Hudson Park

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It's no wonder that the riot that started the worldwide gay revolution started in Hudson Park's neighborhood.

By 1969, the Village had long been a mecca for artist types -- writers, painters, actors and performers -- and for gays and lesbians. These were people who's worth was defined by their talent and creativity, not by who they found sexual attractive. They had pride, and pride is the key.

Pride is what calls people to demand dignity. Pride demands respect. Pride has led directly to the marriage equity fights of today. And pride said no to police harrassment 40 years ago.

And, really, who can live without pride? To do so is to have a miserable existence.

So a Literary Pride March is in order -- around the Village visiting the sites of the homes of gay and lesbian writers. This March includes a great beginning and ending (Jefferson Market and Hudson Park), a stroll through Washington Square, a swing by the location of the Stonewall Inn, and some of the prettiest streets in the Village (West Fourth, Bleecker, Grove, Bedford, and, of course, St. Luke's Place).

It includes some heartbreak too. Check the map for that.

And be sure to check out a book by your favorite LGBT writer at either end of your journey!

This is Fleet Week -- When the Navy drops anchor and unleashes thousands of sailors on the streets of New York City so I thought it appropriate to write about a famous neighborhood artist Paul Cadmus. Cadmus lived at 5 St. Lukes Place for about 25 years from the Thirties through the Fifties. He painted The Fleet's In soon after moving to St. Lukes Place, depicting sailors in Central Park enjoying themselves. The Navy was not amused.

An interesting history of the painting can be found here.

Art and literature often intersect and so it did at Number 5. Cadmus became great friends with E. M. Forster and when Forster would visit the States he would stay with Cadmus. By that time Forster's greatest books were behind him, but he may have become a happier and more self-accepting man. The Village offered a sanctuary for gay men in the Thirties, Forties and Fifties, and Cadmus' life and art were OUT, even back then, twenty to thirty years before Stonewall.

1969: The Year of Gay Liberation will be on view during the month of June in the Stephen A Schwarzman Building (the library with the Lions out front). Stonewall happened just a few blocks from Hudson Park, so after visiting that historic place, be sure to stop by.

Who are these people?

From Adela Lintelmann paintings

The work of Adela Smith Lintelmann (1902 - 1996) is currently on display in the Hudson Park Reference Room Gallery. Adela Smith Lintelmann's art career spanned nearly seventy years and she was a role model for both artists and feminists.

In her native British Columbia, she established herself as a mathematician and then, on attending a lecture by an established Canadian artist, she was inspired to paint. With her characteristic adventurous spirit and armed with only her degree, a teaching certificate and a course in typing, she left Vancouver for New York and the Art Students League. To support her dream she worked her way up at the New York Stock Exchange to become one of the first women stock brokers on Wall Street.

During her art career 'Linty', as she became known, studied with such luminaries as Kimon Nicolaides, Robert Brackman, Robert Phillip, Robert Beverly Hale, Xavier Gonzales, Daniel Dickerson and IIona Royce-Smithkin. She became a trustee of the American Fine Arts Society, a member of Artists Equity, Artists Fellowship, National Arts Club, American Artists Professional League, Salmagundi Club and the Pen and Brush.

Linty specialized in floral and still life arrangements but on display at Hudson Park are some fine portraits. Unfortunately the subjects of the paintings are not identified, so if you are a long-time Village resident or if you knew Linty, perhaps you can help us out. Come by and identify the subjects of our portraits.

After 165 years things are bound to change, even in the Village. Maps are a great way to see that change, and fortunately The New York Public Library has one of the world's great map collections.

Here's a map of lower Manhattan when Edgar Allen Poe roamed the Village:

For fun, compare it to my Google map:

For a nice stroll around the Village, visit the locations of each of Poe's homes.

I suggest that you start at Waverly and Sixth, go down to W. 3rd Street, over to Carmine and end up at James J. Walker Park where there is just one stone monument left from when this area was St. John's Burial Ground. Poe would wander among the tombstones for a little R & R, but you can play bocce instead, and, of course, stop by and visit us.

Want to breakfast with Theodore Dreiser?

Grab a cup of coffee at Grey Dog Coffee or Out of the Kitchen and mosey on down to 16 St. Lukes Place.

Hey, you’re right across from the Hudson Park Library! And just down the street at 14 and 12 St. Lukes Place are the former homes of Marianne Moore and Sherwood Anderson. They all lived here in the 1920s.

View Greenwich Village Writers in a larger map
Use this map (I'll continue to add to it) to create your own coffee jaunt or late night crawl. You’ll be inspired by walking the streets of the literary greats. You might even write something! Or at least, stop by the Hudson Park Branch and take out one of their books, grab that coffee, and relax knowing that you’ve found yourself in the center of the world.