During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), Greenwich Village—now a bohemian and cultural hub in Lower Manhattan—was a far different place. In the late 18th century, it was a semi-rural suburb on the edge of New York City, known for its open land, country estates, and fresh air. But its peaceful reputation was upended by the war. Greenwich Village played several key roles: a haven from disease, a staging ground for troops, and a neighborhood caught in the political and military upheaval of British occupation.
Greenwich Village Before the War
In the years leading up to the Revolution, Greenwich Village (sometimes referred to in colonial records as “Greenwich” or “Greenwich Hamlet”) was a sparsely developed area about two miles north of the heart of New York City, which was then concentrated at the southern tip of Manhattan. The area was valued for its relatively healthy climate and was already being used as a seasonal retreat by wealthy New Yorkers looking to escape epidemics like smallpox and yellow fever.
The land was largely pastoral, dotted with farms, country homes, and small estates. Some of these were owned by prominent New York families such as the Bayards and the Minetts. Roads like what would become Greenwich Street connected the area to the city to the south and to points north.
War Breaks Out: 1775–1776
When hostilities erupted between the American colonies and Great Britain in 1775, New York City was still under British control, but it was viewed by both sides as a strategic prize. The city’s harbor made it a vital naval base, and its central location among the Thirteen Colonies added to its military importance.
By mid-1776, after the Continental Army’s failed attempt to hold back the British at the Battle of Long Island (August 1776), General George Washington and his forces withdrew from Brooklyn and later evacuated Manhattan. Greenwich Village, lying between downtown and northern Manhattan, became part of the terrain over which armies moved and sometimes clashed.
Greenwich Village as a Refuge
Perhaps one of Greenwich Village’s most significant roles during the war was as a place of refuge and recovery. After the British occupied New York City in September 1776, a massive fire destroyed nearly a third of lower Manhattan. Many displaced residents—both patriots and loyalists—sought shelter in the surrounding countryside, including in Greenwich Village.
The area’s open fields and fresh water also made it suitable for housing the sick and wounded. Makeshift hospitals were established in and around the village, and many homes were either requisitioned or voluntarily offered for use as convalescent facilities. According to local lore, even George Washington used a house in the vicinity (possibly at what is now Washington Square) as a temporary headquarters before retreating north.
One of the most notable examples of the area’s use during the war is the Richmond Hill estate, located on what is now the corner of Charlton and Varick Streets. This home served as a military headquarters at various times during the conflict. Washington used it briefly in 1776, and after the British occupation, General Sir Henry Clinton also stayed there.
Under British Occupation: 1776–1783
Following the American retreat, British forces firmly occupied New York City for the remainder of the war. This occupation extended to Greenwich Village. British officers commandeered homes, and military patrols monitored the roads and lanes that crisscrossed the area.
While direct combat was rare in Greenwich Village itself after the initial campaigns, the presence of an occupying army brought its own form of hardship. Loyalist families often found favor with British troops, while Patriot sympathizers faced harassment, confiscation of property, or worse. The area became a tense zone of surveillance, suspicion, and divided loyalties.
The British also built fortifications in and around Manhattan, including redoubts and earthworks near the village. Some remnants of these fortifications survived into the 19th century and were recorded by early surveyors and chroniclers.
Disease, Death, and Burial Grounds
Wartime conditions in New York were grim. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and lack of medical care led to rampant disease. Smallpox, yellow fever, and dysentery plagued both soldiers and civilians. Greenwich Village’s cleaner air and access to fresh water made it a site for hospitals and field clinics, but many patients still died.
Several cemeteries and potter’s fields (public burial grounds) were established near the village. One of these, in what is now Washington Square Park, was later developed into a formal potter’s field in the early 19th century. Tens of thousands of people—many of them Revolutionary War-era dead—were buried there, and their remains still lie beneath the park today.
The End of the War and the Village’s Transformation
The Treaty of Paris in 1783 marked the end of the Revolutionary War, and New York was officially evacuated by British forces on November 25, 1783—a date still celebrated as Evacuation Day. With the war over, the city began to rebuild, and attention turned to areas like Greenwich Village as sites of expansion and new development.
Many veterans and refugees who had settled there during the war chose to stay. Landowners who had fled returned to reclaim and rebuild. The grid plan of New York’s expanding street system—formalized in the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811—eventually overlaid parts of the Village, although its older, irregular paths and plots largely survived.
Washington Square, which would become the centerpiece of the neighborhood, was used as a public execution ground and burial site in the decades after the war before becoming a park in the 19th century.
During the American Revolutionary War, Greenwich Village was transformed from a sleepy rural outpost into a zone of strategic importance and humanitarian need. It served as a military hospital zone, a refuge from urban destruction and disease, and a contested space under British control. The war’s upheaval left permanent marks on the landscape — physically, demographically, and symbolically.
Though the neighborhood would later become famous for its artists, radicals, and bohemians, Greenwich Village’s Revolutionary War history is a reminder that its roots stretch back to a time when it helped cradle a city — and a nation — in the throes of becoming.
