Christopher Street (Manhattan)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Christopher_Street_(Manhattan)".

Christopher Street

The Hangar Cafe, Christopher Street

Oscar Wilde Bookshop, on a corner of Christopher and Gay streets

Segal's sculptures on Sheridan Square

Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan, and was at the center of New York's gay rights movement in the late 1970s. To this day the street serves as a symbol of gay pride.

Christopher Street is the oldest street in the West Village, as it ran along the south boundary of Admiral Sir Peter Warren's estate, which abutted the old Greenwich Road (now Greenwich Avenue) 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.^[1][2]

The road ran down to the ferry landing, commemorated in the block-long Weehawken Street^[3] (laid out in 1829), the shortest street in the West Village. At the Hudson River, with its foundation in the river and extending north to 10th Street, Newgate Prison, the first New York State Prison, occupied the site, 1796-1829, when the institution was removed to Sing Sing and the City plotted and sold the land. ^[4] West Street is more recent filled land, but the procession of boats that had made the inaugural pass through the Erie Canal stopped at the ferry dock at the foot of Christopher Street, 4 November 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.^[5]

In 1961 Jane Jacobs, resident in the area and author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities published that same year, headed a group that successfully stoped 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, demolished for "urban renewal".^[6]

Christopher Street is the first stop in Manhattan on the 33rd Street Line of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson rapid transit railroad. The PATH identifies Christopher Street station with a large single capital 'C'. The street also has a station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line (1 2) at Christopher Street–Sheridan Square.

Notable residents of Christopher Street

• Bob Balaban, actor-writer (lived at 95 Christopher)
• e. e. cummings, poet (lived at 11 Christopher in 1918).^[7]
• Vincent Canade, artist (lived at 86 Christopher in the 1930s)
• Harlan Ellison, author (lived at 95 Christopher in the 1960s)
• Dick Francis, science fiction illustrator (once lived at 105 Christopher)
• Ben M. Hall, author (The Best Remaining Seats) and founder of the Theatre Historical Society of America (once lived at 181 Christopher where he was murdered in 1970)
• Sally Kirkland, actress (once lived at 84 Christopher)
• Dawn Powell, author (lived at 95 Christopher in 1963-65).^[8]
• Amy Sedaris, actress and comedian
• Linda Solomon, NY editor of New Musical Express and Village Voice columnist (lived at 95 Christopher 1960-99)
• Ted White, author-editor (once lived at 105 Christopher)
• Theodor Adorno, (philosopher and cultural theorist) (once lived at 45 Christopher Street)
• Felipe Montejo, lawyer (lived at 95 Christopher Street since 1997)
• John Balfe, Irish screenwriter and journalist (lived at 16 Christopher in 2004)
• William Poole, member of the New York City gang, the Bowery Boys
• Yoko Ono (lived at 87 Christopher)

Christopher Street as gay icon

Christopher Street is the site of the Stonewall Inn, the bar whose patrons started the 1969 Stonewall riots that are widely seen as the birth of the gay liberation 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. [1] The annual gay pride festivals in Berlin, Cologne, and other German cities are known as Christopher Street Day or "CSD".

Christopher Street magazine, which began publication in July 1976 was, for many years, one of the most respected gay magazines in the U.S., until it folded in December 1995.

Near Sixth Avenue, Christopher Street intersects with a short, winding street, named by a 150-year-old coincidence, Gay Street.

Sheridan Square Park is now decorated with sculptures by George Segal, called Gay Pride, to commemorate the gay rights traditions of the place.

"Christopher Street" is both a song and the main location of the musical Wonderful Town.

Other Businesses

Christopher Street is home to McNulty's Tea and Coffee Company, a purveyor dating back to 1895.^[9][10]

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Christopher Street

• GayCities New York: Gay/Lesbian nightlife on Christopher Street

• Christopher Street (Manhattan) is at coordinates <span class="geo-dms" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for Expression error: Unexpected < operator°Expression error: Unexpected < operator′Expression error: Unexpected < operator″Expression error: Unrecognised word "n" Expression error: Unexpected < operator°Expression error: Unexpected < operator′Expression error: Unexpected < operator″Expression error: Unrecognised word "w"">Expression error: Unexpected < operator°Expression error: Unexpected < operator′Expression error: Unexpected < operator″Expression error: Unrecognised word "n" Expression error: Unexpected < operator°Expression error: Unexpected < operator′Expression error: Unexpected < operator″Expression error: Unrecognised word "w" / N40:43:976, -W74:00:609 (Christopher Street (Manhattan))Coordinates: <span class="geo-dms" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for Expression error: Unexpected < operator°Expression error: Unexpected < operator′Expression error: Unexpected < operator″Expression error: Unrecognised word "n" Expression error: Unexpected < operator°Expression error: Unexpected < operator′Expression error: Unexpected < operator″Expression error: Unrecognised word "w"">Expression error: Unexpected < operator°Expression error: Unexpected < operator′Expression error: Unexpected < operator″Expression error: Unrecognised word "n" Expression error: Unexpected < operator°Expression error: Unexpected < operator′Expression error: Unexpected < operator″Expression error: Unrecognised word "w" / N40:43:976, -W74:00:609 (Christopher Street (Manhattan))Expression error: Unrecognised word "n"Expression error: Unrecognised word "w"