Business & Residences

Businesses and Residences filled the streets of Greenwich Village. Through several large estates, colonial houses, and apartment complexes, there is a lot of history to tell. With a view of Washington Square Park, One Fifth Avenue filled many Greenwich Village residents with their 27-story apartments. During the first years of the building opening, it was called “a thing of rare beauty” due to its constructional differences in comparison to other residences in the Village (Wikipedia, 2024).

Other properties in Greenwich included estates such as Rhinelander Estates and “with their dignified red-brick fronts and granite entrances and trim, they stand today as the best specimens of early American architecture in New York (NYPAP, 2014)

Plenty of significant hotels allowed tourists to stay and Greenwich Village residents to come together to share intellect. Founded in the early 1900s on Nineteenth Street, Hotel Lafayette was described by John Reed as “the real link between the old Village and the new, since it was the cradle of artistic life in New York (Wikipedia, 2024).” The café on the first floor was home to many artists and writers including John Sloan and Berenice Abbott (Sheryl, 2013). Broadway Central Hotel also has an esteemed history, one of the most important being the National Baseball League forming in the very same hotel (Pollack, 2015).

A section of Little Italy, known for its shops and restaurants, lies in Greenwich, bringing both business and pleasure to Greenwich. Other companies like John Wanamaker, the department store, have one of its oldest shops in the Village as well.

Throughout this tour, you’ll learn more about the history of Greenwich Village pertaining to businesses and residences in the early 1900s.