West Village, Barrow Street Between West 4th and Seventh Avenue South

Mary Sargent © 2006 ………………………… click to enlarge

The West Village is part of Greenwich Village, from Sixth Avenue to the Hudson River, the other borders being 14th Street and Houston Street. Greenwich Village, in addition to the West Village, includes the area to the east, to "roughly" Broadway, according to Wikipedia. In the West Village are the old winding, confusing streets, which were in existence from the beginning, long before the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 created the street grid. See map.

I notice, looking at the map, that it doesn't look THAT confusing. If you haven't been there, you'll have to take my word for it. If you have, you know. The rest of Greenwich Village, Sixth Avenue to Broadway. does conform to the grid and seems more stately and less Village like.

By the way, one problem with using MapQuest as a reference is that it appears to position the maps according to some crazy concept of true north. All New Yorkers know that the avenues run north-south and the streets run east-west regardless of this so-called true north. Try to disregard the slant.