The History of Greenwich Village’s Gay Street - CySignal

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF GREENWICH VILLAGE’S GAY STREET
• GAY STREET, GREENWICH VILLAGE
• WHAT’S A NAME? GAY STREET
• DEMOLN OF HISTORIC GAY STREET BUILDG PROMPTS PUBLIC OUTCRY
• WHO OWNS GAY STREET?
• GREENWICH VILLAGE, STORIED HOME OF BOHEMIA AND GAY HISTORY
• LOT OF MOLISHED LANDMARK ON GAY STREET GREENWICH VILLAGE LISTS FOR $4.5M
• GAY STREET

THE HISTORY OF GREENWICH VILLAGE’S GAY STREET

If you’ve strolled through Greenwich Village, you’ve probably e across Gay Street and wonred how got s name.

Jt a block away om the famo Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of morn LGBTQ rights, one would thk Gay Street is named after the rts. It go back to a time when the term “gay, ” didn’t have any relatn to a person’s sexualy. Instead, the origal meang of gay was to be happy and reee.

GAY STREET, GREENWICH VILLAGE

It is assumed by historians that Gay Street was given s name the 1820s. It is bee of this associatn, that people like to assume ’s named after Sydney Howard Gay, the edor of The Natnal Anti-Slavery Standard and a key figure the Unrground Railroad.

In the late 19th century, when Greenwich Village was the hub of New York Cy’s Ain-Amerin muny, many of the rints on Gay Street were POC and also micians. Some notable Gay Street rints durg that time were Ruth McKenney and her sister Eileen.

WHAT’S A NAME? GAY STREET

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTStreetspIn the Village, Another Piece of the Cy’s History Is Comg DownLike other vulnerable landmarks across the cy, the hoe at 14 Gay Street — which helped spire the mil “Wonrful Town” — is beg molished.In 1937, when this photograph was taken, 14 Gay Street and s siblg 16 Gay Street were already more than 100 years old. Today, there are only a few such ho left Greenwich Village — built the early 19th century for the merntile class, rather than the wealthy.Cred...Berenice Abbott, via The New York Public LibraryOne Monday late November, prervatnists, policians, neighbors and looky-loos gathered at dk on Manhattan’s ty Gay Street, a slim crcent the heart of Greenwich Village, to prott the moln of a nearly 200-year-old hoe there. The place qutn, 14 Gay Street, is one of a clutch of six wsome but prer early 19th-century buildgs on Gay and Christopher Streets that were owned for s by Celte Mart, a sgular character voted to her properti and to the often eccentric st of tenants she nurtured.Ms.

Mart died late 2018, at 94, wh no will and no close relativ, so the cy took over her holdgs, sellg 14 Gay Street and s siblgs for about $9 ln to a buyer who flipped them last April to Lnel Nazarian, a 37-year-old veloper, for about $12 ln. Nazarian has done foundatn work that has stabilized 14 Gay Street and imperiled s neighbors, so the cy has orred s moln, a slow, labor procs that began jt before Thanksgivg.Chillgly, this scenar is one that is playg out all over the cy, said Andrew Berman, the executive director of Village Prervatn and the anizer of the November prott: As velopers have been buyg up vulnerable landmark properti, they are eher allowg them to terrate or dog work that promis public safety.

In the last year, he said, more than a dozen such buildgs have e down.ImageCelte Mart, who died 2018 at 94, owned six historic properti on Gay and Christopher Streets, cludg 14 Gay Street. “As a rult,” he said, “our neighborhoods are payg the price, our cy’s history and herage are payg the price, and the irreplaceable historic landmarks that distguish New York om everywhere else are beg lost.”The cy, along wh the Landmarks Prervatn Commissn, said a statement had approved plans for the work on Gay Street and that Mr.

DEMOLN OF HISTORIC GAY STREET BUILDG PROMPTS PUBLIC OUTCRY

They are really prec.”The buildg at 14 Gay Street dat to 1827; s siblgs, a year later.

By then, Gay Street was an tegrated block, wh a large Black muny and a meltg pot of immigrants om Ireland, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany and Belgium.ImageDemoln recently began at 14 Gay Street. The cy has orred that the work be done by hand and the material saved for e a renstctn overseen by the cy and the Landmarks Prervatn Commissn.Cred...Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimAll six buildgs are landmarked — Gay Street is the Village’s historic district — but No.

Wh the help of his wife, Ramee, he turned the Gay and Christopher Street buildgs to a plex of furnished stud apartments, rated by Ramee and outfted wh slipvers and curtas sewn by their nanny.In her short story “Mr. At one pot, he hung a sign his office at 16 Gay Street clarg this policy.

WHO OWNS GAY STREET?

However, she was never the most assiduo steward of the ho.As Jeanne Kelly, the former director of fossil preparatns at the Amerin Mm of Natural History and a Gay Street neighbor for two s, put , they were held together wh sp and a prayer, and the haphazard mistratns of a retue of helpers that at one pot clud a super who was bld and a physics teacher wh a number of alias.But Ms. Its driver, a private ntractor, said he was there to do work unr the road ont of 14 Gay Street.

GREENWICH VILLAGE, STORIED HOME OF BOHEMIA AND GAY HISTORY

Across the street, Joan Goldberg, a broker wh Brown Harris Stevens, was holdg a quasi-open hoe at 13 Gay Street, a most Greek Revival built around 1840 and owned by Margaret Kunstler, the widow of the civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, who died 1995 and was known for reprentg some ntroversial clients. The hoe was open; there were nstant gs and gogs.”ImageRuth McKenney memorialized her dodgy subterranean apartment 14 Gay Street “My Sister Eileen,” a llectn of stori about her adventur as a young wrer the cy that was published 1938 and spired the fizzy early 1950s mil “Wonrful Town,” wh lyrics by Betty Comn and Adolph Green and mic by Leonard Bernste.The days, om the top floor of Ms. Furthermore, the cy is requirg that the moln of 14 Gay Street be done by hand and s material saved for e a renstctn that the cy and the Landmarks Prervatn Commissn will oversee.“I never tend to jt let them rot,” Mr.

Between Waverly and Christopher jt wt of 6th Avenue is a short dogleg lled Gay Street, which ntas a number of handsome Feral-style buildgs and has a varied lore. The name of the street predat Greenwich Village’s gay muny by several s, but the rivatn is dispute. In Namg New York, Sanna Feirste claims was named for Sidney Howard Gay (1814-1888), edor of the Chigo and New York Tribun and a proment abolnist, but  The Street Book, the late Henry Mosw says the name ‘Gay Street’ appears the Common Council mut of 4/12/1827 — when Sidney Howard Gay was thirteen.

LOT OF MOLISHED LANDMARK ON GAY STREET GREENWICH VILLAGE LISTS FOR $4.5M

Though is narrow now, for s first , Gay Street was even narrower.

Over the years, Gay Street has been rich wh showbiz and lerary figur and has been the subject of plenty of movie shoots, as you might image.

I discs some of the addrs on Gay Street on this FNY page. Southward view of Gay Street via Wiki Commons. Gay Street is one of the most charmg and picturque streets Greenwich Village, an in of the historic neighborhood’s anachronistic character.

GAY STREET

And while the street certaly has strong nnectns to gay liberatn and the Ain-Amerin stggle for eedom, the history behd the name is a ltle murkier, and a ltle more plited to unravel, than one might expect.

Northward view of Gay Street via Wiki Commons.