Greenwich Village Secrets: Folk Music, Hidden Streets and Literary Ghosts

Washington Square: the arch and the revolution that wasn't

The Washington Square Arch began life as a temporary wood-and-plaster structure, built in 1889 to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration. New Yorkers loved it so much that architect Stanford White was commissioned to design a permanent marble version, finished in 1892. The two statues of Washington, one as commander in chief and one as president, were added decades later.

The park beneath it has a darker past. Before it became a fashionable square lined with Greek Revival townhouses, much of the land served as a potter's field, a burial ground for the city's poor and victims of epidemics. Tens of thousands of people are believed to still lie beneath the lawns and paths.

Minetta Lane: following a buried stream

Minetta Lane and the neighboring Minetta Street curve for a reason: they trace the course of Minetta Brook, a stream that once ran through the area before it was buried under the growing city. It's one of the clearest examples of old Manhattan's landscape still shaping the streets above. At the corner of MacDougal Street, Minetta Tavern has been pouring drinks since the 1930s.

Patchin Place

Off West 10th Street, look for the iron gate of Patchin Place, a dead-end row of small brick houses. The poet e.e. cummings lived here for decades, and writer Djuna Barnes was a longtime resident too. An old-fashioned cast-iron street lamp still stands at the end of the lane.

Stonewall: where a movement found its moment

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street, a common occurrence at gay bars at the time. This time, the patrons and neighbors fought back, and the protests continued for several nights. The uprising became a turning point for the LGBTQ rights movement, and the first Pride marches were held a year later to mark the anniversary.

In 2016, the bar, the small triangular Christopher Park across the street and the surrounding streets were designated the Stonewall National Monument, the first national monument dedicated to LGBTQ history. In the park, look for George Segal's white sculptures of two same-sex couples, a quiet and moving place to pause.

MacDougal Street and the folk revival

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the coffeehouses of MacDougal and Bleecker Streets were the center of the American folk revival. For the price of a cup of coffee, you could hear young singers passing the hat between sets.

• Cafe Wha? on MacDougal Street is where a 19-year-old Bob Dylan played soon after arriving in the city in January 1961. A few years later, a guitarist calling himself Jimmy James played there too, shortly before the world knew him as Jimi Hendrix.
• The Gaslight Cafe, a few doors away, was another essential folk stage of the era.
• Jones Street, a short walk west, is where Dylan and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo were photographed walking arm in arm for the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Fans still recreate the shot.

More literary ghosts

The Village has been home to so many writers that you can barely walk a block without passing one of their old doorsteps. Henry James was born just off Washington Square in 1843. Mark Twain spent a year at 14 West 10th Street. Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was a regular at the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street in the weeks before his death in 1953. And the Victorian Gothic Jefferson Market Library, built in the 1870s as a courthouse, is now one of the most beautiful public libraries in the city.