Washington Square: Gilded Age and Boho Greenwich Village Walking Tour

From the Gilded Age, to the Bohemian Era, and the Beat Generation, Greenwich Village has long been at the bleeding edge of New York City’s art, music, theater and literary scenes. On this 90-minute walking tour, you’ll meet famous radicals, rockers, revolutionaries, boundary pushers, and culture shapers who, throughout the decades, left their mark on the world from this avant-garde enclave.

I’ll show you the NYC block where you’ll find the Marshall Chess Club, and former homes of poet Emma Lazarus, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sinclair Lewis, and the etiquette authority Emily Post. It’s also where you’ll find Mark Twain’s former home which, years later, was the setting of a gruesome murder.

You’ll hear the scandalous story of celebrity architect Stanford White who, after seduced the original “It Girl,” Evelyn Nesbit, was gunned down by her husband in front of a packed theater. Along with the riveting ”Trial Of The Century,” you’ll also hear about:

• How Greenwich Village was loudly declared a free republic by bohemian artists from the top of Washington Square Arch
• The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that claimed the lives of 146 people, mostly young immigrant women who jumped from the building to escape the flames
• Cathy Wilkerson and the Weather Underground explosion in the basement of her father’s townhouse
• How Judson Church became the country’s most open-minded church
• Once “dingy” Macdougal Alley, where one of America’s richest women, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, defied her husband and family when she purchased a former horse stable to pursue her art
• The secret wedding of a US President to a woman younger than three of his seven children
• The legendary 8th Street Bookshop where Bob Dylan was first introduced to Beat poetry

This 90-minute walk takes you through Washington Square Park, past Chess Corner, and into the streets of Greenwich Village where, at every turn, history is brought to life with music, sound effects and actors.

Parental warning: some PG-13 stuff here.

A special debt of gratitude to the authors whose books provided inspiration: John Strausbaugh, The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village; Luther S. Harris, Around Washington Square: an Illustrated History of Greenwich Village; Judith Stonehill, Greenwich Village: a Guide to America's Legendary Left Bank.

CREDITS: The additional voices recite actual quotes, performed by actors. And by ”actors” we mean our dear friends and neighbors who work for beer and wine: Peter Collery, Tom Eich, Mattie Goldberg, Matt Jones, Clara Marshall, Hugh Osborn, Paul Safsel, Beth and Jeremy Saks, Terry Taylor, Bob Tracy, Lisa Wagner, Claudia Wallis, Josh Wallach, John Williams, Sofia Williams.