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‘ll get to the bottom of these questions in our epic new limited series on the history of the West Village.
Of course, the biggest question is — why are the streets, you know, so twisty and confusing and so utterly unlike most other places in Manhattan?
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. The area was remote enough that the state of New York built its very first penitentiary here — Newgate Prison.
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).
But the real economic engine of the neighborhood came from the waterfront, providing jobs, river access, and a future set of piers at Christopher Street that would evolve to become something quite different in the 20th century.
LISTEN NOW: CREATING THE WEST VILLAGE
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by patrons of the Bowery Boys podcast over at Patreon.com.
And for 2026, we’ve added a bunch of new exclusive features to our membership levels — on top of our regular behind the scenes podcast called Side Streets, which we are also recording on video, we’re also releasing classic episodes of the Bowery Boys each week, ad-free.
On top of that, of course, we have exclusive merchandise made just for patron, you also get first dibs on tickets for upcoming live appearances – and so much more!
So please join the fun over at Patreon.com/boweryboys and thank you for helping support the Bowery Boys podcast.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.