Jefferson Market Courthouse

The site of Mae West’s conviction for ‘corrupting the morals of youth’ with her play, SEX in 1927, this charming historical building, now a library, was originally a courthouse with a civil and police court, an adjacent market and jail. From 1927 only women were tried here, and the prison, now replaced by a garden since 1973, was the Women’s House of Detention. With a Victorian Gothic design, the building has since been praised as the fifth most beautiful building in the United States. Good thing former neighbors, like poet E.E. Cummings, petitioned to save it from being torn down in the 60s. It is the perfect place to soak in some New York history as you stroll through the delightful village ambiance.