Located in lower Manhattan, between Houston and 14th streets, and from the Hudson River to Broadway, the Village was a marshland when the Dutch settled there in the 1600s. The hamlet became an English village in 1712, distinct from the larger island of Manhattan.
Today, the area retains the sense of a small town within a larger metropolis, with narrow, twisting streets that are named rather than numbered, four-story brownstones sporting window boxes, small parks and playgrounds, and handsomely designed restaurants and shops.
Burt Harris, who until 2004 owned the fashionable Nadine's restaurant on the corner of Bank and Greenwich streets (now home to the Paris Commune restaurant, which relocated from Bleecker Street) , has seen a lot of changes.
``When we first opened Nadine's in 1987 , our clientele was half gay and half straight. As AIDS hit, the center of gravity changed. The neighborhood now is extraordinarily populated by families with children and dogs," said Harris, standing on a corner with his 9-year-old daughter and black Labrador by his side.
On one block of Hudson Street, down from the famous lesbian haven Rubyfruit Bar and Grill, and the late poet Dylan Thomas's favorite pub, the White Horse Tavern -- two Village institutions still alive and kicking -- you'll find Kids RX, a pharmacy specializing in children's health, a hair salon for kids , a maternity clothing store, and a pet store.
Farther north, where Hudson splits into Eighth and Nine avenues and Bleecker Street begins, more changes are afoot. Where once antique s shops dominated this stretch of Bleecker, now every other place is a designer clothing boutique with names like James Perse and Ralph Lauren.
``Another thing I've noticed is that hair salons are now ` day spas,' " said Satlin. Where once you could stop and get a haircut, now you can add a deep-pore facial, Swedish body rub, pedicure, or aloe wax to your bill.
