It is most notable for theStonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher Street near the corner ofSeventh Avenue South. As a result of theStonewall riots in 1969, the street became the center of the world'sgay rights movement in the 1970s. To this day, the inn and the street serve as an international symbol ofgay pride.
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 nearbyCharles Street, and of the former Amos Street, which is nowWest 10th Street.[1][2]
Christopher Street is, technically, the oldest street in theWest Village, as it ran along the south boundary ofAdmiral Sir Peter Warren's estate, which abutted the old Greenwich Road (nowGreenwich 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 now10th Street.[3][4]
The road ran past the churchyard wall of theChurch of St. Luke in the Fields (built 1820–22; rebuilt after a fire, 1981–85) still standing on its left, down to theferry landing, commemorated in the block-long Weehawken Street[5] (laid out in 1829), the shortest street in the West Village. At theHudson River, 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 toSing Sing and the City plotted and sold the land.[6]
West Street is on more recently filled land, but the procession of boats that had made the inaugural pass through theErie Canal 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.[7]
In 1961,Jane Jacobs, resident in the area and author ofThe Death and Life of Great American Cities published that same year, headed a group that successfully stoppedMayor Robert Wagner's plan to demolish twelve blocks along West Street north of Christopher Street, including the north side of Christopher Street toHudson Street, and an additional two blocks south of it, slated for "urban renewal".[8]
Christopher Street is the site of theStonewall Inn, thebar whose patrons fought back violently in June 1969 against a police raid, sparking theStonewall riots that are widely seen as the birth of thegay liberation movement.[9] 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.[12] The annual gay pride festivals inBerlin,Cologne, and other German cities are known asChristopher Street Days.
In part because of the riots at the Stonewall Inn, the LGBT community came to congregate around Christopher Street.[13][14] By the early 1970s, other LGBT businesses had opened along the street, even as the bar itself had closed.[13][15] A commentator forThe Advocate wrote in 1972 that the riots had succeeded in associating Christopher Street's name with LGBT culture,[15] while a 1982Washington Post article described the street, and particularly the bar's site, as the "birthplace of the gay rights movement in this country".[14] Large numbers of gay men would stroll its length at seemingly all hours. Gay bars and stores sellingleather 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, as well as the growth of other nearby Manhattan neighborhoods (such asChelsea andHell’s Kitchen) as centers of gay life.
On June 23, 2015, the Stonewall Inn was the first landmark in New York City to be recognized by theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on the basis of its status in LGBT history,[18] and on June 24, 2016, theStonewall National Monument was named the firstU.S. National Monument dedicated to the LGBTQ-rights movement.[19] The visitor center opened on June 28, 2024, as the first official national visitors center dedicated to the LGBTQ+ experience to open anywhere in the world. Numerous politicians and celebrities participated in the inauguration ceremonies,[20][21] and theNew York City Subway's Christopher Street–Sheridan Square station was renamed theChristopher Street–Stonewall station on the same day.[20][22]
NearSixth Avenue, Christopher Street intersects with a short, winding street, coincidentally namedGay Street.
Since 1992, Christopher Park, located at the intersection of Christopher, Grove, andWest 4th Streets, has hosted a duplicate of the sculptureGay Liberation Monument byGeorge Segal to commemorate thegay rights traditions of the area.[23] TheOscar Wilde Bookshop, located on the corner of Christopher and Gay, was the oldestLGBT bookshop in the world until it closed in 2009.[24]
Adjacent to Sheridan Square is Christopher Park, a .145 acre landmark. The park that contains abronze statue ofPhilip Sheridan and a reproduction of George Segal'sGay Liberation, originally located atStanford University.
St John's Lutheran Church is at 81 Christopher Street, between Bleecker and West 4th Streets.
At the westernmost tip is theChristopher Street Pier, which was recently renovated and converted into a waterfront park.
Christopher Street is the first stop in Manhattan on the 33rd Street branches of thePATH. The PATH identifies Christopher Street station with a large single capital 'C'.
At the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street is theHess triangle, 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.
All locations can be accessed via the westboundM8 bus, which runs along the entire street (eastbound buses use West 10th Street).
"Christopher Street" is both a song and the main location of the 1953 musicalWonderful Town.
The courtyard of 125 Christopher Street was the model for the sets of the 1954 thriller filmRear Window, directed byAlfred Hitchcock. The character played byJames Stewart, in calling the police, gives the address of the building he has been watching as “125 West 9th Street.” This address does not exist, because West 9th Street ends at Sixth Avenue and continues west as Christopher Street.
The 1979 episode "The Spy" of the TV showBarney Miller—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.
On the TV showNYPD Blue,season 7, 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.
TheLou Reed song "Halloween Parade" from his 1989 albumNew York begins with the line "There's a downtown fairy singing out 'Proud Mary' as she cruises Christopher Street."
In the comic series "Preacher", it is referenced as the current address of detective Paul Bridges, implying that the tough, ruthless, and homophobic detective, was in fact homosexual.
InThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel episode "Interesting People on Christopher St.", the main character Miriam mistaking her manager for a lesbian (the character Susie's sexuality is ambiguous), goes to Christopher St. surreptitiously asking for info on a lesbian bar, often being rebuffed as she is mistaken for an undercover cop.
^Sawyer-Lauðcanno, Christopher (2004).E.E. Cummings: A Biography. Sourcebooks. p. 135.ISBN9781570717758. RetrievedOctober 7, 2007.On March 2 he moved out of the Brevoort Hotel, where he had been staying, and took up residence at 11 Christopher Street, in the West Village.
^Embury, Stuart P. (2006). "Chapter One: The Early Years".The Art and Life ofLuigi Lucioni. Embury Publishing Company. pp. 1–3.
^"Dawn Powell, Novelist, Is Dead; Author of Witty, Satirical Books; Middle Class Was the Object of Her Stinging Fiction-13 Books Published",The New York Times, November 16, 1965. "Miss Powell, who had resided in Greenwich Village most of her life, maintained an apartment at 95 Christopher Street, where she did most of her writing in recent years."
