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Patchin Place

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Coordinates:40°44′06″N73°59′58″W/ 40.73499°N 73.99931°W/40.73499; -73.99931
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40°44′06″N73°59′58″W/ 40.73499°N 73.99931°W/40.73499; -73.99931 Map

Patchin Place in 2011

Patchin Placeis a gatedcul-de-saclocated off of10th StreetbetweenGreenwich Avenueand theAvenue of the Americas(Sixth Avenue) in theGreenwich Villageneighborhood ofManhattan,New York City.Its ten 3-story[1]brickrow houses,said to have been originally built as housing for theBasquestaff of the nearby Brevoort House hotel,[2]have been home to several famous writers, includingTheodore Dreiser,E. E. Cummings,John Cowper PowysandDjuna Barnes,making it a stop on Greenwich Village walking tours. Today it is a popular location forpsychotherapists' offices.[3]

History[edit]

The property that became Patchin Place was once part of a farm belonging toSir Peter Warren.In 1799 it was sold to Samuel Milligan, who later conveyed it to his son-in-law, Aaron Patchin.[4]The buildings that now occupy the site were put up in 1848[1]or 1849.[2]Manyguide bookssay the buildings were intended to be boarding houses forBasquewaiters and other workers at the Brevoort House hotel onFifth Avenue,but the Brevoort was not built until 1855.[5]The rooms were small, and at the time, the street was noisy due to its proximity to the vendors inJefferson Market.[6]

The 1917 book about Greenwich Village in which this illustration first appeared described Patchin Place as "one of the strange little 'lost courts' given over to the Villagers and their pursuits".[7]

In the early 20th century, Patchin Place became popular with writers and artists, with its small residences, that were apart from but still accessible to the cafe life of the Village. Indoor plumbing, electricity, and steam heat were added in 1917.[8]In 1920, Grace I. Patchin Stuart, the last remaining member of the Patchin family, sold the property to the Land Map Realty Corporation, and the houses were converted into small apartments.[9]E. E. Cummingsmoved in three years later; he wrote that "the topfloorback room at 4 Patchin Place... meant Safety & Peace & the truth of Dreaming & the bliss of Work".[10]

In 1929 the gate at the entrance was added and nearby Jefferson Market prison was torn down, as Patchin Place residentJohn Cowper Powysnoted in a letter to his brother:[11]

They've gone and put up iron gates at the entrance to Patchin Place — in the middle of the entrance — leaving the little openings by the new brick posts free. And they've pulled down the Prison — but so far not the Clock tower. In the foundations of this fallenBastille,from where of so many Sundays we heard the imprisoned Baggages sing about heaven, is an iron clutcher with a dragonish dew-lap scooping earth and hissing with a steamy vibrant roar. I am deaf of one ear — but this noise is very strident. But do you know we can now see theWoolworth towerand also theSinger Towerfrom the entrance of Patchin Place....

The clock tower that Powys refers to isJefferson Market Court,now a library branch.Berenice Abbottphotographed the view of the tower above Patchin Place in 1937.[8]

ThemodernistwriterDjuna Barnes,a friend of Abbott's, moved into a room-and-a-half apartment at #5 Patchin Place in 1941. She had lived in Greenwich Village in the 1910s and had been in the audience when residents organized a performance ofWilliam Butler Yeats's playThe King's Thresholdin the courtyard of Patchin Place as a war benefit, but had spent most of the 1920s and 30s in Europe.[12] After her return to New York she became so reclusive that Cummings would occasionally check on her by shouting out his window "Are you still alive, Djuna?"[13]Yet in 1963, when a developer proposed to tear down the houses on Patchin and nearbyMilligan Placein order to put up a high-rise apartment building, she left her apartment to tell a protest meeting that she would die if she had to move, and, less helpfully, that the destruction of the neighborhood would leave local youths with nowhere to practice their mugging.[14] Community activists, led by future mayorEd Koch,succeeded in saving Patchin Place, and in 1969 it became landmarked[8]with the creation of theGreenwich Village Historic District.[1]Though she complained about "writing amid the roaring of plumbing, howling of downstairs dog, thumping of small child on elephant's feet",[15]Barnes remained in residence until her death in 1982.

Present day[edit]

Patchin Place street sign

Patchin Place remains physically almost unchanged. It even retains its 19th-centurygas street lamp—one of only two in New York City, and the only one that still gives light, though the light is now electric.[16]Usage has changed, however: the same privacy that had once attracted writers and artists also appealed topsychotherapists,who began to locate there in the 1990s, transforming the street into what one psychologist called "therapy row". As of 2003, Patchin Place was home to about 35 residents and 15 therapists' offices.[3]

In March 2022, investment firm Firebird Grove bought all 11 buildings in Patchin Place from Morgan Holding Capital for just over $32 million.[17]

Notable residents[edit]

References[edit]

Notes

  1. ^abcNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission."NYCLPC Greenwich Village Historic District Designation Report, volume 1"Archived2017-02-12 at theWayback Machine,NYCLPC (1969)
  2. ^abWhite, Norval& Willensky, Elliot (2000).AIA Guide to New York City(4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press.ISBN978-0-8129-3107-5.,p. 131
  3. ^abcKoeppel, David (2003)."A Bastion of Literature Is a Bulwark for Therapy".The New York Times.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-04.Retrieved2007-06-24.
  4. ^Hemp, William H. (2003).New York Enclaves.New York: Clarkson Potter. p. 30.ISBN1-4000-4735-8.
  5. ^Gray, Christopher (March 1, 1992)."Streetscapes: Readers' Questions; A J.P. Morgan Brownstone and a Hospital for Italians".The New York Times.Retrieved2007-06-24.
  6. ^abVincent, Glyn (2003).The Unknown Night: The Genius and Madness of R. A. Blakelock, an American Painter.New York, NY: Grove Press. pp. 46–63.ISBN0-8021-4064-5.
  7. ^Chapin, Anna Alice (2005).Greenwich Village.Project Gutenberg.
  8. ^abc"Berenice Abbott: Patchin Place".Museum of the City of New York.Archived fromthe originalon 2007-07-10.Retrieved2007-06-24.
  9. ^"Modern Progress in Patchin Place: Quaint Plot in New Hands After Family Ownership of One Hundred Years".The New York Times.May 2, 1920. pp. RE1.
  10. ^"Patchin Place, 1925".[home page of SPRING: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society].Retrieved2007-06-25.
  11. ^Powys, John Cowper.Letters to His Brother Llewellyn.Quoted in"4 Patchin Place".[powys-lannion.net].Retrieved2007-06-24.
  12. ^Field, Andrew (1985).Djuna: The Formidable Miss Barnes.Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 230–231.ISBN0-292-71546-3.
  13. ^Herring, Phillip (1995).Djuna: The Life and Work of Djuna Barnes.New York: Penguin Books. p. 309.ISBN0-14-017842-2.
  14. ^Field, 22, 236.
  15. ^Levine, Nancy J. (1993). "Works in Progress: the Uncollected Poetry of Barnes's Patchin Place Period".The Review of Contemporary Fiction.13(3): 186–200.
  16. ^"Alleys of Greenwich Village".Forgotten NY.Retrieved2007-06-24.
  17. ^"Greenwich Village Cul-De-Sac Sells for $32M".The Real Deal New York.2022-03-16.Retrieved2022-03-19.
  18. ^ab"Old Patchin Place Loses Weidee, Its Guiding Hand".The New York Times.May 18, 1924. pp. X4.
  19. ^Bosworth, Patricia (2001).Marlon Brando.New York, N.Y: Viking. pp.14.ISBN0-670-88236-4.
  20. ^abcSeeger, Pete; Bruce Kayton (2003).Radical Walking Tours of New York City.New York: Seven Stories Press. pp. 34, 41–42.ISBN1-58322-554-4.
  21. ^New York World-Telegram and The Sun, Jan. 4, 1962, p. 23. Patchin Pl.: Quiet Refuge for Writers
  22. ^Hersey, Harold (1937).Pulpwood Editor.New York, NY: Frederick A. Stokes Company.
  23. ^"NEW YORK BOOKSHELF/NONFICTION; How Chinese Were Depicted, How Cummings Took His Tea".The New York Times.September 22, 2002. pp. section 14, page 10.Retrieved2007-06-24.
  24. ^"4 Patchin Place".[powys-lannion.net].Retrieved2007-06-24.
  25. ^Keith, W. J. (December 2005)."John Cowper Powys's Autobiography: A Reader's Companion".[Aids to the Reading of John Cowper Powys].p. 84.Retrieved2007-06-24.
  26. ^Walsh, Kevin (2006).Forgotten New York: Views of a Lost Metropolis.London: Collins. pp.157.ISBN0-06-114502-5.

External links[edit]

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