From the late 19th-century to the present day, Greenwich Village has attracted a remarkable assortment of well-known (and not so well-known) writers, musicians, artists and revolutionaries.

Almost no high-rise buildings can be found along the quiet, tree-lined streets of the area, particularly in the West Village, and in the immediate vicinity of Washington Square Park. Geographically at the neighborhood’s center, the park is ringed by elegant 19th-century townhouses on the north end, and the buildings and housing of New York University to the south, east and west.