Storied Places

This assignment was to explore the historical background of a place in New York city that is significant to me. I chose Washington Square Park because it is my favorite place in the city. I am totally at peace there, as well as enveloped by the vivacity of the environment.

In 1871, around ten meters of land located in Greenwich Village, became Washington Square Park (1). Today the park is a social epicenter for New Yorkers and tourists alike, but before it became a lush and lively social hub, the park was anything but.

In the early 17th century, before the land was stolen by colonizers, the surrounding area was used as a tobacco field by the local tribe of indigenous people (2). In 1643 the Dutch West India Company seized control of the land, and sanctioned it off for sale to ‘freed slaves’ who could live there and maintain farms in return for giving a portion of their profits to the company, as well as paying annual fees (3). This area became one of the first large black communities in New York City, and was even referred to as “Little Africa” (3). In 1797 the Common Council of New York purchased the land, with the intention of designating it as a public burial ground, also called a potter’s field (1). At this time the land was technically outside of New York’s city limits, but due to the rampant Yellow Fever Epidemic, additional land was needed to bury the excess of bodies (1).

In 1826, the city of New York officially purchased the land from the Dutch West india Company because enslaved africans were not legally allowed to own land (2). The city leveled it and designated it as the Washington Military Parade Ground (2). The land was public ground used by the cities militia to train and organize. At this time, the real estate surrounding the park became a very desired residential area.

In 1871, redesigning the park as a public social site became one of the New York City Department of Parks’s first projects (1). On the 100th anniversary of George Washington’s presidential inauguration, the first edition of the famous arch made of only wood and plaster, was displayed at the end of the fifth avenue (3). Three years later William Rhinelander Stewart and Stanford White were commissioned to design a permanent arch out of marble, locally sourced from Tuckahoe, New York (3). The arch was designed to resemble the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (3). As a perpetual romantic gesture, the two designers asked the sculptors, Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his apprentice Frederick MacMonnies, to model the two angels carved on the interior side of arch after each of the designers wives (3). In preparation for installation of the arch, a gravestone, coffin and human remains were found while excavating only ten feet below ground (3).

The first fountain was installed next to the arch in 1852, and then was replaced by a fountain very similar to the one that is in place today twenty years later in 1872 (1). In 1934 Robert Moses was elected as the parks commissioner and had planned on completely redesigning the park (1). Moses renovated the fountain into the large shallow basin with steps leading down to the wading pool (2). Moses also had plans to allow automobile traffic through the park by extending 5th Avenue down the center (1). Moses had a lot of pushback from urban activists, including Eleanor roosevelt, regarding the thorofare (1).

The park has become an iconic symbol of New York and it’s wild, colorful culture, and has been featured in many forms of classic media, such as the 1967 film “Barefoot in the Park” starring Jane Fonda, as well as being the setting for the Henry James novel of the same name.  Nowadays the park is filled with the sounds of cheerful laughter, grinding skateboards, and melodic songs, from both birds and buskers.

Works Cited:

  1. Geismar, Joan H. Washington Square Park: Phase 1A Archaeological Assessment Archived July 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine., New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, August 2005. Accessed October 1, 2007. See page 24 of the cited document (page number 30 in the attached PDF.)
  2. Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995), The Encyclopedia of New York City, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 0300055366, p. 1381
  3. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. “Village History.” GVSHP | Detail, The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, 13 Oct. 2006, www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/resources/history.htm.

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