The Village has a rich and varied political history. Over the years politicians have lived and made their mark in the neighborhood. From First Ladies’ homes, to famous speeches, and even the start of radical political organizations, the Village has seen it all.
Start your trip on the quiet tree-lined Stuyvesant Street and head west through the heart of the Village discovering the neighborhood’s unique political history.
Politics 101
Are you a political junkie? Check out these hot spots of political history.
Youth International Movement
30 St. Marks
In the basement of this building Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin founded the Youth International Party, also known as the Yippies in 1968. The Yippies were a countercultural and activist group who used theatrical tactics to express their beliefs. During the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago Yippe protests in Lincoln Park led to the arrest of many including founders Hoffman and Rubin.
Eleanor Roosevelt Residence
29 Washington Square
Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest serving First Lady. While her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was in office she became active, engaged, and outspoken on controversial issues, including race and women’s rights. Following the death of her husband in April 1945 she moved into an apartment in this building, living here for five years before moving uptown. Roosevelt remained active in politics following her husband’s, becoming a delegate to the United Nations—including as Chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights during the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—and chairing President John F. Kennedy’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
2 Fifth Avenue
1 Fifth Avenue
This block-long apartment building of 1952 is deliberately deceptive in appearance: it has a low red-brick portion fronting on Washington Square, designed to harmonize in scale and style with the 19th century townhouses it adjoins. Set back behind it, in glazed white brick, is the 22-story high-rise portion fronting on Fifth Avenue. Notable tenants over the years include former three-term Mayor of New York City Edward I. Koch, Congresswoman Bella Abzug, photographer Andrè Kertesz and author and AIDS activist Larry Kramer.
