Christopher Street is a street in the
West Village
The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City.
The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to th ...
neighborhood of the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle A ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. It is the continuation of
9th Street west of
Sixth Avenue.
It is most notable for the
Stonewall Inn
The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...
, which is located on Christopher Street near the corner of Seventh Avenue South. As a result of the
Stonewall riots in 1969, the street became the epicenter of the world’s
gay rights movement in the late 1970s. To this day, the inn and the street serve as an international symbol of
gay pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...
.
Christopher Street is named after Charles Christopher Amos, the owner of the inherited estate which included the location of the street. Amos is also the namesake of nearby
Charles Street, and of the former Amos Street, which is now
West 10th Street.
History
![Christopher St PATH entry jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Christopher_St_PATH_entry_jeh.jpg)
Christopher Street is, technically, the oldest street in the
West Village
The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City.
The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to th ...
, as it ran along the south boundary of
Admiral Sir Peter Warren
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
's estate, which abutted the old Greenwich Road (now
Greenwich Avenue
Greenwich Avenue, formerly Greenwich Lane, is a southeast-northwest avenue located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It extends from the intersection of 6th Avenue and 8th Street at its southeast end to it ...
) to the east and extended north to the next landing on the North River, at present-day Gansevoort Street. The street was briefly called Skinner Road after Colonel William Skinner, Sir Peter's son-in-law. The street received its current name in 1799, when the Warren land was acquired by Warren's eventual heir, Charles Christopher Amos. Charles Street remains, but Amos Street is now
10th Street.
The road ran past the churchyard wall of the
Church of St. Luke in the Fields (built 1820–22; rebuilt after a fire, 1981–85) still standing on its left, down to the ferry landing, commemorated in the block-long Weehawken Street (laid out in 1829), the shortest street in the West Village. At the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
, with its foundation in the river and extending north to 10th Street, Newgate Prison, the first New York State Prison, occupied the site from 1796 to 1829, when the institution was removed to
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...
and the City plotted and sold the land.
West Street
The Joe DiMaggio Highway, commonly called the West Side Highway and formerly the Miller Highway, is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A (NY 9A), running from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern t ...
is on more recently filled land, but the procession of boats that had made the inaugural pass through the
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
stopped at the ferry dock at the foot of Christopher Street, November 4, 1825, where it was met by a delegation from the city; together they proceeded to the Lower Bay, where the cask of water brought from the Great Lakes was ceremoniously emptied into the salt water.
In 1961,
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book '' The Death and Life of Great American Cities ...
, resident in the area and author of ''The Death and Life of Great American Cities'' published that same year, headed a group that successfully stopped
Mayor Robert Wagner's plan to demolish twelve blocks along West Street north of Christopher Street, including the north side of Christopher Street to
Hudson Street, and an additional two blocks south of it, slated for "
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
".
Gay icon
![Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg)
In the 1970s, Christopher Street became the "Main Street" of gay New York. Large numbers of gay men would stroll its length at seemingly all hours. Gay bars and stores selling
leather fetish clothing and artistic decorative items flourished at that time. This changed dramatically with the loss of many gay men during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Christopher Street is the site of the
Stonewall Inn
The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...
, the
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
whose patrons fought back violently in June 1969 against a police raid, sparking the
Stonewall riots that are widely seen as the birth of the
gay liberation
The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii ...
movement.
[ The Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee formed to commemorate the first anniversary of that event, the beginning of the international tradition of a late-June event to celebrate gay pride.] The annual gay pride festivals in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
, and other German cities are known as Christopher Street Days or "CSD".
''Christopher Street
Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue.
It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher S ...
'' magazine, a respected gay magazine, began publication in July 1976 and folded in December 1995.
Anaïs Nin once worked at Lawrence R. Maxwell Books, located at 45 Christopher Street
45 Christopher Street is a residential building facing south onto Christopher Park in the Greenwich Village Historic District on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City.
It was built by the developer brothers Bing & Bing with the archit ...
.
Iconic locations
Near Sixth Avenue, Christopher Street intersects with a short, winding street, coincidentally named Gay Street.
Since 1992, Christopher Park, located at the intersection of Christopher, Grove, and West 4th Streets, has hosted a duplicate of the sculpture '' Gay Liberation Monument'' by George Segal to commemorate the gay rights traditions of the area.
The Oscar Wilde Bookshop, located on the corner of Christopher and Gay, was the oldest LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
bookshop in the world until it closed in 2009.
Other locations
* McNulty's Tea and Coffee Company, a purveyor dating back to 1895, is on the street.
* Kettle of Fish, a bar now on Christopher Street, was once located above the famous Gaslight Cafe on MacDougal Street
MacDougal Street is a one-way street in the Greenwich Village and SoHo neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City. The street is bounded on the south by Prince Street and on the north by West 8th Street; its numbering begins in the south. Betw ...
. Since the Beat Generation, it has also become affiliated with Green Bay Packers fans.
* Adjacent to Sheridan Square is Christopher Park, a .145 acre landmark. The park that contains a bronze statue of Philip Sheridan
General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close as ...
and a reproduction of George Segal's ''Gay Liberation'', originally located at Stanford University.
* St John's Lutheran Church is at 81 Christopher Street, between Bleecker and West 4th Streets.
* The Lucille Lortel Theatre
The Lucille Lortel Theatre is an off-Broadway playhouse at 121 Christopher Street in Manhattan's West Village. It was built in 1926 as a 590-seat movie theater called the New Hudson, later known as Hudson Playhouse. The interior is largely unch ...
, an Off-Broadway playhouse, is located at 121 Christopher Street.
* At the westernmost tip is the Christopher Street Pier, which was recently renovated and converted into a waterfront park.
* Christopher Street
Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue.
It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher S ...
is the first stop in Manhattan on the 33rd Street branches of the PATH
A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail.
Path or PATH may also refer to:
Physical paths of different types
* Bicycle path
* Bridle path, used by people on horseback
* Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle
* Desire p ...
. The PATH identifies Christopher Street station with a large single capital 'C'.
* The street also hosts a station on the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
The IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line (also known as the IRT Seventh Avenue Line or the IRT West Side Line) is a New York City Subway line. It is one of several lines that serves the A Division, stretching from South Ferry in Lower Manhatta ...
at Christopher Street – Sheridan Square (), Formerly, the Christopher Street
Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue.
It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher S ...
elevated station served the now-demolished IRT Ninth Avenue Line.
* At the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street is the Hess triangle
The Hess triangle is a triangular tile mosaic set in a sidewalk in New York City's West Village neighborhood at the corner of Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street. The plaque reads "Property of the Hess Estate which ...
, a mosaic which reads "Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated for Public Purpose". A surveying error for the subway line left this small triangle remaining in private possession.
Notable current and past residents
*Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno ( , ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer.
He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of criti ...
, philosopher and cultural theorist, once lived at 45 Christopher Street
45 Christopher Street is a residential building facing south onto Christopher Park in the Greenwich Village Historic District on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City.
It was built by the developer brothers Bing & Bing with the archit ...
*Richard Amos, brother of Charles Christopher Amos, member of the Culper Spy Ring
The Culper Ring was a network of spies active during the American Revolutionary War, organized by Major Benjamin Tallmadge and General George Washington in 1778 during the British occupation of New York City. The name "Culper" was suggested by ...
in New York City during the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
*Eva Amurri
Eva Amurri (born March 15, 1985) is an American lifestyle blogger and actress.
Early life
Amurri was born on March 15, 1985 in New York City, to Italian director Franco Amurri and American actress Susan Sarandon (whose mother's ancestry was It ...
, actor
*Bob Balaban
Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''Gosford Park'' (2001), in which he also appeared.
Balab ...
, actor and writer, lived at 95 Christopher Street
* Vincent Canadé, artist, lived at 86 Christopher Street in the 1930s
*James Coco
James Emil Coco (March 21, 1930 – February 25, 1987) was an American stage and screen actor. He was the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a Drama Desk Award and three Obie Awards, as well as nominations for a Tony Award, an Academy Award a ...
, actor, once lived at 45 Christopher Street
*E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...
, poet, lived at 11 Christopher Street in 1918
* Harlan Ellison, science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
author, lived at 95 Christopher Street in the early 1960s
*Dick Francis
Richard Stanley Francis (31 October 1920 – 14 February 2010) was a British steeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels centre on horse racing in England.
After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, wi ...
, science fiction illustrator, once lived at 105 Christopher Street
* Ben M. Hall, author and founder of the Theatre Historical Society of America, lived at 181 Christopher Street where he was murdered in 1970
*Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris (born 19 September 1927) is an English actress. She is the recipient of such accolades as a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. In ...
, actress, once lived at 77 Christopher Street
*Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—typically lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical produ ...
, actor
*Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland (born October 31, 1941) is an American film, television and stage actress and producer. A former member of Andy Warhol's The Factory and an active member in 1960s New York avant-garde theater, she has appeared in more than 250 fi ...
, actress, once lived at 84 Christopher Street
* Luigi Lucioni, Italian-American painter known for his still lifes, landscapes, and portrait
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...
s. His family emigrated to Christopher Street from Malnate
Malnate is a town and '' comune'' located in the province of Varese, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. It lies in a mountainous region approximately north of Milan, in the foothills of the Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, A ...
, Italy in 1911.
* Peter MacNicol, actor, once lived at 95 Christopher Street
*Marshall W. Mason
Marshall W. Mason (born February 24, 1940) is an American theater director, educator, and writer. Mason founded the Circle Repertory Company in New York City and was artistic director of the company for 18 years (1969–1987). He received an Obie ...
, theater director, lived at 165 Christopher Street for 43 years
*David "Fathead" Newman
David "Fathead" Newman (February 24, 1933 – January 20, 2009) was an American jazz and rhythm-and-blues saxophonist, who made numerous recordings as a session musician and leader, but is best known for his work as a sideman on seminal 1950s an ...
, jazz musician who lived at 95 Christopher through the 1980s
*Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
, singer and artist, once lived at 87 Christopher Street
*William Poole
William Poole (July 24, 1821 – March 8, 1855), also known as Bill the Butcher, was the leader of the Washington Street Gang, which later became known as the Bowery Boys gang. He was a local leader of the Know Nothing political movement ...
, member of the New York City gang Bowery Boys
*Dawn Powell
Dawn Powell (November 28, 1896 – November 14, 1965) was an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and short story writer. Known for her acid-tongued prose, "her relative obscurity was likely due to a general distaste for her harsh sati ...
, author, lived at 95 Christopher Street from 1963 to 1965
*Lindsay Price
Lindsay Jaylyn Price Stone (born December 6, 1976) is an American television actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Janet Sosna on ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' and as Victory Ford on '' Lipstick Jungle''. She is also known for her wor ...
, actress
*Amy Sedaris
Amy Louise Sedaris (; born March 29, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Most recently, she has appeared in both ''The Mandalorian'' (2019–2020) and '' The Book of Boba Fett'' (2022) as Peli Motto. She played Jerri Blank in the ...
, actress and comedian, once lived at 95 Christopher Street
*Linda Solomon
Linda Solomon (born May 10, 1937, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic and editor. Although she has written about various aspects of popular culture, her main focus has been on folk music, blues, R&B, jazz and country music. Livi ...
, New York editor of '' New Musical Express'' and ''Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
'' columnist lived at 95 Christopher from 1960 to 1999
* Ted White, author and editor, once lived at 105 Christopher Street
In popular culture
*"Christopher Street" is both a song and the main location of the 1953 musical ''Wonderful Town
''Wonderful Town'' is a 1953 musical with book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Leonard Bernstein. The musical tells the story of two sisters who aspire to be a writer and act ...
''.
*The courtyard of 125 Christopher Street was the model for the sets of the 1954 thriller film ''Rear Window
''Rear Window'' is a 1954 American mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film st ...
'', directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
*The 1979 episode "The Spy" of the TV show ''Barney Miller
''Barney Miller'' is an American sitcom television series set in a New York City Police Department police station on East 6th St in Greenwich Village. The series was broadcast on ABC Network from January 23, 1975, to May 20, 1982. It was created ...
'' -- about a group of New York City police detectives working in the fictional 12th Precinct in Greenwich Village -- established Miller's home address as 617 Christopher Street.
*In Paul Simon's 1983 song "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War
"René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War" is a ballad written and sung by Paul Simon.
The song first appeared as the eighth track on ''Hearts and Bones'', the 1983 album that was the sixth in Simon's solo career. It also appear ...
," artist René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bound ...
and his wife Georgette "were strolling down Christopher Street when they stopped in a men's store."
*The 1999 song "My My Metrocard", by queercore
Queercore (or homocore) is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifical ...
punk band Le Tigre
Le Tigre (, ; French for "The Tiger") is an American electronic rock band formed by Kathleen Hanna (of Bikini Kill), Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning in 1998 in New York City. Benning left in 2000 and was replaced by JD Samson for the rest ...
on their debut album, mentions the location.
*On the TV show '' NYPD Blue'', season 7
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
, episode 3 (June 2000) "The Man with Two Right Shoes" shows Christopher Street directly after detectives mention "hitting the fairy bars" to find a gay, male prostitute.
*The Lou Reed song "Halloween Parade" from his 1989 album '' New York'' begins with the line "There's a downtown fairy singing out 'Proud Mary' as she cruises Christopher Street."
*In the comic series "Preacher
A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...
", it's referenced as the current address of detective Paul Bridges, implying that the tough, ruthless, and homophobic detective, was in fact homosexual.
*The Clash song “Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)” references Christopher Street with the lyrics, “A Polaroid caught in the act, you’re married too and that’s a fact, but I won’t peak and I won’t squeak down by the trucks on Christopher Street…”
References
External links
Gay/Lesbian nightlife on Christopher Street
from GayCities New York
NYSonglines.com virtual walking tour
{{American gay villages
Streets in Manhattan
Stonewall National Monument