The Hidden Histories of Greenwich Village

Discover the Hidden Histories of Greenwich Village

(Best suited for adults and most children over 8 years old.)

Private Group*: Please contact us for pricing and availability

Duration

2 Hours

(Walking tour around Greenwich Village)

Overview

Greenwich Village, or “The Village” as it’s known to most New Yorkers, has long held a fascination as a center of bohemian culture that has not only influenced the city but the country as a whole. Once lush farmland that lay far north of the Dutch and Colonial city, the area evolved from a place of country estates and tobacco fields in the 1700s, to an exclusive enclave of wealthy New Yorkers escaping the congestion and disease of the crowded seaport.

As it grew and as the wealthy began their move north, the elegant Greek Revival townhouses became artists' lofts, writers’ studios and small, smoky and wonderfully atmospheric bars and restaurants that catered to the creative pulsing spirit of The Village.

Join our tour guide as we go back and forth in time and trace the footsteps of the famous from the earliest days with the Dutch colonists, through the elegant beginnings of Gilded Age New York, up through the Beats and the bohemians of the 60s to the present day.

Greenwich Village has been and is still home to countless artists, writers, musicians, politicians and activists that helped create American culture, including Aaron Burr, Mark Twain, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Edgar Allen Poe, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Larry Kramer and New York City’s great urban activist, Jane Jacobs.

Some of today’s most well-known media and Hollywood personalities do or have called the Village home, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts and Anderson Cooper, among so many others.

By the end of the tour along quaint tree-shaded streets and beautifully landscaped parks, you’ll have seen many of the Village’s most famous and infamous sites and heard fascinating backstories and little-known facts that lie quite literally around every corner.

Tour highlights:

• A visit to Greenwich Villages oldest living inhabitant
• An insider’s look at Washington Square Park and tales of lies under the part we see today
• Pass by such famous artists’ and writers’ homes as Jackson Pollock, Edith Wharton, Mark Twain,
• Visit the last Victorian gaslight still standing in New York
• Wander by cafes where celebrities such as Barbra Streisand, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan got their starts.
• See extraordinary architecture by masters such as Gilded Age master, Stanford White
• Learn the history and secrets of some of the area’s most charming secluded courtyards and alleys

Please Note

Tours take place rain or shine — dress for the weather!

We can't wait to share New York's history with you!

Thank you so much for booking the Hidden History of Greenwich Village. This is an in-person walking tour that lasts two hours. The meetup spot is in the small park, Father Demo Square, where Bleecker Street meets Sixth Avenue.

• Please **dress for the weather**, as our walking tours are conducted rain or shine. After all, New York doesn’t stop for the weather!
• Please arrive **5-10 minutes early!**
• Please note that tips for the guide are not required, but always appreciated, especially after the financially devastating year that COVID-19 had on tourism in NYC.

If you have any general questions about the tour, you can email [email protected].

We look forward to welcoming you on the tour, but in the meantime, you can listen to a fun Bowery Boys podcast about Greenwich Village:

https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2019/04/greenwich-village-in-the-1960s-a-stroll-through-an-era-of-preservation-and-protest.html

See you soon,

Bowery Boys Walks