The black-caped horseman of West Fourth Street

A bank branch, yogurt shop, tanning salon…. The two-story building at 220 West Fourth Street, put up in 1931, is pretty nondescript.

Except for the cool little plaque above the door of a spy store on the first floor.

It depicts a horseman clad in black, rearing his horse and lifting a sword over his head in defense.

So who is he? Must be General Philip Henry Sheridan—namesake of the nearby intersection of Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue.

Sheridan was the Union general who decimated Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War and then prosecuted the wars against the Plains Indians.

A huge hero in the late 19th century, Sheridan probably wouldn’t get a square named after him today.

Tags: 220 West Fourth Street, Greenwich Village Follies, Greenwich Village in the 1920s, Greenwich Village in the 1930s, Greenwich Village Theater, history of Sheridan Square, horseman plaque west fourth street, Philip Henry Sheridan, Sheridan square, Sheridan Square architecture, West Fourth Street history