The Original West Village Walking Tour
Architecture -- History -- Interesting Pictures and Stories
Click Verlocal for a publicly scheduled tour

An armchair guide book: "Exploring the Original West Village" by Alfred Pommer and Eleanor Winters
Click Here to buy a copy from The History Press -- Click Here to buy a signed copy from Alfred Pommer

A Walking Tour or Slide Show of the Past and the Present

The walking tour / slideshow features the writers, poets, artist and famous people of the West Village with information about it's history and architecture
along with interesting pictures and stories that help join us with the neighborhood's past. Included are about a dozen surviving examples of the Federal & Greek revival artisan homes that used to populate the West Village in the early 19th century.
The West Village was an unofficial name for a part of Greenwich Village that roughly speaking falls between:
West 14th Street and Christopher St. and west of Greenwich Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas. In the past decades The West Village name has been extended, to include part of a working class neighborhood once known as the South Village (south of Christopher St. to St. Lukes Place between 6th Ave. and West St.) - this is not part of the Original West Village or included in this tour.

The walking tour or the slideshow of the West Village's past and present features:

A trip through part of the landmark Greenwich Village Historic District known as "The West Village" including:
Abingdon Square, Bank Street, Christopher Street, Charles St., W. 11 St., W. 10 St., West St.,
Perry St. Horatio St., Jane St., Hudson Street and the historic district of Weehawken St.
For the 2 ½ hour walking tour each participant is given an itinerary with 26 stops that include 7 New York City and 3 national landmarks
For the 3 ½ hour walking tour each participant is given an itinerary with 37 stops that include 8 New York City and 4 national landmarks
The slideshow is about 1½ hours & includes all the information on the 2½hour walking tour.
A 2 hour slideshow would include all the information on the 3½ hour walking tour.

Some Highlights of the 2 ½ hour version are:

  • St. Veronica's Church and Gene Tunney
  • Find out about "the American Ward" - William "The Butcher" Poole
  • Richard Meier's skyscrapers and Charles Lane plus Memphis Downtown
  • Find out about the 9th Ave. El in the West Village
  • The Weehawkin Historic District
  • A handsome row of Federal & Greek Revival homes from 1837
  • The White Horse Tavern - Norman Mailer - Dylan Thomas
  • H B Studio (many famous stars studied acting here)
  • Westbeth - the site of the development of television, radio, sound recording, sound movies, telephonics and public address systems.
  • Find out about Newgate Prison aka NY State Prison
  • Alexander Hamilton and the site where he died
  • A landmark example of a Greek Revival house from 1838
  • A landmark example of the American Round Arch Industrial style on a former paint factory from 1883
  • Abington Square and the Abington Square Memorial
  • Admiral Peter Warren, his estate & Greenwich Village
  • Jane Jacobs, where she lived and wrote "The Death and Life of Great American Cities"
  • Fing out where Serpico actually lived when he was a cop here in the city
  • 'Bleecker Gardens' and Mark & Charles Van Doren
  • 'Auntie Mane' in real life where she died and where she lived
  • "The Family" by Chain Gross
  • Transplanted 'Cobble Court' from the early 19th century
  • Find out about the "Death Ave. Cowboy" - Gansevoort Market / Pier and the White Fort
  • A excellent, landmark example of a Greek Revival House from 1842
  • The landmark, American Seamen's Friend Society Home & Institute Bldg.
  • The site where Herman Melville worked for 19 years
  • A Grand Romanesque Revival styled eclair factory, now an apartment house with great gargoyles
  • The street and buildings where Clifford Odets and James Baldwin lived
  • The street and buildings where Carson McCullers and Jack Kerouac lived
  • Palazzp Chupi
    would you describe the color of the Venetian inspired tower as 'hot pink' or 'pompeii red'
  • The house Roy Lichtenstein lived and worked in the last decade of his life

Highlights Included in the 3 ½ hour version are:
  • Find out about The Masses where the publication was located & Max Eastman & John Reed,
  • Where Sinclaire Lewis lived
  • Where Hart Crane lived
  • Laren Bacall "Miss Greenwich Village"
  • Where Fiorello LaGuardia lived
  • A Greek Revival Townhouse from 1837
  • Where Edward Albee got his inspiration for "Who's Afraid of Viginia Wolf" ( Ninth Circle)
  • Where Almanac House was and where Woodie Guthrie lived
  • Wila Cather, Allen Tate, Katharine Anthony, and Ye Waverly Inn and more
  • Optional (for the 3 ½ hour version) 2 stops outside West Village neighborhood:
  • The Jefferson Market Courthouse - its history, architecture / the infamous trial of the century, Harry Thaw / Stephen Crane
  • Patchin Place, 1845
The walking tour meets at: southeast corner of Christopher St. & Greenwich St.

The walking tour & the slideshow are given by Alfred Pommer a college graduate, an author,
an informative native New Yorker and a Licensed New York City Guide, who has spent over 25 years
researching, creating and leading walking tours in Manhattan's many diverse neighborhoods.
And has written 3 Manhattan guide books published by The History Press
"Exploring Manhattan's Murray Hill"  "Exploring New York's SoHo"   "Exploring the Original West Village"

Interested in a Private Walking Tour or Slide Show?
Call: (212) 979-2388 for details
  http://nycwalk.com    http://nycslideshows.com  or for a publicly scheduled walking tour   http://nycpublicwalks.com
Or : Click Here for advance ticket sales

Click Here to buy the new armchair guide book "Exploring the Original West Village" by Alfred Pommer and Eleanor Winter


Scroll down further for "The Lower West Village Walking Tour"


The Lower West Village Walking Tour
Architecture -- History -- Interesting Pictures and Stories

A Walking Tour of the Past and the Present

This tour features the writers, poets, artist and famous people of a part of the West Village
that was once a working class neighborhood known as the South Village.
Information about it's history and architecture along with interesting pictures and stories will help join us with the neighborhood's past.
The West Village is an unofficial name for a part of Greenwich Village Historic District and we will explore the neighborhood between Christopher St. and St. Lukes Place west of Avenue of the Amercas (6th Ave.) - the lower/south section of the West Village

This walking tour of the West Village's past and present features:

A walk through part of the landmark Greenwich Village Historic District known as "The West Village" including:
Hudson Street, Grove St. and Grove Court, Bedford St., Barrow St. Commerce St., Morton St. and St. Lukes Place.
For the 2 hour tour each participant is given an itinerary with 16 stops that includes 4 New York City and 2 national landmarks.
For the 2 ½ hour tour each participant is given an itinerary with 18 stops that includes 4 New York City and 2 national landmarks
Each stop is fully discussed.

Some Highlights of the two hour tour are:

  • The narrowest house in New York & Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • Jefferson Market Courthouse, Stephen Crane, Harry Thaw
  • Gay Street (Gentleman Jimmy Walker - "My Sister Eileen - William Kunstler)
  • Sheridan Square & Christopher Park
  • 61 Grove St.
  • The Stonewall Inn (riot) - the Northern Dispensary
  • The Federal Archive Building
  • Grove Court and "The Last Leaf"
  • Landmark examples of Federal row houses built between 1825 and 1833
  • Landmark examples of Greek Revival row houses built in the 1840"s
  • St. Luke's in the Fields & Clement Clark Moore & Bret Hart
  • originally: The Federal Archives Bldg.
  • Lee Chumley and Chumleys was here
  • Isaacs - Hendrick's House from 1799 the oldest surviving house in the Village
  • Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman had an apartment here just before they were deported
  • The Whittmore Mansion from 1830, John Wilkes Booth, Hart Crane, "Lincoln Home"

The two and a half hour tour includes:

  • Mayor Jimmy Walker's home
  • Poet, Marion Moore lived here
  • Sherwood Anderson lived here
  • Theodore Dreiser lived here when he began "An American Tragedy"
  • the site of St. John's Cemetery which became Hudson Park and then James J. Walker Park
  • If there is a typical Village block this is the one
About two hours or the two and a half hour version
Meet at: the Northeast corner of W. 8 St. and Ave. of the Americas (6th Ave.)

The walking tour is given by Alfred Pommer a college graduate, an author,
an informative native New Yorker and a Licensed New York City Guide, who has spent over 25 years
researching, creating and leading walking tours in Manhattan's many diverse neighborhoods.
And has written 3 Manhattan guide books published by The History Press
"Exploring Manhattan's Murray Hill"  "Exploring New York's SoHo"   "Exploring the Original West Village"

Interested in a Private Walking Tour?
Call: (212) 979-2388 for details
  http://nycwalk.com    http://nycslideshows.com  or for a publicly scheduled walking tour   http://nycpublicwalks.com
Or : Click Here for advance ticket sales
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