The most charming streets in the West Village also have something unusual in New York—they have street names. These curvy, narrow streets are the keepers of New York’s history.
Commerce Street
Commerce Street was mapped in 1799, and there are two theories as to how it got its name. One plausible explanation is that many businesses relocated from Lower Manhattan to the Village in the early 19th Century because of the smallpox and yellow fever epidemics that ravaged New York. At the time, the Villages were rural, not just in the name but in earnest. Looking to escape the populated city center, people moved north to the Village, settled there, and opened businesses. Possibly, Commerce Street housed businesses and banks.
Another theory is that local streets were named for French Revolutionary virtues. Art Street is now part of 8th Street; Science Street ended up as Waverly Place, and Reason Street became Barrow.
Barrow Street
It is reasonable to assume that there was more than one reason to name Reason Street. Besides being a Revolutionary virtue, the name might have reflected the memory of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “The Age of Reason.” Paine was an eighteenth-century philosopher who advocated for American independence. His ideas that inspired the American Revolution were way ahead of his time, and he died in 1809, poor and forgotten, here in the Village (59 Grove Street).
In 1828, Reason Street was renamed Barrow Street for Thomas Barrow. Barrow was a vestryman at Trinity Church, which owned the land in the Village, and reached some fame as an artist. His print of Trinity Church burning to the ground during the American Revolution enjoyed enormous popularity.
Here is the text from the Barrow Street plaque:
– BARROW STREET –
NAMED AFTER THOMAS BARROW, AN ARTIST WHO IN 1807 DREW A PICTURE OF TRINITY CHURCH THAT RECEIVED WIDE CIRCULATION AS A PRINT. TRINITY CHURCH WAS A LARGE LANDOWNER OF PROPERTY IN GREENWICH VILLACE DUE TO A LAND GRANT FROM QUEEN ANN. THE STREET WAS KNOWN AS REASON STREET, IN HONOR OF TOM PAINE’S “THE AGE OF REASON PAINE DIED AT NEARBY 59 GROVE STREET COMMON USAGE CORRUPTED “REASON INTO “RAISIN BOTH THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY PROMOTED THE RENAMING TO BARROW STREET
BEDFORD, BARROW, COMMERCE BLOCK ASSN 1979
In conclusion, it looks like there is no more Reason, Art and Science left the place, but Commerce is still here.
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