Greenwich Village's known history dates back to the sixteenth century, when it was a marshland called Sapokanikan by Native Americans who fished in the trout stream known as Minetta Brook. When the Dutch first settled on Manhattan in 1621, naming the area New Netherlands, all but a small area on the Southeastern tip of the island was left untouched by the Europeans. When the colony passed to British hands in 1664 and became New York, a few farms and estates emerged some miles to the north of the city; the settlement evolved into a country hamlet, first designated Grin'wich in 1713 Common Council records.

The village was transformed overnight in 1828, when yellow fever caused thousands of city dwellers to flee to the Greenwich countryside. Many of these displaced city-folk enjoyed the country, and throughout the following decade the village grew as businesses and residents moved their permanent homes there...