Harvey's Prototype El - 1867

Village Beats

From the 20's to the 60's, Greenwich Village was the center of American counter-culture and artistic creativity. Singer Woody Guthrie (at left) was but one mainstay. They included Edward Hopper, Gertrude Vanderbilt, Marcel Duchamps, Eugene O'neill, Jackson Pollack, Truman Capote, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Pete Seeger, Joe Gould, Maxwell Bodeheim, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, and scores of others. In 1957, , Jack Kerouac published his novel On The Road, elevating the beats to international acclaim.

Even before, in the late 19th century, Bohemia was taking root in the Village. Henry James, though far from Bohemian, gave it artistic status with his novel Washington Square, published in 1881. In 1901, O Henry moved into an apartment on Grove St, and described what was already a flourishing scene:

"To quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents. Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or two from Sixth Avenue, and became a 'colony'."