The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Why is the West Village both historically important and incredibly expensive? In the final part of our West Village mini-series, we look at the elements that define the modern neighborhood — from battles with Robert Moses to the protests that galvanized the gay-rights movement.

The 19th-century charms of the old Village seem timeless, but they survive thanks to the 1969 Greenwich Village Historic District. The fight to save the neighborhood, however, began two decades earlier, and those early conflicts even popularized the name “West Village.” Jane Jacobs, fresh off the publication of her landmark book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, would become the leading voice in protecting this uniquely New York enclave.

That same year, clashes between police and patrons at the Stonewall Inn united the area’s LGBT residents, culminating in the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade (today’s NYC Pride March). A vibrant, radical queer culture flourished — from leather bars to the Christopher Street Piers.

In the 1980s, thousands of New Yorkers died of AIDS, and St. Vincent’s Hospital became known for its pioneering care. Today, long-running establishments like the Monster and Julius’ form a kind of “legacy cultural district,” linking present-day nightlife to those transformative years.

In the 1990s, pop-cultural phenomena Friends and Sex and the City (which made one Perry Street brownstone famous) brought international attention to the neighborhood. By the 21st century, the West Village had become a luxury enclave, even as its history was further elevated with Stonewall’s designation as a U.S. National Monument.

This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon

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In Part Two of our mini-series, The Streets of the West Village, we turn to the people who gave the neighborhood its character and vitality — from Irish longshoremen on the docks to actors on the off-Broadway stage, from street gangs to speakeasy proprietors. From Eugene O’Neill to Bea Arthur, their stories help define this corner of Manhattan.

Well into the early 19th century, the West Village still felt like a true village, with its preserved, winding lanes. Over the following decades, a diverse array of residents arrived and made the neighborhood their own, working along the waterfront or gathering at local haunts like the beloved White Horse Tavern.

The promise of a new subway line once seemed entirely beneficial, but it brought a devastating consequence: Seventh Avenue had to be extended straight through the western Village, cutting a swath through the existing streetscape and wiping away hundreds of buildings. 

Prohibition and the Jazz Age are seemingly etched into the very fabric of the West Village, reflected in the many institutions that date from the 1920s and ’30s, including numerous former speakeasies. Join us as we wander through the Jazz Age Village — Fedora, Chumley’s, the Cherry Lane Theatre, and more — and trace the echoes of that exuberant era.

This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.

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Why are the streets of Manhattan's West Village so unusually charming and romantic? Why does it make such an excellent place for a night out in New York City? Why is the real estate so expensive? And when did it become a distinct place separate from Greenwich Village?

We hope to get to the bottom of these questions in the first part of our epic new limited series on the history of the West Village.

People have been living in this region of Manhattan Island for centuries -- first the Lenape, then the Dutch, who gave the area its distinctive name ("Groenwijck"). During the English colonial period, several large estates were developed here, and their memories survive today in certain street names -- like Christopher Street.

By the 19th century, the fear of yellow-fever epidemics in the crowded city south of here brought new residents, new housing development -- and new streets, built every which way, conforming to hills, farms, and private property. It immediately clashed with the city's plan for an organized Grid Plan of streets and avenues. The result is a bewildering map that often seems to bend space and time (as at the intersection of West 4th and 11th Streets).

Visit our website for more Bowery Boys podcasts and images from this show. This episode was edited and produced by Kieran Gannon

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Here’s a classic from the Bowery Boys Podcast archive, recorded in early 2013, just a few months after Hurricane Sandy. 

Each winter, when forecasters warn of an approaching monster storm, they inevitably invoke one of the most infamous tempests ever to strike New York City: the now-legendary Great Blizzard of 1888, a devastating collision of wind and snow.

The battering snow-hurricane of 1888, with its freezing temperatures and crazy drifts three stories high, was made worse by the condition of New York’s transportation and communication systems, all completely unprepared for 36 hours of continual snow.

For those who support the Bowery Boys Podcast on Patreon, you’ll receive this episode—and other classic shows from our back catalog—every week, completely ad-free. To learn more, visit patreon.com/boweryboys. 

 

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For more historical deep dives just like these, check out HISTORY This Week wherever you get your podcasts!
February 14, 1905. A stick of dynamite detonates under the Hudson River — and the ground above swallows a locomotive whole. It's the latest setback in an audacious plan to tunnel beneath the river and bring trains into Manhattan. The Pennsylvania Railroad is the largest corporation in the world, but the goopy riverbed keeps fighting back. How did they finally break through? And why are these 115-year-old tunnels still the most critical infrastructure in America?
Special thanks to our guests: Polly Desjarlais, content and research manager at the New York Transit Museum; Jill Jonnes, author of Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels; and Andy Sparberg, former LIRR manager, transit historian, and author of From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA.
Link: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

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