8. MacDougal Alley, Greenwich Village

The nearby MacDougal Alley, a private cul-de-sac off of MacDougal Street, shares a similar history with Washington Mews. Nearby residents of the Washington Square area used the alley for stables starting in 1833 through the early 1900s. The numbers of the corresponding townhouses on Washington Square North and 8th Street can still be seen from the small street. This half-block alley actually has quite an artistic history; Jackson Pollock lived in one of the small houses from 1949-1950, as did poet Edward Arlington Robinson, and Getrude Vanderbilt Whitney had her art studio here as well before founding the Whitney Museum of American Art around the corner on 8th Street.