The Stonewall Inn, New York, New York
I don't know how I ended up at Washington Square. I was supposed to be following signs for Christopher and 7th Streets. From George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal, I found my way into the 181st Street Subway station and caught either the 1 Train or the A Line. About 45 minutes and some 22 stops later, I got off at Christopher Street and Sheridan Square. I arrived at the intersection of Christopher, Grove and Fourth Streets some time later after walking around in circles. And there's Christopher Park on Christopher Street.
Both park and street are named after Charles Christopher Amos. Charles Christopher was a relative of Richard Amos, a trustee of the estate Sir Peter Warren. Sir Peter Warren was a British naval officer who owned 300 acres of land along the Hudson River waterfront where today's Lower Manhattan is located. The estate was part of the tobacco farm developed by Wouter Van Twiller, a Dutch settler. Upon Van Twiller's death, the tobacco farm was divided into three parts. and a part of it was acquired by Warren. Charles Christopher Amos inherited the Warren property the late 1700's.
Skinner Road that was named British Colonel William Skinner, the late Sir Peter Warren's son-in-law, was renamed Christopher Street soon after Charles Christopher Amos inherited the property. The former tobacco farm that became a rural suburb of farms and estates in the southern part of the Manhattan island got its name from its Dutch and British colonizers. Greenwich comes from the Dutch word "Greenwijck" which means "Pine District". Pronounced as "grin-itch" the once idyllic farm became the Greenwich Village and a refuge for New York mainland residents fleeing from the yellow fever outbreak in 1822.
Greenwich Village, often referred to as "the Village", has its roots to the Saponikanicans, the indigenous Americans who inhabited the island when it was a mere marshland. Dutch settlers came in the 1630's and cleared pastures and planted crops. Commercial activities began near the edge of the Hudson River after the Village survived the American Revolution (1790-1820). Urban development continued during the Empire Period from 1820 to 1860 when affluent residential development emerged in the eastern part of Lower Manhattan. New wave of immigrant groups from France, Ireland and Italy further dominated the Village from 1870 to 1900.
Greenwich Village is famously known for the beginnings of American bohemian movement. The term bohemian originally referred to gypsies commonly believed by the French to have originated from Bohemia. Bohemia is a historical region that used to be part of Czechoslovakia. When Czechoslovakia peacefully divided into two countries namely Czech Republic and Slovakia, Bohemia became part of the Czech Republic. Embracing unconventional lifestyles, artists, performers, writers and eccentric often times amoral and rebellious residents labelled as bohemians often congregated in the Village's watering holes, taverns, pubs, coffee houses and everywhere in the neighborhood.
The emergence of bohemianism at the Village rose alongside the Prohibition era (1920-1933). the nationwide constitutional ban on the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxication liquors. The Mafia is believed to have taken advantage of the unconventional lifestyles of bohemians and provided an underground venue for the sale and consumption of alcohol. After the Prohibition era ended, the underground venues proliferated into illegal nightspots that enabled the emerging gay community to thrive.
Organized crime families, such as the Mafia were known to own majority of the gay bars and clubs at the Village that was quickly becoming a hub for the burgeoning gay community in New York City in the mid 1960's. In 1966, Stonewall Inn, then a low earning straight bar and restaurant, was purchased by a known Mafia member and renovated, reopened and illegally operated as a gay bar. While homosexuality was legal in the state of New York, establishments openly serving alcohol to gay customers were considered by the State Liquor Authority (SLA) as "disorderly houses".
Because of the SLA, Stonewall Inn operated as a private "bottle club" and did not have a liquor license, it was easily entered into and raided by the police. The New York's Sixth Police District had to be bribed for Stonewall Inn to operate. The 1969 hepatitis outbreak among Stonewall Inn patrons that led to citations revealed that the illegal establishment did not have access to running water and drinks were in dirty or used glasses. The bar was also cited for lack of a rear exit and the only escape in an event of emergency like a fire, a raid or a riot was through a narrow entrance. The Stonewall Inn was indeed raided on the early morning of June 28, 1969.
Christopher Park became a refuge for rioters in the three-day Stonewall Uprising following the Stonewall Inn raid. Given a new perspective on the history or Greenwich Village, Christopher Park which was built in 1837 is not only a landmark for the LGBTQ movement but also how the Village transformed itself from being the epicenter of bohemia in America.
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