HISTORY NOW

West Fourth Street and Charles Street

By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP

Keeping track of our current street names and directions can be challenging, even after living here awhile. Learning the history of our streets can deepen our appreciation of how we got here, even if it doesn’t help us navigate around the city,

In the early 1800s when streets were being established and named, developers who were purchasing land and building buildings often had the privilege of naming the streets.

Here is a sampling in the West 4th and Charles area.

Streets along the North (Hudson) River were originally laid out roughly perpendicular or parallel to the river, like Greenwich, Hudson and Houston streets. Streets further inland tended to follow property lines, like Christopher and Bedford streets, or Greenwich Lane (now Avenue). When the 1811 Grid Plan was adopted, the changes were dramatic. In trying to connect the gridded streets with the diagonal village streets, connections were often forced and name changes made little sense.

Let’s start at Waverly Place between West 10th and Charles streets. According to the 1969 Greenwich Village Historic District (HD) report, that part of Waverly Place running in a northerly direction from Christopher Street was named Catherine Street until 1813. It was renamed Factory Street until 1853, since it ran through a manufacturing district. On the block between 10th and Charles streets, extending west to 4th Street, stood Samuel Whittemore’s factory for manufacturing carding equipment. On the block between Charles and Perry streets, extending east to Greenwich Avenue, stood the Eagle Mills, later the Eagle Distillery. And on Bank Street, at the end of Factory Street, stood McLachlan’s Brewery which extended east to Greenwich Avenue. In 1853, after the area changed to a residential district, Factory Street was renamed Waverly Place. That’s when it became an extension of the earlier Waverly Place which runs westward from Washington Square to Grove Street, and which had originally been West 6th Street. This tendency to continue a street name, even when drastically changing directions, would create bigger problems when applied elsewhere.

Connected to Waverly Place is Charles Street. Between Greenwich Avenue and Waverly Place, it was known as Warren Place when they were developed in 1845-48. This name honored Admiral Sir Peter Warren, whose summer home stood nearby on his farm of over 300 acres. It covered the heart of Greenwich Village including this block. The special character intended for both sides of this block was set by houses with ample front yards. However, the quiet dignity of the rows of mid-19th Century town houses was almost overwhelmed by the 18-story apartment house at the new Seventh Avenue South.

Continuing west on Charles, we come to West 4th Street, which creates the most non-sensical clashes of street naming I know. West 4th Street intersects with nearby West 10th Street, and also intersects with West 11th and West 12th streets just further north. It didn’t have to be this confusing. This newer named part of West 4th Street, running in a northerly direction above Christopher Street, wasn’t always so-named. It was William Street until 1813, when it was renamed Asylum Street, which doubtless honored the favorite charity of New Yorkers, the Orphan Asylum Society, as noted in the HD report. Founded in 1806 by Mrs. Isabella Graham, the Asylum’s extensive grounds were between West 12th and Bank streets, toward Greenwich Avenue. Asylum Street was extended in a southeasterly direction in 1831, from Christopher Street to Sixth Avenue, where it faced the then western termination of the original West 4th Street. Despite the consequences, two years later both sections of Asylum Street were renamed West 4th Street as far northward as Eighth Avenue and Jane Street. I can only wish they had reverted to some other place name, not a number. (Note that 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 streets do not continue across Sixth Avenue, only 4, 10,11, and 12 streets.)

While we are here at West 4th and Charles streets, let’s see what was built here. 62 Charles Street is a large Federal town house of Flemish bond brick work, now four stories high, originally three stories in height. It is the corner ending a row of lower brick houses facing 4th Street, which were built in 1828. This corner town house is also No. 249 West 4th Street. They were among the developments of Samuel Whittemore, a large property owner of the Village. Its floor levels do not accord with those of his other four houses to the south, which have stoops. This was often the case with corner buildings which were likely to be planned for stores at street level. There was a store at No. 249 by 1851, where Augustus Neidhardt had both his grocery and his home in this corner house. A “Horse and Carriage” taxi service operated there when a fourth story with larger windows was added in 1898-99, under a bracketed roof cornice. In 1901 John Phillips added a long low extension capped by a stone coping, at the rear of the building along Charles Street. An Irish tavern called “Talk of the Town” then opened here and became famous for beer and burgers, until it changed hands again in 1936 and became Sevilla Restaurant, which remains today.