I explored a trendy New York City street and its gated block of million-dollar homes once called 'Mixed Ale Alley' — and it reminded me there's history around every corner
I walked up and down a trendy street in New York City's West Village neighborhood, and I found little pockets of history between otherwise bustling blocks.
There are many subways near Grove Street, but you can take the 1 train to Christopher Street Station, and you'll land right in the heart of the area.
Time Out recently described Grove Street as "hidden," but it was full of people walking, talking, and playing music on a Thursday evening in May.
Source: Time Out
Some of the draw to the area comes from the apartment building seen in the iconic sitcom "Friends" at the corner of Grove and Bedford Streets.
But what's perhaps more hidden than the street itself is its unlikely history.
The home at 17 Grove Street, also featured in "Friends," was built in 1822 and is one of the only remaining wood-frame houses left in NYC because of fire codes, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
Source: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
There's a group of 19th-century homes in a nook behind an iron gate known as Grove Court. You can find the court tucked between residences off Grove Street.
Source: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
The now-exclusive string of six homes was originally used to house working-class residents. The buildings' owner wanted to fill the neighborhood with grocery-store patrons, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
Source: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
In the 19th century, the area was called "Mixed Ale Alley" after many of the residents' drinking habits, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and a 1972 article from the New York Daily News.
Source: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, New York Daily News
While journalists in the early 1920s deemed Grove Court an undesirable place to live, renovations to the homes there over the years made the block more appealing. Now, it's an exclusive place to live — in 2012, a unit in Grove Court sold for $3.5 million.
Source: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Sotheby's Realty
Beyond the gates of Grove Court, there's more history to explore.
In early 1865, Samuel Chester — then a resident of 45 Grove Street — and his associate, John Wilkes Booth, spoke about kidnapping Abraham Lincoln. After Chester refused to kidnap the president, Booth changed his plan to kill Lincoln that same year.
Source: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Down the block at 92 Grove Street, writer Alex Haley conducted more than 50 interviews with civil rights activist Malcolm X before writing "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" in 1965, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
Sources: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X"
My visit to Grove Street was a reminder that even in some of New York City's most lively neighborhoods, there's almost always a hidden history right around the corner.
