Little Island Park is at the end of West 14th Street in the Hudson River. It was financed by entrepeneour Barry Diller – Wikipedia. He is married to Diane von Fürstenberg – Wikipedia. It is a little forrest on concrete mushrooms. It is very popular with tourists.
It was low rents which attracted writers, aspiring actors, and musicians to the Village. As we walk these streets I tell of some of the many who made Greenwich Village legends.
Almost every street in the Village has had some kind of creative person living there. On my street, Horatio Street, alone there have been many, such as: the sculptor Chaim Gross (#48) and painter Jackson Pollack (#47). Then there are writers like: James Baldwin (#81), and John Cheever (#51. Also folk singer Richie Havens (#53) and pop star Tod Rundgren (#51) have made this street their home.
In 1847 27 year old Poe came to New York City with his bride of 13. Here on Bleeker St. he was living when his first work was published, The Raven in the Evening Mirror. Poe then left the city for about a decade returning with his wife now in the last stages of tuberculosis. He then went to the country side of the Bronx for her health where she passed and Poe left New York never to return.
As a little boy I played with Wendy Lambert in Abingdon Square Park . I was the scruffy one while she was the little princess. Her Father was David Lambert of the Jazz singing group of Lambert, Hendrix and Ross. When my mom visited them Wendy and I would sit in there organ box reading comics. Hear exactly what a organ box is when on my Village walk.
The courthouse was built in 1877. There was a fire tower there in circa 1833 and the Jefferson Market. It is now a library Jefferson Market Library – Wikipedia.
Jefferson Market Courthouse was a night court for the next 70 years. Arraigned there defendants such as Boss Tweed, head of Tammany Hall and embezzler of hundreds of millions of dollars during his regime in NYC; Harry Thaw, who killed the architect Stamford White; and May West for lewdness on stage in her production “Sex.”
I also tell of my history in the Village during my history walk in the second half of the 20th century and the characters and creative people I have known.
Marc's Village Walk 