Like the other buildings on Hudson Street it dates back to the 1820s. Perhaps there’s another origin of these street names. This explanation has always perplexed me, though, since the three are out of order, running south to north, they’re Christopher, 10th (Amos), Charles. Nevertheless, there are a lot of newer buildings around, so there’s no restriction that can’t be challenged or gotten around.Ĭharles Street, according to two sources, was named for Charles Christopher Amos, who acquired a swath of Village property that had belonged to a colonial-era landowner, Irishman Sir Peter Warren. When streets were run through, two new ones, Charles and Amos (West 10th since the mid-1800s) and Christopher Street, which overlaid the older Skinner Road, got all three of his names. Greenwich Village is one vast Landmarked district–which means buildings are very, very difficult to get permission to tear down, or even to alter in most ways. I was fascinated with the way the sun was reflecting on this charming brick building on the SW corner of Hudson and Charles. Like most Village buildings, it’s of great age.
The great part of a NYC residency is that you never run out of material, and even places where you thought you had said everything there is to say about it - you find you haven’t said much at all. I’ve explored Charles Street for FNY before, but not in the particular context I am going to mention. The idea for the entire walk came from a very small notation I found on a 1946 Hagstrom map of Manhattan in my collection, that I’ll get into a bit later. I will use some photos I got from a walk in the village on Charles Street and 11th Street in the Village and East Village on one of the few sunny days in September 2018. Going to be another relatively short feature page this week, as I write them on the weekends, and this one I’ll be occupied with tour scouting on Saturday and tour giving on Sunday.