Washington Square Park is a 9.75-acre public park in the New York City
neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Manhattan. One of the best known of New
York City's 1,900 public parks, it is a landmark as well as a meeting place and
center for cultural activity. It is operated by the New York City Department
of Parks and Recreation. The Park is an open space, dominated by
the Washington Square Arch, with a tradition of celebrating nonconformity.
The Park's fountain area has long been one of the city's popular spots for
residents and tourists. Most of the buildings surrounding the park now
belong to New York University, but many have at one time served as homes and
studios for artists. Some of the buildings have been built by NYU while
others have been converted from their former uses into academic and
residential buildings. Location and features
Located at the foot of Fifth Avenue, the park is bordered by Washington Square
North, Washington Square East, Washington Square South, and Washington
Square West. While the Park contains many flower beds
and trees, little of the park is used for plantings due to the paving. The two
prominent features are Washington's Arch and a large fountain. It includes
children's play areas, trees and gardens, paths to stroll on, a chess and
scrabble playing area, park benches, picnic tables, commemorative statuary
and two dog runs. Those commemorated by statues and
monuments include George Washington; Italian patriot and soldier Giuseppe
Garibaldi, commander of the insurrectionist forces in Italy's
struggle for unification, and one to Alexander Lyman Holley, a talented
engineer who helped start the American steel industry after the invention of
the Bessemer process for mass-producing steel.
The New York City Police Department operates security cameras in the park.
The New York University Department of Public Safety also keeps a watch on the
park, and the city parks department has security officers who sometimes patrol
the park. The area has a low crime rate in the "safest big city in the United
States." History
= Early usage = The land was once divided by a narrow
marshy valley through which Minetta Creek ran. In the early 17th century, a
Native American village known as Sapokanican or "Tobacco Field" was
nearby. They also owned the land known now as Washington Square Park before the
Dutch attacked and drove them out. By the mid-17th century, the land on each
side of the Minetta was used as farm land by the Dutch. The Dutch gave the
land to slaves, thus freeing them, with the intention of using them as a buffer
zone to hostile Native Americans outside the settlement. The slaves that received
the land were told that, although they were no longer slaves, they had to give
a portion of the profits they received from the land to the Dutch East India
Company. Also, their children would be born as slave, rather than free. The
tract was in the possession of African Americans from 1643 to 1664. Today, the
area, then called "The Land of the Blacks," is Washington Square Park. The
ex-slaves who owned "The Land of the Blacks" included Paulo D'angola. More
information can be found at the exhibit "Slavery In New York" at the New-York
Historical Society of Manhattan. It remained farmland until April 1797,
when the Common Council of New York purchased the fields to the east of the
Minetta for a new potter's field, or public burial ground. It was used mainly
for burying unknown or indigent people when they died. But when New York went
through yellow fever epidemics in the early 19th century, most of those who
died from yellow fever were also buried here, safely away from town, as a
hygienic measure. A legend in many tourist guides says
that the large elm at the northwest corner of the park, Hangman's Elm, was
the old hanging tree. However, research indicates the tree was on the side of
the former Minetta Creek that was the back garden of a private house. Records
of only one public hanging at the potter's field exist. Two eyewitnesses
to the recorded hanging differed on the location of the gallows. One said it had
been put up at a spot where the fountain was prior to 2007 park redesign. Others
placed the gallows closer to where the Arch is now. However, the cemetery was
closed in 1825. To this day, the remains of more than 20,000 bodies rest under
Washington Square. = Creation of Washington Square =
In 1826 the City bought the land west of Minetta Creek, the square was laid out
and leveled, and it was turned into the Washington Military Parade Ground.
Military parade grounds were public spaces specified by the City where
volunteer militia companies responsible for the nation's defense would train.
The streets surrounding the square became one of the city's most desirable
residential areas in the 1830s. The protected row of Greek Revival style
houses on the north side of the park remain from that time.
In 1849 and 1850, the parade ground was reworked into the first park on the
site. More paths were added and a new fence was built around it. In 1871, it
came under the control of the newly formed New York City Department of
Parks, and it was re-designed again, with curving rather than straight
secondary paths. = Construction of the arch =
In 1889, to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration as
president of the United States, a large plaster and wood Memorial Arch was
erected over Fifth Avenue just north of the park. The temporary plaster and wood
arch was so popular that in 1892 a permanent Tuckahoe marble arch, designed
by the New York architect Stanford White, was erected, standing 77 feet and
modeled after the Arc de Triomphe, built in Paris in 1806. During the excavations
for the eastern leg of the arch, human remains, a coffin, and a gravestone
dated to 1803 were uncovered 10 feet below ground level.
The first fountain next to the arch was completed in 1852 and replaced in 1872.
The monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi was unveiled in 1888. In 1918, two statues
of George Washington were added to the north side.
= Early 20th century renovation = Robert Moses became the Parks
Commissioner in 1934. He embarked on a crusade to fully redesign the park and
local activists began an opposing fight that lasted three decades.
In 1934 Robert Moses had the fountain renovated to also serve as a wading
pool. In 1952 Moses finalized plans to extend 5th Avenue through the park. He
intended to eventually push it through the neighborhood south of the park, as
part of an urban renewal project. Area residents, including Eleanor Roosevelt,
opposed the plans. The urbanist Jane Jacobs became an activist and is
credited with stopping the Moses plan and closing Washington Square Park to
all auto traffic. But Jacobs, in her book The Death and Life of Great
American Cities, praised another local advocate in the fight against park
traffic, Shirley Hayes: "[Hayes and the Washington Square Park Committee]
advocated eliminating the existing road, that is, closing the park to all
automobile traffic — but at the same time, not widening the perimeter roads
either. In short, they proposed closing off a roadbed without compensating for
it." Hayes, former Chairman of the Washington
Square Park Committee and member of the Greenwich Village Community Planning
Board, a local resident and mother of four sons, started a public outcry for
the park when large apartment buildings were raised on one of its borders. When
then-Manhattan Borough president Hulan E. Jack suggested an elevated pedestrian
walkway over a four-lane road through the park, Ms. Hayes initiated "Save the
Square!", a seven-year battle to keep automobiles out of the quiet area.
Though several different proposals were given for a roadway in the park, Hayes
and her followers rejected them all. Seeking to "best serve the needs of
children and adults of this family community," Hayes in turn presented her
own proposal: 1.75 acres of roadway would be converted to parkland, a paved
area would be created for emergency access only, and all other vehicles
would be permanently banned from the park. This plan received widespread
support, including that of then-Congressman John Lindsay as well as
Washington Square Park West resident Eleanor Roosevelt. After a public
hearing in 1958, a "ribbon tying" ceremony was held to mark the inception
of a trial period in which the park would be free of vehicular traffic. In
August 1959, the efforts of Ms. Hayes and her allies paid off: from that time
forward Washington Square Park has been completely closed to traffic. A plaque
commemorating her tireless crusade can be seen in the park today.
= Mid-20th century = Since around the end of World War II,
folksingers had been congregating on warm Sunday afternoons at the fountain
in the center of the park. Tension and conflicts began to develop between the
bohemian element and the remaining working class residents of the
neighborhood. The city government began showing an increasing hostility to the
use of public facilities by the public, and in 1947 began requiring permits
before public performances could be given in any city park.
In the spring of 1961, the new Parks Commissioner refused a permit to the
folksingers for their Sunday afternoon gatherings, because "the folksingers
have been bringing too many undesirable [beatnik] elements into the park." On
April 9, 1961, folk music pioneer Izzy Young, owner of the Folklore Center—who
had been trying to get permits for the folksingers—and about 500 musicians and
supporters gathered in the park and sang songs without a permit, then held a
procession from the park through the arch at Fifth Avenue, and marched to the
Judson Memorial Church on the other side of the park. At about the time the
musicians and friends reached the church, the New York City Police
Department Riot Squad was sent into the park, attacked civilians with billy
clubs, and arrested ten people. The incident made the front pages of
newspapers as far away as Washington, D.C.. The New York Mirror initially
reported it as a "Beatnik Riot" but retracted the headline in the next
edition, although tensions remained for a while.
= Early 21st century renovation = In December 2007, the New York City
Department of Parks and Recreation began construction on a US$16 million project
to redesign and refurbish Washington Square Park. Changes to the park's
design include the realignment of the central fountain with the arch, a
replacement of the existing perimeter fence with a taller iron fence, and the
flattening and shrinking of the central plaza. The plan also called for the
downing of dozens of mature trees and the reinstitution of ornamental water
plumes in the fountain—which, opponents worried, would undermine the park's
informal character. Five lawsuits were filed to challenge
the Parks Department's renovation plans. A 2005 suit was withdrawn by the
petitioners as premature. In July 2006, New York County Supreme Court Justice
Emily Jane Goodman enjoined any renovation work on the fountain or
fountain plaza area, pending further review of the plans by the local
community board, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and
the Art Commission, stating that the Parks Department misrepresented the
project in order to secure its approval; but this decision was reversed on
appeal. Another lawsuit challenging the Art Commission's approval of the plan
was dismissed. Two more lawsuits questioning the environmental review of
the renovation project were heard in 2007 by the New York County Supreme
Court, then dismissed. Upon the completion of phase one of the
park's renovation on May 22, 2009, the Coalition for a Better Washington Square
Park, a private organization, began raising money to "hire off-duty cops and
maintenance workers to patrol the Park" by the summer of 2010.
On June 2, 2011, the eastern half of the park was reopened to the public, leaving
only the park's southwest corner under construction. In mid-August 2012, the
new granite benches heated up to 125 degrees in the sun, rendering them
temporarily unusable. Cultural importance
Washington Square has long been a hub for politics and culture in New York
City. = Performers and entertainers =
The presence of street performers has been one of the defining characteristics
of Washington Square Park. For many years, people visiting the park have
mingled with the buskers, performers, musicians and poets. Because of a change
in policy on a 2010 rule that involved artists, the new ruling that was to come
in on May 8, 2013 would involve entertainers. This could mean that
performers could be fined $250 for the first offense and up to $1,000 for
further violations. The 2010 rule on which the 2013 ruling was based stated
that artists couldn't sell within 50 feet of a monument or five feet from any
bench or fence. = Protests and demonstrations =
In 1834, New York University decided to use prison labor to dress the stone for
its new building, across from the park, as prison labor from Sing Sing was
cheaper than hiring local stonemasons. This, the stonecutters of the city said,
was taking the bread out of their mouths. They held a rally in Washington
Square Park, and then held the first labor march in the city. That turned
into a riot, and the 27th New York regiment was called out to quell the
stonecutters. The regiment camped in Washington Square for four days and
nights until the excitement subsided. New York University continued their use
of prison labor. In 1912, approximately 20,000 workers
marched to the park to commemorate the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which
had killed 146 workers the year before. Many of the women wore fitted
tucked-front blouses like those manufactured by the Triangle Shirtwaist
Company. This clothing style became the working woman's uniform and a symbol of
female independence, reflecting the alliance of labor and suffrage
movements. Over 25,000 people marched on the park demanding women's suffrage in
1915. = Notable people =
In 1888, Robert Louis Stevenson, visiting the U.S. to seek medical help
for his battle with consumption, talked to Mark Twain in the park.
In the years before and after World War I, the park was a center for many
American artists, writers, and activists, including the photographer
André Kertész, who photographed the square during winter. Later the park was
a gathering area for the Beat generation, folk, and Hippie movements
in the 1950s and 1960s; in 1958, musician Buddy Holly, a nearby resident
of Greenwich Village, spent time in the park both listening to people play and
helping guitarists with musical chords. In the mid sixties His Divine Grace A.
C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada sat beneath a tree in the park and chanted
Hare Krishna to the people there. A plaque is by the tree he sat under
commemorating the event. On September 27, 2007, Democratic
Presidential candidate Barack Obama held a rally at Washington Square. 20,000
people registered for the event, and the crowds overflowed past security gates
set up as a cordon. The New York Times described the rally "as one of the
largest campaign events of the year." = In popular culture =
The park was featured extensively in the 2007 film I Am Legend. The protagonist,
Dr. Robert Neville, played by Will Smith, lived directly across the street
from the park. It was used as a major action piece, especially in the last
scenes of the film. There are also many scenes shot in the park in the film
August Rush with Robin Williams and Freddie Highmore. Highmore, playing the
titular character August Rush, a musical prodigy, busks in the park under the
watchful eye of the Fagin like Williams. The park scene in the 1995 film Kids
also took place at Washington Square Park.
Built-in outdoor chess tables on the southwest corner encourage outdoor
playing along with throngs of watchers. These tables were featured in the films
Searching for Bobby Fischer and Fresh. The Washington Square tables form the
cornerstone of what is called Manhattan's "chess district", as the
area around the park has a number of chess shops, the oldest being the
Village Chess Shop, which was founded in 1972 but closed in November 2012. The
park is seen in the 1995 film Kids in which the characters beat a man,
presumably to death. References
External links Information about Washington Square Park
at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation website
Washington Arch Records,1872-1925 New-York Historical Society
Shirley Hayes Oral History Greenwich Village Society for Historic
Preservation Washington Square Arch: A Triumph