The Alleys Of The West Village

West Village has always had a well-developed street layout that made it impossible for city commissioners to impose the street grid plan that was given to the rest of the city in 1811. Though Greenwich Village had been very hilly in the early 1800s, its hills have been leveled over the years. Its narrow, winding streets and occasional alleys still remain from its early days. The Village is an alley-hunter's dream, with plenty of "mapped" alleys as well as several secret ones from which the public is kept out by lock and key. Here are just a few of the alleys of The Village.

When it was constructed between 1848 and 1852, Grove Court (top Picture), located on the bend of Grove Street between 7th Avenue South and Hudson Street, it was a revolutionary concept in urban home construction. Why? Because in the pre-Civil War period, no respectable family would live in a house not fronting on the street. So, Samuel Cocks, co-owner of a grocery at 18 Grove Street, decided to build housing for tradesmen and laborers that would make excellent customers for his grocery. Originally, Grove Court was nicknamed "Mixed Ale Alley."

Grove Court has changed character since then. It's now among the most exclusive Village streets. Guarded by a gate, keys are available only to homeowners in the street; visitors are buzzed in. Picturesque Grove Court was the setting for O. Henry's story "The Last Leaf" about an ailing young woman and a failing artist. It was filmed for the 1952 movie O. Henry's Full House The homes are fronted by a red brick sidewalk.

MacDougal Alley (2nd pic from top), off MacDougal street just south of 8th Street, was reportedly the very last street in New York City to be lit by gaslamps, until at least the late 1930s.
It was built in the 1830s to access stables servicing nearby Washington Square North. By the early 1900s, the automobile was rapidly replacing horsepower, and the stables were renovated into artists' studios.
MacDougal Alley is the former home of artist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who founded the Whitney Museum of American Art, and poet Edward Arlington Robinson.

The brother alley to MacDougal Alley, Washington Mews, between 5th Avenue and University Place just north of Washington Square, also housed stables originally, which have all been converted to housing. The houses on the south side of the alley, built in the 1930s (at right) are younger than the more ancient original stables on the north side.
Washington Mews is on property belonging to Staten Island's Sailor's Sung Harbor, a former 19th-century home for "aged, decrepit and worn-out sailors" in a self-contained complex complete with church, theatre, recreation hall, chapels, fishpond, gazebo, and greenhouse. The complex, featuring one of NYC's largest collections of Greek Revival buildings, is open to the public. Washington Mews has kept some of its brick roadwork (far right) and an old blue street sign from days gone by

Identified only by cast iron script on top of its gate on Sixth Avenue north of Tenth Street, Milligan Place features 1850s-vintage homes built on the property of Samuel Milligan, the original owner. Milligan's daughter Isobel married his surveyor, Aaron Patchin, who is remembered by Patchin Place (below).
Originally, Milligan Place was entered from Skinner Road (later Christopher Street).
Among the former distinguished residents of Milligan Place is the famed playwright Eugene O'Neill.
Like most Village alleys, Milligan is protected from the public by a locked gate. Famous residents of Patchin Place have included poet E.E. Cummings and authors John Reed and Theodore Dreiser. Patchin Place also contains NYC's last functioning gaslamp (below). The lamp dates back to the gaslight era and has since been electrified. No one except Patchin Place residents get to see it because of the locked iron gate, but Patchin Place affords one of Greenwich Village's most picturesque views of the old Jefferson Market court (above), formerly adjacent to a women's prison and today a library. It's among the Village's most recognizable landmarks.

Twisting, turning Minetta Street starts at the rather straighter Minetta Lane between Sixth and MacDougal and somehow winds up at Sixth and Bleecker. It originally followed the ancient Minetta Brook, which rises at about 6th Avenue and 21st and meanders southwest to the Hudson. The brook was submerged in the 1820s, but still plays havoc with basements in the area during heavy rains. In the 1820s the area was among NYC's first black neighborhoods: the region was known as Little Africa. New York University has since diverted the stream: it no longer flows under the paths named for it.

A tiny courtyard on Barrow Street near Bedford Street, Pamela Court leads to the side door of the Greenwich Village institution Chumleys. Chumleys has been here for decades, first as a speakeasy and then as a legitimate drinking establishment.

Chumleys has always been unmarked as a reminder of its origins as a speakeasy. Above, Pamela Court as seen from Barrow Street.