Stonewall Inn in New York City

26 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  7 minutes

© ThePhotoCat/cc-by-sa-4.0

© ThePhotoCat/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.   read more…

Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village

17 January 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  5 minutes

Washington Square Arch © Jean-Christophe BENOIST/cc-by-3.0

Washington Square Arch © Jean-Christophe BENOIST/cc-by-3.0

Washington Square Park is a 9.75-acre (39,500 m²) public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City’s public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. It is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks).   read more…

New York University

29 October 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  7 minutes

Washington Square Park, with its gateway arch, is surrounded largely by NYU buildings and plays an integral role in the University's campus life © Jean-Christophe BENOIST/cc-by-3.0

Washington Square Park, with its gateway arch, is surrounded largely by NYU buildings and plays an integral role in the University’s campus life © Jean-Christophe BENOIST/cc-by-3.0

New York University (NYU) is a private research university based in New York City. Founded in 1831 by Albert Gallatin as an institution to “admit based upon merit rather than birthright or social class”, NYU’s historical campus is in Greenwich Village. The core of NYU consists of buildings that surround Washington Square Park. As of fall 2019, the university has a total of 51,848 enrolled students, including 26,733 undergraduate students and 25,115 graduate students. Undergraduate admissions is highly selective NYU is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”.   read more…

Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan

13 February 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  20 minutes

The Pierre Hotel © Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Pierre Hotel © Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is considered one of the most expensive and elegant streets in the world. Between 49th Street and 60th Street, Fifth Avenue is lined with prestigious boutiques and flagship stores and is consistently ranked among the most expensive shopping streets in the world. Many luxury goods, fashion, and sport brand boutiques are located on Fifth Avenue, including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Prada, Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, Cartier, Omega, Chanel, Harry Winston, Salvatore Ferragamo, Nike, Escada, Swarovski, Bvlgari, Emilio Pucci, Ermenegildo Zegna, Abercrombie & Fitch, De Beers, Emanuel Ungaro, Gap, Lindt Chocolate Shop, Henri Bendel, NBA Store, Oxxford Clothes, Microsoft Store, Sephora, Zara, and H&M. Luxury department stores include Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. Fifth Avenue also is home to New York’s fifth most photographed building, the Apple Store. Many airlines at one time had ticketing offices along Fifth Avenue. In the years leading up to 1992, the number of ticketing offices along Fifth Avenue decreased. Pan American World Airways went out of business, while Air France, Finnair, and KLM moved their ticket offices to other areas in Midtown Manhattan.   read more…

West Village in Manhattan

31 May 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  16 minutes

West Village © flickr.com - heathbrandon/cc-by-sa-2.0

West Village © flickr.com – heathbrandon/cc-by-sa-2.0

The West Village is a neighborhood in Manhattan in New York City. Largely thought to constitute the western portion of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood within Lower Manhattan, the area is roughly bounded by the Hudson River on the west and Sixth Avenue on the east, extending from West 14th Street south to West Houston Street. The Far West Village extends from the Hudson River to Hudson Street. Bordering neighborhoods are Chelsea to the north, Hudson Square – officially designated in 2009 – and the South Village to the south, and the East Village to the east. The neighborhood is primarily residential, with a multitude of small restaurants, shops, and services. Residential property sale prices in the West Village neighborhood are some of the most expensive in the United States, typically exceeding US$2,000 per square foot ($22,000/m²) in 2016. The neighborhood is distinguished by streets that are “off the grid”, being set at an angle to the other streets in Manhattan. These roads were laid out in an 18th-century grid plan, approximately parallel or perpendicular to the Hudson, long before the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811 which created the main street grid plan for later parts of the city. Even streets that were given numbers in the 19th century to make them nominally part of the grid can be idiosyncratic, at best. West 4th Street, formerly Asylum Street, crosses West 10th, 11th and 12th Streets, ending at an intersection with West 13th Street. Heading north on Greenwich Street, West 12th Street is separated by three blocks from Little West 12th Street, which in turn is one block south of West 13th Street. Further, some of the smaller east-west residential streets are paved with setts (often confused with cobblestones), particularly in Far West Village and the Meatpacking District. This grid is prevalent through the rest of Greenwich Village as well. Beginning in the early 1980s, residential development spread in the Far West Village between West and Hudson Streets, from West 14th to West Houston Streets, resulting in the area being given its own name.   read more…

Greenwich Village in Manhattan

11 March 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  10 minutes

Washington Square Park © Matthew Jesuele

Washington Square Park © Matthew Jesuele

Greenwich Village, often referred to by locals as simply “the Village”, is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in the city of New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th to mid 20th centuries as an artists’ haven, the bohemian capital, the cradle of the modern LGBT movement (Stonewall Inn, Stonewall riots, Christopher Street, Christopher Street Day, BBC, 17 June 2019: Stonewall: A riot that changed millions of lives, The Guardian, 19 June 2019: The riot that changed America’s gay rights movement forever, France24, 23 June 2019: A look back at the Stonewall uprising, a milestone for gay rights, The New York Times, 27 June 2019: The Night the Stonewall Inn Became a Proud Shrine, The Washington Post, 28 June 2019: Thousands gather at Stonewall 50 years after LGBTQ uprising, France24, 1 July 2019: New York City gay pride parade one of largest in movement’s history, Christopher Street Day Parade), and the East Coast birthplace of both the Beat and ’60s counterculture movements. What provided the initial attractive character of the community eventually contributed to its gentrification and commercialization.   read more…

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