Hudson Square
I did a quick walk downtown today in the Hudson Square neighborhood. This was a short walk, only about 4 miles.
Today's walk (everything inside the red line)
Hudson Square is the neighborhood south of the West Village, west of SoHo and north of TriBeCa. It's composed of equal parts early 19th century Federalist style row homes, late 19th century commercial buildings/warehouses, modern residential infill, and large vehicle garages.
One of the City's lesser known landmarks in the neighborhood is the Ear Inn, a bar on Spring St. between Washington and Greenwich. The Ear Inn is one of the contenders for "oldest bar in New York"; the building was built in 1817 as a home for James Brown, an African-American veteran of the Revolutionary War. It was originally located right on Hudson waterfront, but 200 years of infill have added about 200 yards to the island, and now the house sits 2 blocks inland. It was noted as a longshoremen's tavern as early 1835 and remained a speakeasy / brothel through prohibition. It got its current name when the publisher of "Ear Magazine" moved into the building and, to avoid violating restrictions on changing "historic signage", painted over the "B" in the attached "BAR" sign.
