It Happened on Washington Square (Center Books on Space Place and Time)

About this book

The heart of New York Citys Greenwich Village Washington Square Park has been a vital public space for nearly two centuries. Lined by elegant townhouses anchored by Stanford Whites iconic Washington Arch and used by students and professionals dog walkers and musicians chess players and toddlers the park is both an oasis from and an ideal of urban life. Synonymous with the citys artistic identity the park has also witnessed waves of political and social unrest and served as a focal point for contentious debates about the future of urban development. This rich and colorful history is captivatingly told by Emily Kies Folpe in It Happened on Washington Square. Farmed by New Amsterdams freed African slaves in the seventeenth century the park was used as a potters field and dueling ground in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War and then converted into a parade ground for the citys volunteer militia in 1826. Since the 1830s when it formed the nucleus of an upscale community Washington Square has been an incubator for American art and a haven for writers painters sculptors and architects. At the beginning of the twentieth century the area began to attract the artists and political radicalsfrom John Reed to the Beatswho gave the Square a counter-cultural aura it still possesses. In recent decades the Squares residents have united against such threats to their neighborhood as the urban redevelopment proposed by Robert Moses and the expansion of New York University. Illustrated with a remarkable selection of historic images It Happened on Washington Square explains why the survival of this unique public space is so important.