When I moved to early aughts New York and was learning my way around, I mastered the Village’s organic middle finger to the Street-Avenue grid last. Village Cigars was my visual cue—my x-marks the spot. If I could stand in front of Village Cigars at 7th Ave/Christopher, I could find my favorite Italian restaurant, the line for banana pudding at Magnolia’s, and get a slice at Joe’s or John’s, depending on whether or not I wanted to eat on the go.
I was sad to learn that Village Cigars closed after more than 100 years in business, but its bright red sign with its charming, handmade letters will live on. Village Preservation, a nonprofit working to preserve the architectural heritage and cultural history of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, has just released a Greenwich Village Building Set. Comprised of 449 genuine LEGO bricks, the set features architecturally and culturally significant places in Greenwich Village, artfully rendered — from Village Cigars and the Stonewall Inn to Jefferson Market Library and the quaint streets surrounding Washington Square Park.
The Village is a center for LGBTQ culture, advocacy, and history, and it overflows with singular character and spirit. Christopher J. Devine, founder of Peacham, a creative agency committed to making history fun, worked with Vocal Type’s Tré Seals to artfully render this storied neighborhood in miniature, right down to its two most iconic signs: Village Cigars and the Stonewall Inn.
Signage plays an important role in creating a sense of place. A neighborhood’s character is shaped not only by its people, architecture, and street layout but also by its visual culture more broadly.
Christopher J. Devine
Village Cigars is less a type specimen than a hodge-podge of quirky letters. The letters of the store’s no fewer than four different signs vary in height, width, weight, and axis — sometimes within a single word. “When designing the Greenwich Village Building Set, it quickly occurred to me that an off-the-shelf retail font could never appropriately express the unique idiosyncrasies of the Village Cigars letterforms,” said Devine. So he enlisted Seals to recreate the letting of the horizontal sign on the store’s facade, the one that I’d used so often to get to where I was headed.
Devine said of the completed lettering, “[Tré’s work] beautifully reproduces the nuances of the original—including the irregular letter spacing, which I imagine goes against the instincts of every skilled type designer.”
Village Cigars went out of business during the design process. The building enjoys some protections as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District. But, interestingly, as Devine explained, “signage is generally regarded as ephemeral — especially when it advertises a business that no longer exists.”
Though 51-53 Christopher Street is architecturally unremarkable (built as horse stables in the mid-19th century), the ground floor became The Stonewall Inn in the 1930s (a cocktail lounge and restaurant). “Although the Stonewall sign was removed in 1989, it was an important part of the streetscape for many decades,” explains Executive Director of Village Preservation Andrew Berman.
Devine chose Vocal Type’s Marsha typeface for the miniature sign, designed by Seals in 2020. When creating Marsha, Seals found inspiration in The Stonewall Inn’s original sign and named the typeface after legendary LGBTQ+ activist and Stonewall Uprising veteran Marsha P. Johnson.
Like Tré’s Village Cigars lettering, Marsha also reflects the irreverence of the original Stonewall sign, including the backward W, which is one of the font’s contextual alternates.
Christopher J. Devine
The limited edition set will go on sale on Thursday, June 20. The proceeds will benefit Village Preservation’s work and mission, serving to document, celebrate, and preserve the special architecture and cultural heritage of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo.