CLICK THE MENU ITEM ABOVE FOR A MORE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

THE WEST VILLAGE: There is no neighborhood like the West Village (Greenwich Village, the village). Its a diverse neighborhood that has a life of itself, flowing with artists and musicians, and actors.

In the mid-19th century, however, as the city spread north of 14th Street, the Village became the province of immigrants, bohemians, and students (New York University [NYU], today the nation's largest private university, was planted next to Washington Square in 1831). Its politics were radical and its attitudes tolerant, which is one reason it became a home to such a large lesbian and gay community.

ABOUT SOHO: Starting at Houston (pronounced how-ston) Street, walk south down Broadway, stopping to browse the stores and vendor stands between Houston and Prince streets. The sole remaining museum on the block is the New Museum of Contemporary Art, devoted exclusively to living artists. Within the Prada store at 575 Broadway, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has created a high-tech setting for the Italian house of fashion. Several art galleries share these blocks as well, most notably at 568 Broadway, which houses 10 galleries, and the trendy Armani Exchange store on the ground level.

ABOUT CHELSEA: As Broadway marches north and west across Manhattan it Chelseaforms a series of squares beginning with Union Square at 14th Street. The square itself hosts a popular Greenmarket, and before Christmas, a crafts market. In this neighborhood are some of the city's trendiest restaurants lining Park Avenue South up to 23rd Street. Madison Square, the site of the original Madison Square Garden, is dominated by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower and the Flatiron Building (20-stories and triangular). It was once the end of "ladies mile," the city's most fashionable shopping district along Broadway and Sixth Avenue; this area still has great shopping. To its east is Gramercy Park, a small, fenced park acessible only to residents of its surrounding townhouses. Theodore Roosevelt was born in this neighborhood.