| Washington Square South | |
 West 4th Street at Jane Street | |
 Interactive map of 4th Street | |
| Former name | Asylum Street |
|---|---|
| Maintained by | NYCDOT |
| Length | 2.0 mi (3.2 km)[1] |
| Location | Manhattan,New York City |
| Postal code | 10014, 10012, 10003, 10009 |
| West end | West 13th / Gansevoort Streets inMeatpacking |
| East end | Avenue D inEast Village |
| North | Waverly Place (Bank to Grove Streets) Washington Place (Grove Street to Broadway) 5th Street (Bowery to Avenue D) |
| South | Hudson Street (13th Street to 8th Avenue) Bleecker Street (8th to 6th Avenues) 3rd Street (6th Avenue to Avenue D) |
4th Street is a street inLower Manhattan,New York City. It starts atAvenue D asEast 4th Street and continues toBroadway, where it becomesWest 4th Street. It continues west until theAvenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), where West 4th Street turns north and confusingly intersects with West10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th Streets inGreenwich Village. Most of the street has the same 40-foot (12 m) width between curbstones as others in the prevailing street grid, striped as two curbside lanes and one traffic lane, with one-way traffic eastbound. The portion from Seventh to Eighth Avenues is westbound (northbound geographically) and is approximately 35 feet (11 m) wide, a legacy of the original Greenwich Village street grid. The section of four short blocks fromMacDougal Street toUniversity Place which forms the southern border ofWashington Square Park is calledWashington Square South.[2]
The north/south portion (from Sixth Avenue to 13th Street) was formerly calledAsylum Street, after the Orphan Asylum Society, which stood on Asylum Street between Bank Street and Troy Street (now West 12th Street). The asylum was demolished in 1833 and the street was renamed West 4th Street. Later, the cross streets (Amos, Hammond, and Troy) were renamed West 10th, 11th, and 12th Streets, causing the current confusion.[3]
Located near Washington Square Park's south-west corner, betweenMacDougal Street andSixth Avenue, The Washington Square Methodist Church (135 West Fourth) is an earlyRomanesque Revival marble edifice designed by Gamaliel King and built in 1859–60.[4] Dubbed the "Peace Church" for its support ofVietnam War protesters, Washington Square Church long provided a neighborhood base foractivist groups such as theBlack Panthers andGay Men's Health Crisis. The church was sold in 2005 to a developer for conversion into residential units.[5] During construction, parts of the church were salvaged to form the furniture and interior architecture of Urban Spring, a cafe in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
Judson Memorial Church, located at the corner ofThompson Street and Washington Square South, was designed by architectStanford White and stained glass masterJohn La Farge.
TheWest Fourth Street subway station (A, B, C, D, E, F, <F>, and M trains) atSixth Avenue is one of the major transfer points in theNew York City Subway.
The street is home to thebasketball andhandballWest Fourth Street Courts, known as "The Cage", a hangout for some of New York's best basketball players and the site of a citywidestreetball tournament.[6]
West 4th Street has always been a center of the Village's bohemian lifestyle. The Village's first tearoom, The Mad Hatter, was located at 150 West 4th Street and served as a meeting place for intellectuals and artists.
The infamous Golden Swan bar (known as the "Hell Hole"), at the corner of Sixth Avenue, was a famous haunt ofEugene O'Neill and the setting and inspiration for his playThe Iceman Cometh. WriterWilla Cather's first New York residence was at 60 Washington Square South (4th Street between LaGuardia Place and Thompson Place) and radical journalistsJohn Reed andLincoln Steffens lived nearby at 42 Washington Square South. Reed later worked in a room in the Studio Club building to complete the series of articles that became his account of theBolshevik Revolution,Ten Days That Shook the World, later the source for the filmReds.[7]
Sculptor and art patronGertrude Vanderbilt Whitney established the Whitney Studio Club in abrownstone at 147 West 4th Street in 1918 as a place for young artists to gather and show their work. The facility operated for ten years and was the second incarnation of what would later become theWhitney Museum of American Art.[8] It started the careers of such artists asAshcan School painterJohn Sloan,Edward Hopper, whose first one-man exhibit was held there in 1920, andsocial realistsReginald Marsh andIsabel Bishop. Sloan lived at 240 West 4th St and painted locations on the street including the Golden Swan.
The street was later home to the famous folk clubGerde's Folk City (11 West 4th Street), which hosted the New York debuts ofBob Dylan in 1961 andSimon & Garfunkel. Dylan also lived from early-1962 until late-1964 in a small $60-per-month studio apartment at 161 West 4th Street;[9] the cover ofThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was photographed at nearbyJones Street at West 4th, and the street may have inspired his 1965 hit song "Positively 4th Street".Louis Abolafia, the 1968 hippie candidate for the presidency, had his artists' studio and campaign headquarters at 129 East 4th St.
Music venueThe Bottom Line was at 15th West 4th Street from 1974 to 2004.
