nearby that resulted in signage depicting the corner of Waverly Place and Waverly Place.

Reply
Austin Rattigan December 23, 2018 - 12:39 pm

Your pictures make it feel as if I am back in GV. Thanks for these and all your work over the years.

Reply
Paul Nolting December 26, 2018 - 4:27 pm

I went to NYU Law School in the late 70’s. Even 40 years later these scenes feel so familiar to me. Thanks.

Reply
Matt Umanov December 15, 2019 - 3:26 pm

Thanks for the memories of what was on either side of my guitar store at Bleecker near Morton in 2010. I had one heck of a good time there every day starting in 1982, and at two prior Greenwich Village locations starting in 1969. It was only nine years ago that the pic you show was taken but times have changed, as they always do in New York. I closed it in 2017, and we’ll soon see who’s about to be in that spot in 2020.

Reply
Larry Gertner December 15, 2020 - 2:53 pm

Thank you, Kevin. We sure needed that after a year like this.

Reply
Renée (former Staten Islander) December 16, 2020 - 2:11 pm

Kevin, NYC always looked and smelled its best with a light covering of snow. I also remember how it muffled the continuous street noise. Seriously, though, thanks for the wonderful Christmas-y photos. Here’s wishing all of us a better new year.

Reply
Rich December 16, 2020 - 3:33 pm

Thanks for the photos! When going to the City from Brooklyn to do my bar-hopping in the late ’70s, I always parked near Jefferson Market so I’d be able to find my car. No judging, we always had a designated driver who only drank Mateus Rose, a self limiting beverage if ever there was one.

Reply
vincent garofalo December 17, 2020 - 3:42 am

in 1927, Mae West was a ‘guest’ at the jefferson courthouse after her arrest on obscenity charges when her Broadway play Sex became a target of the Society for the Suppression of Vice.

Reply
William Mangahas December 23, 2020 - 2:59 pm

Merry Christmas Kevin !

Reply
Jeff B. December 24, 2020 - 11:28 pm

Merry Christmas Kevin!
Thanks for your dedication and work making FNY a daily visit for years!

Reply
Joe D December 10, 2022 - 5:01 pm

Thanks for Posting. Please post agin next December.

Reply
redstaterefugee December 12, 2022 - 11:18 am

The photographs were taken in 2003 while NYC was in the twelfth year of its renaissance. Ten years later the city entered a new period of decline. There will be no second renaissance in NYC or any other American city. Western civilization is in terminal decline. The will for improvement exists but the will of the people is thwarted at every turn. If nothing else, Elon Musk’s Twitter reformation provides useful information & validation, but those in authority will look out for their own interests exclusively. Unfortunately, George Orwell’s 1948 warning, “1984” is being realized. However, once again, thanks for the memories & pity those of certain age who won’t even have anything like them to sustain themselves.

Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.