What was Hudson Square is now St. John's Park and is in TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal), not in the Printing District or South Village. This Manhattan neighborhood, less known as West SoHo is generally bounded by West Houston Street to the north, Canal Street to the south, 6th Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) to the east and the Hudson River to the west and is bound by Greenwich Village, TriBeCa, and SoHo.
The South Village differs architecturally from the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District but does share the low-rise residential character of SoHo west of West Broadway and nearby Greenwich Village. Perhaps the most significant district within this quadrant is the landmarked Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, which contains the largest concentration of Federalist and Greek Revival style row houses built during the first half of the 19th Century. The most prominent feature within the neighborhood is the Manhattan entrance to the Holland Tunnel. The tallest structure in the neighborhood is Trump Soho hotel.
Building upon the neighborhood’s past as New York City’s Printing District, this neighborhood remains a creative center and is home to over 30,000 people working in advertising, design, media, communications, and the arts.[1]
The neighborhood was home to the first African American newspaper in the United States, called Freedom's Journal; it was edited by John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish from March 16, 1827 to March 28, 1829. The newspaper provided international, national, and regional information on current events and contained editorials declaiming against slavery, lynching, and other injustices.[2]
George Washington When George Washington lead the defense of the city against the British in 1776, his headquarters were located at the Mortier House at what are now Charlton and Varick Streets. He also penned the term 'New Yorker' at that time - the earliest known use of the term in a published work is found in a letter that he wrote from Lower Manhattan.[3]
The Ear Inn[4] One of the oldest bars in NYC,(est. 1817) This pub was built by George Washington’s aide and was a speakeasy during prohibition. After the liberation from Prohibition, the bar had no name. It was known as “The Green Door" to sailors and longshoremen. Then in 1977, new resident-owners christened the place the Ear Inn. The new name was chosen to avoid the Landmark Commission’s lengthy review of any new sign. The neon BAR sign was painted to read EAR, after the musical Ear Magazine published upstairs.[5]
SoHo Playhouse [6] The SoHo Playhouse stands on land that was once Richmond Hill, a colonial mansion that served as headquarters for General George Washington and later home to Aaron Burr. Purchased from Burr in 1817, the land was then developed into federalist-style row houses by fur magnate John Jacob Astor. 15 Van Dam Street was designated at the Huron Club, a popular meeting house and night club for the Democratic Party. The turn of the century brought the Tammany Hall machine to the Huron Club. Prominent regulars included "Battery" Dan Finn and the infamous Jimmy "Beau James" Walker, known as "The night Mayor" due to his predilection for jazz clubs and chorus girls. The main floor was transformed into a theater in the 1920s, and in the 60's operated as the Village South, home to Playwrights Unit Workshop under the direction of Edward Albee. The playhouse now acts as a 199 seat off-Broadway venue.
The Holland Tunnel was once the longest underwater tunnel in the world. After nearly seven years of construction, and the (unrelated) deaths of two of the tunnel's chief engineers, the Holland Tunnel officially opened at midnight on November 13, 1927. On its first day of operation 51,694 vehicles passed through the tunnel, the first of which was a truck making a shipment to Bloomingdale's Department Store in Manhattan.[7]
Steinway & Sons was founded in 1853 by German immigrant Henry Engelhard Steinway in a Manhattan loft on Varick Street.[8]