New-York tribune., 1919-04-11
Already Heart of Greenwich
Village Has Been Pierced
by New Improvement as
Far as Bleecker Street
To Be Big Thoroughfare
Straight Wide Avenue to
Run From Busy Franklin
Street to Central Park

first direct thoroughfare to penetrate
the heart of Greenwich Village iongi-
sudinallv. will be ready for its stream
Of traffic in about three weeks. Al
ready it is in use as far south as
Bleeeker Street, and the paving IS vir-
trally complete except for the street
intersections.
When the last Of II Is done a cur
rent OF traffic like that which sweeps
through Lafayette Street and Fourth
Avenue, in the central East Side, will
rumble uninterruptedly through Sew
enth Avenue, stretching straight from
the warehouse district Of Franklin
Street to the southern border of Cen
tral Park
Greenwich Village. which held itself
secure through the manifold vicissi-
tudes which developed other districts
on every side as the city bulged north
ward, was undermined by the Seventh
Avenue subway and will capitulate
finally with the opening of the Seventh
Avenue extension. In excavating for
the West Side subway it was necessary
to te2r down some of the venerable
structures which made Greenwich Vii
lage quaint, and the project to cut a
broad avenue straight through the dis
trict took form.
Held up by Weather
Work was started October 81, 1918.
Weather conditions interrupted it from
January % to March IS. Since then it
has been proceeding.
It's progress is marked by scars in
the heart of the old village-not the
village Of the purple rabbit tea rooms
and the chintz-curtained garrets of
freakish paint dahsters, but the village
that was a charming suburb in the day
Of Washington Irving. Steep-roofed,
dormer-windowed houses that have
placidly survived since the white top
sails Of the Black Ball clippers
glinted in the Hudson, have been
shaved several feet under their rugged
skin so that the pattern Of their in
teriors breaks forth like a rash.
Beautiful old St. Johns Chapel,
whose portico more than century ago
looked down to the Hudson. as did that
Of st. Pauls at an earlier day, and
whose hewn oak spire once topped the
landscape for miles about, has been
torn stone from stone because it's pill
Jared porch abutted on the path des-
tined for the tread of motor trucks
Village Awoke Too Late
It is through the ruins Of Rip Van
Winkle village that awoke too late to
find itself in what New ork calls its
heart that the Seventh Avenue extern
sion marches The sedate old brick
houses along Charlton Street, Bank
Street, where the banks OF the metrop-
Oils established Offices during the yell
low fever scare. and other thorough
fares that have lived only in the past
for generations, withdraw tinidly from
the bald, broad avenue into which
Varick Street has been converted.
Doomed they may be. but they have
the ar Of preserving their dignity in
the face Of the interioper. Their ulti
mate fate, Il they did but peek around
the corner, might be read in the dia-
grssas Of rooms IN which generations
o. old Greenwich Village had their be-
ing, which now are blazoned for all the
world 20 read on the raw brick walls
where houses have been partitioned
ana eivlded to make room for the new
Once 1t Was Shore Road
II used 70 be pleasant drive along
yreenwlcn street, then short road,
rom Nsw org 70 Greenwich Village,
Vow the Ninth Avenue elevated matas
Greenwich Street hid.ous N ear and
eys There used TO be a peaceful crn-
etery at Clarkson Street and Hudson.
mat caught ths last rays of the sur,
OF summers EVENING". Renidences
'urnec 10 tenements and the cemeterv
70 park that is raucous with the
shouts Of children.
out these we're cortents which Green
wen Village did rot heed. It's naze
" streets always had been a barrier at
Saiss Sa.cn al city Improvement plans
naltec- When Sullivan's artillery. hard
vresses oy the British, sought 10 e.
s<ps from New York by the Green
va fVVDe- ~ was not until an Alert
y,.ahg man named Aaron Burr prot
I'D nls services as guide that the
sahHsrs were abls TO find and fellow
.ae OBSCURE byway which now L. Green
wich Avenue.
me Village basked secure In It's rnazs
ala lingering doubts always were ~
.sacsa by tas famous corner lamp post
" acn :. sssra on ons side the legend -W ;.
IL eI and en- tho other, "W. 10th st."
eonru nifty which could boast Of the
.aassssscS1on Of parallel strssts had =
s'xas 70 fee secure.
ns eUt-oEs eSected Win produce
- snorraous annual saving "a time,
sssoisns, tires and truckmsrs peace
" sM.ae. lns cosr of paving. according
iazofss given out by Frank L DowI~
.nax. Frcsidens Of tbs Horouxh Of Mar
af..au, viii % sbout s17s,asl Ths sx-
Sssss q widening varlck Street Win
% about s2z9 ,0eo.