Greenwich Village is one of the oldest sections of Manhattan, laid out for development following the American Revolution. Today, it contains the greatest concentration of early New York residential architecture. Few places in the world have been the home to so many great artists, writers, thinkers, and advocates for social change, have witnessed so many trailblazing events in history, and contain so much charming and historic architecture.

Located midway between the downtown financial center and the midtown business center of Manhattan, the neighborhoods surrounding it are the East Village and NoHo to the east, SoHo and Hudson Square to the south, and Chelsea and Union Square to the north. Districts within Greenwich Village include The West Village, The Far West Village, and the Meatpacking District

Greenwich Village is the only surviving section of Manhattan where one can see the early City’s major architectural styles displayed, side by side. Nowhere in Greater New York is a more significant concentration of buildings to be found, covering every decade from 1800 to the Civil War. In making a study of early architecture in New York during the Nineteen-thirties, the Historic American Buildings Survey selected more buildings from Greenwich Village, for their notable design features and historical significance, than from any other of the City. The exceptionally fine quality of Village architecture, together with its special quaintness, is found nowhere else in New York.

Most of Greenwich Village’s buildings are mid-rise apartments, 19th-century row houses, and the occasional one-family walk-up. Redevelopment is severely restricted, and developers must preserve building façades and aesthetics during a renovation. 

The principal architectural styles represented include Federal houses with gabled roofs and dormers, Flemish bond brickwork, and beautiful wrought ironwork. At the next development stage, the Greek Revival introduced greater height featuring attic windows, rusticated stone basements, splendid doorways, and wrought ironwork embellished with castings, utilizing Greek detail. Next came the romantic styles, of which the Italianate was predominant; it introduced the New York "Brownstone," as we know it today. Later modified by French influence, these stately dignified houses were built among the houses of earlier periods, lending great variety and interest. 

Visual harmony is achieved through the uniform rows of builder-constructed townhouses, the predominantly low building heights, the use of materials such as brick and brownstone, the symmetrical placement of windows, and other qualities which have, in this neighborhood, the authentic flavor of the periods represented. 

The Greenwich Village Historic District encompasses that section within Greenwich Village which best retains, in physical form, the special character of the community and its architecture of aesthetic interest. Covering approximately one hundred blocks, the Greenwich Village Historic District is the city’s largest and most significant landmark district.

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