Gay Street (Manhattan) Explained

Gay Street
Postal Code:	10014
Location:	Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates:	40.7336°N 74.0004°W
Direction A:	North
Terminus A:	Christopher Street
Direction B:	South
Terminus B:	Waverly Place

Gay Street is a short, angled street that marks off one block of Greenwich Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Although the street is part of the Stonewall National Monument (a U.S. national monument dedicated to the LGBT-rights movement), its name is likely derived from a family named Gay who owned land or lived there in colonial times. A newspaper of May 11, 1775, contains a classified ad where an "R. Gay", living in the Bowery, offers a gelding for sale.^{[1] [2]}

Since it was once too narrow to be a full-fledged street, the City of New York widened it in 1833. As a result, Federal houses of 1826-1833 line the west side of the street, while on the east side, following a hiatus caused by the Panic of 1837, the houses are from 1844 to 1860, with remnants of Greek Revival detailing in doorways and window surrounds.^[3]

The street extends from Christopher Street one block south to Waverly Place, between and roughly parallel to Sixth and Seventh Avenues. It runs through the site of a brewery owned by Wouter van Twiller, who succeeded Peter Minuit as Governor of New Netherland in 1633. The name first appeared officially in the Common Council minutes for April 23, 1827, which record a health inspector's complaint against a privy belonging to one A. S. Pell of Gay Street.

The 1942 movie A Night to Remember portrays 13 Gay Street as the address of the building where most of the action, including a murder, occurs. The opening shots of Cyndi Lauper's video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" were shot on Gay Street in September 1983. In 1996, Sheryl Crow made a video on Gay Street for the song "A Change Would Do You Good."

As part of the Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 celebration, which marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, ten ornamental street signs honoring the LGBT community were installed on Gay Street. The signs, carrying labels such as "Lesbian St" and "Bisexual Street", were arranged in the colors of a pride flag.^[4] Several 19th-century houses on the west side of Gay Street were demolished starting in 2022.^[5]

See also

• Doyers Street, another historically short and crooked street in Manhattan

References

Notes

Bibliography

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mistresses and misnomers: the story of Gay Street. June 25, 2009. The Bowery Boys: New York City History.
2. Book: Moscow, Henry. The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan's Street Names and Their Origins. November 6, 1990. Fordham University Press. 9780823212750 . Google Books.
3. Joyce Gold, From Trout Stream to Bohemia: A Walking Guide to Greenwich Village History (1988:86f); Gold notes that though it is the second shortest street in Greenwich Village, one cannot see its full length because of the angle at the center.
4. Web site: Bellafante . Ginia . Who Owns Gay Street? . The New York Times . September 27, 2019 . March 19, 2024.
5. Web site: Green . Penelope . On Gay Street, Another Piece of NYC’s History Is Coming Down . The New York Times . December 22, 2022 . March 19, 2024.