A Self-Guided Walk of Greenwich Village

Before setting off

The Village ignores the Manhattan grid, so a map on a phone or on paper saves a lot of doubling back; West 4th Street, for one, crosses West 10th. Comfortable shoes matter on two hours of pavement. Washington Mews is gated at night, so the route is a daylight one.

The route, stop by stop

1. Washington Square Arch. Stanford White’s Tuckahoe-marble arch of 1892, 77 feet (23 m) tall, at the foot of Fifth Avenue. The fountain was moved into line with it in the renovation.
2. The Hangman’s Elm. In the park’s north-west corner, an English elm estimated at over 300 years old. The hanging stories are legend; the park was a potter’s field from 1797 to 1825.
3. Washington Mews. A cobbled private lane north of Washington Square North, between Fifth Avenue and University Place: former stables and carriage houses, now NYU. The gates are open in daytime.
4. The Brown Building. 23–29 Washington Place. On 25 March 1911 the Triangle Waist Company fire killed 146 people on the upper floors.
5. MacDougal Street. Caffe Reggio at 119 (1927, its 1902 espresso machine on display), Comedy Cellar at 117 and Cafe Wha? at 115, where Bob Dylan played in 1961 and Jimi Hendrix in 1966.
6. Bleecker at MacDougal. The corner of the 1960s folk clubs. The Bitter End, at 147 Bleecker, is still open.
7. Bleecker, heading west. Faicco’s Italian deli (since 1900), Murray’s Cheese at 254 (since 1940) and Magnolia Bakery at 401.
8. Grove Court. Between 10 and 12 Grove Street, six brick row houses of 1854 behind a gate. Private.
9. 90 Bedford Street. At Grove Street, the exterior used for the “Friends” apartment building. The ground floor is a restaurant.
10. Bedford Street, 86 to 75½. Chumley’s, the 1920s speakeasy behind an unmarked door at 86; the Isaacs-Hendricks House of 1799 at 77, the Village’s oldest; and 75½, the narrowest house in Manhattan at 9 ft 6 in wide.
11. Cherry Lane Theatre. 38 Commerce Street, founded 1924, the city’s oldest continuously running Off-Broadway theatre.
12. The Stonewall Inn. 53 Christopher Street, with the free visitor center next door at 51 and Christopher Park across the street.
13. Gay Street and Jefferson Market. The one-block curve from Christopher Street to Waverly Place, then the Victorian Gothic clock tower of Jefferson Market Library at Sixth Avenue and West 10th Street.
14. White Horse Tavern. 567 Hudson Street, open since 1880, where Dylan Thomas drank before his death in 1953.

Distance and time

The walking itself is short. Washington Square to the Stonewall Inn is about half a mile, 10 minutes; the square to the Hudson River is about a mile, 20 minutes. The stops take the time, which is why a route of this length is given 90 to 120 minutes. Christopher Street–Stonewall (1) and the 14th Street stations along the northern edge are the way out; the getting-there page lists every line.

Private houses on the way

Grove Court, 75½ Bedford and the houses on Bedford and Grove are homes. Photographs are taken from the pavement; nothing about the “Friends” show is inside number 90. The film locations page covers the same etiquette for the screen addresses.

The same streets with a guide

The two-hour history walk covers the park, the Brown Building, MacDougal Street and the Stonewall Inn, starting from the Edgar Allan Poe house and the Washington Square Hotel. The ghost walk takes Gay Street, Jefferson Market and Chumley’s after dark; the themed walks page compares it with the music walk.

Frequently asked questions