The narrow, cobblestoned streets of the West Village are lined with rowhouses two hundred years old and shaded by the green canopies of ancient trees.
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| West Village Street in winter (Wikipedia) |
These streets wander at the will of the settlers who moved north of the original city to escape the cholera and yellow fever epidemics of the early 19th century. Some of them wander at the will of the cows that grazed there even earlier.
The West Village is bounded on the east by 7th Avenue (some say 6th), on the west by the Hudson River, on the north by 14th Street and on the south by Houston or perhaps a few blocks below. What's between does not follow Manhattan’s grid.
The West Village is bounded on the east by 7th Avenue (some say 6th), on the west by the Hudson River, on the north by 14th Street and on the south by Houston or perhaps a few blocks below. What's between does not follow Manhattan’s grid.
Minetta Street, named for the brook that still runs under parts of it, makes an abrupt turn for no particular reason. So does Gay Street. 4th and 11th Streets intersect. Commerce Street has absolutely nothing to do with commerce.
No wonder it was home to the Bohemians, artists, poets, folksingers and others of earlier generations who rebelled against convention.
Once, when I was new to New York, after venturing only a few blocks into the West Village, I got so lost that I had to take a taxi to get back to my apartment on 12th Street. It was years before I went back in there again without a map.
The early 20th century Gothic horror writer H. P. Lovecraft wrote a bone-chilling story about an unfortunate who gets lost in the West Village late one night under a full moon (and apparently couldn’t get a taxi). I will spare you the grisly details.* But that was long, long ago, and besides, he made it up.
Today the shops along Bleecker Street are as chic and trendy as those in Soho or on upper Madison. The historic townhouses are as pricey as are to be found anywhere in Manhattan. A penthouse condo can cost upwards of $20,000,000.
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| Gay Street winds around a corner (Chester Higgins photo, NY Times) |
But if you’re willing to make certain sacrifices, you can live there quite inexpensively.
If you don’t mind the climb, a fourth-floor walkup studio can be yours for under $350,000. The average one bedroom apartment will cost you about $800,000, with maintenance of about $1100.
Not bad when you consider that the average one-bedroom in the Central Village just a few blocks east costs $880,000, and could run as high as nearly $3,000,000 if it has a garden and is on the Gold Coast (that would be Fifth Avenue or just off it).
A two bedroom apartment in the West Village will cost an average of $2,750,000.
If you want amenities such as a doorman, or if you want a condo, especially a prewar condo, you’ll pay more—about $1,500,000 for a one bedroom, $2,900,000 for a two bedroom.
Until recently, there were three pre-eminent prewar doorman condos in the West Village, all built in the 1920s by the architectural firm of Bing & Bing. They are 299 and 302 West 12th Streets and 45 Christopher Street.
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Map of old Greenwich Village. A section of Bernard Ratzer's map of New York and its suburbs, made in the Eighteenth Century, when Greenwich was more than two miles from the city. ("Greenwich Village" Anna Alice Chapin)
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But this year, two other prewar buildings have converted to condominiums.
130 West 12th Street was a residential building for the staff of Roosevelt Hospital.
130 West 12th Street was a residential building for the staff of Roosevelt Hospital.
It is now, as per the website, “Forty-Two Boutique Residences-One to Four Bedrooms $1.395 Million to $12.850 Million.“ They came to market last November and the building is now sold out.
The Abingdon, formerly a nursing home and now ten very large and very pricey condos, is also selling briskly. The smallest measures 3263 square feet and is priced at $8,750,000.
The largest, at 9615 square feet (or nearly a quarter of an acre) plus a substantial terrace, is $25,000,000. These were first offered in early June, and five of the ten are now under contract.
Sorry. I was going to talk about how inexpensive it can be to live in the West Village. Somehow I got sidetracked. Back to reality.
If you don’t have $8,750,000 at the moment and would prefer to rent anyway, you can have one of a few—a very few—studios in walkup buildings for under $2,000.
The average rent for a studio apartment is about $2,800. For a one bedroom, the average is about $4,500, and for a two bedroom the average is about $7,900.
Be aware that once you live in the West Village, you will find it difficult to live anywhere else. As a broker, I have never been able to pry anyone out with a crowbar.
*Okay, I'll give you this much: "...a colossal, shapeless influx of inky substance starred with shining, malevolent eyes.....poured thickly, like a flood of oil bursting a rotten bulkhead, overturned a chair as it spread, and finally flowed under the table and across the room to where the blackened head...still glared at me."
You gotta love Lovecraft.
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