Narrowest House in the Village

I was a total tourist on Sunday and went down to Bedford Street to take a picture of this, the narrowest house in Greenwich Village and all of New York. The house at 75 1/2 Bedford is 9.5 feet wide and was built in 1873. Before the house was built the space was used as an alley for carriages. The poet and playwright. Edna St. Vincent Millay lived here in 1923 when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and founded the Cherry Lane Theater. Cary Grant and John Barrymore, Drew's grandfather, also lived here. The house to the right claims to be the oldest in the village (built in 1799). A couple of blocks to the left is the home of a semi-famous soon-to-be ex-New Yorker. Around the corner is St. Luke's-in-the-Fields Church, where Clement Clark Moore wrote "'Twas the night before Christmas" for his children. Article about the house in the Washington Square News.

Comments

[corie]

ah, right down the street from my office! i love the west village simply for the history of the apartment buildings. have you ever read Republic of Dreams? It has a wonderful history of artists/writers and where they lived in the Village over time...

[joe]

Republic of Dreams is on my list but I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm always struck by the density of history in lower Manhattan. One of my favorite things to do with an out of town guest is to stand in Washington Square Park and start pointing at houses "Mark Twain lived there, Henry James lived there, Willa Cather lived there, Edgar Allen Poe lived..."

[H.E.larson]

I came for the bikes and stayed for the house, it
saves on carpet cost at that width. On the bikes if that are all the bikes the population of the naked city has fallen quite a number. I live in the dried up crotch of Lake Erie, but I am still just a lad from Jamaica,Q. I'll be back for more looks in the future.