Fall in Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village as a part of the Manhattan Community District 2 contains Washington Square Park, as well as two of New York’s private colleges, New York University (NYU) and The New School. The Village consists of several subsections, including the West Village (west of Seventh Avenue) and the Meatpacking District (the far northwest edge). In the 20th century, Greenwich Village was known as an artists’ haven, the Bohemian capital, the initial point of the modern LGBT movement (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) and the East Coast birthplace of both the Beat and 1960s counterculture movements. 

Christopher Street, a street in the West Village neighborhood, is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which was located there. As a result of the Stonewall riots in 1969, Christopher Street became the “Main Street” of gay New York. A huge number of gay men would stroll its length at seemingly all hours. You found a lot of Gay bars and stores selling fetish clothing and artistic decorative items flourished at that time. This changed dramatically due to the loss of many gay men during the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s. The apparent center of gay life subsequently shifted north of 14th Street to Chelsea.

When I stroll through Greenwich Village an unexplainable melancholy overcomes me and I feel strangely disconnected from the world and the everyday life. At the end of a long day I like sitting in Washington Square Park to rest and to watch the street performers who show their mostly exceptional skills. By the way, at Washington Square Park’s northern border, behind the Arch, is situated the beginning of Fifth Avenue, beside Broadway Manhattan’s most famos street, considered by many as the street of New York per se.

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Washington Mews, Greenwich Village, New York, NY

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