Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay (above) was one of the "Bohemians" who put Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood on the map. Millay and others such as dancer Isadora Duncan and writer Eugene O'Neill made "The Village" a place where anything goes - an identification the neighborhood still clings to today.
Back in the 1920's, Millay lived at 75 1/2 Bedford Street in a former carriage house and cobbler's shop. It is said that this is the house where Millay seduced literary critic Edmund Wilson - one of her many lovers (male and female). The nine and a half feet-wide structure still survives today (see picture below), and it is said to be the narrowest house in Greenwich Village. In 1993 the house sold for less than $300,000 - but today would probably sell for a few million. It is not unusual for larger townhouses in the neighborhood to sell for $10 million or more.
I work about 3 blocks away from this house, but have only walked past it two or three times in all the years I've lived in New York. Bedford Street is almost exclusively residential, with very few (if any) businesses - thus there isn't much reason to go there unless you live there.
Sources: Ephemeral New York and Wikipedia.
Back in the 1920's, Millay lived at 75 1/2 Bedford Street in a former carriage house and cobbler's shop. It is said that this is the house where Millay seduced literary critic Edmund Wilson - one of her many lovers (male and female). The nine and a half feet-wide structure still survives today (see picture below), and it is said to be the narrowest house in Greenwich Village. In 1993 the house sold for less than $300,000 - but today would probably sell for a few million. It is not unusual for larger townhouses in the neighborhood to sell for $10 million or more.
I work about 3 blocks away from this house, but have only walked past it two or three times in all the years I've lived in New York. Bedford Street is almost exclusively residential, with very few (if any) businesses - thus there isn't much reason to go there unless you live there.
Sources: Ephemeral New York and Wikipedia.
i want to live in that house, its fabulous
ReplyDeletehow fabulous is this? I would love to live in NYC and have all this great stuff around me. Just to walk those neighborhoods....wow.
ReplyDeleteI love learning stuff like this! (English teacher - what can I say?)
ReplyDeleteEver since the 60's when the Village had all those coffee houses and folk singers I heard about, I've wanted to be there.
as a realtor...all i can think of is what a fabulous commission that house would be. seriously, $1million for a 9' wide walk up? you could have one hell of a swankienda in Houston for a million. ok, now everyone can say it together...yea, but why would we want to live in Houston:)
ReplyDeleteI love these kind of posts David. more more more.
ReplyDeleteand Joy- I wuz there back then. It was all it was said to be and then some.
xoxocharlie