Editing Greenwich Village (section)

===Grid plan===
[[File:West 4th and West 12th Intersection.JPG|thumb|left|250px|The intersection of West 4th and West 12th Streets]]
[[File:W 10 St and W 4 St – cropped.jpeg|thumb|left|250px|Street signs at intersection of West 10th and West 4th Streets]]

As Greenwich Village was once a rural, isolated [[Hamlet (New York)|hamlet]] to the north of the 17th century European settlement on [[Manhattan Island]], its street layout is more organic than the planned grid pattern of the 19th century [[grid plan]] (based on the [[Commissioners' Plan of 1811]]). Greenwich Village was allowed to keep the 18th century street pattern of what is now called the West Village: areas that were already built up when the plan was implemented, west of what is now [[Greenwich Avenue]] and [[Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)|Sixth Avenue]], resulted in a neighborhood whose streets are dramatically different, in layout, from the ordered structure of the newer parts of Manhattan.<ref name=fny199909>{{cite web |url=http://forgotten-ny.com/1999/09/greenwich-village-necrology/ |title=The Street Necrology of Greenwich Village |date=November 1999 |website=[[Forgotten NY]] |author=Walsh, Kevin |access-date=August 17, 2015}}</ref>

Many of the neighborhood's streets are narrow and some curve at odd angles. This is generally regarded as adding to both the historic character and charm of the neighborhood. In addition, as the meandering [[Greenwich Street]] used to be on the [[Hudson River]] shoreline, much of the neighborhood west of Greenwich Street is on landfill, but still follows the older street grid.<ref name=fny199909/> When Sixth and [[Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)|Seventh Avenues]] were extended in the early 20th century, they were built diagonally to the existing street plan, and many older, smaller streets had to be demolished.<ref name=fny199909/>

Unlike the streets of most of Manhattan above Houston Street, streets in the Village are typically named, not numbered. While some of the formerly named streets (including Factory, Herring and Amity Streets) are now numbered, they still do not always conform to the usual grid pattern when they enter the neighborhood.<ref name=fny199909/> For example, [[4th Street (Manhattan)|West 4th Street]] runs east–west across most of Manhattan, but runs north–south in Greenwich Village, causing it to intersect with West 10th, 11th, and 12th Streets before ending at West 13th Street.<ref name=fny199909/>

A large section of Greenwich Village, made up of more than 50 northern and western blocks in the area up to 14th Street, is part of a Historic District established by the [[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]]. The District's convoluted borders run no farther south than 4th Street or St. Luke's Place, and no farther east than Washington Square East or University Place.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/maps/maps_manh.shtml |title=Landmark Maps: Historic District Maps: Manhattan |publisher=Nyc.gov |access-date=September 21, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100909211747/http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/maps/maps_manh.shtml |archive-date=September 9, 2010}}</ref> Redevelopment in that area is severely restricted, and developers must preserve the main façade and aesthetics of the buildings during renovation.

Most of the buildings of Greenwich Village are mid-rise apartments, 19th century row houses, and the occasional one-family walk-up, a sharp contrast to the high-rise landscape in [[Midtown Manhattan|Midtown]] and [[Downtown Manhattan]].