Washington Square Park

newyorkcity-manhattan-greenwich.htm"--> Washington Square Park is a famous park located in Greenwich Village, in Manhattan. This is a popular meeting place for the people in New York City, particularly those in Greenwich Village. The park covers an area of 9.75 acres.

Washington Square Park, New York City
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_square_park.jpg
Author: Matthew Jesuele


Washington Square Park is bordered by four roads. They are known simply as Washington Square N, Washington Square E, Washington Square S and Washington Square W. However, beyond the park itself, these four roads are called Waverly Place, University Place, West 4th Street and MacDougal Street respectively.

Washington Square Park is close to New York University, which has its campus sprawled out to occupy many of the buildings in the area. These were leased and later bought up by the university, and converted for academic or residential use.

Washington Square Arch with Christmas tree
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arch_Tree_Washington_Square_Park,_New_York.jpg
Author: Ciar


The land on which Washington Square Park is located has been inhabited by Native Americans since before the Dutch arrived. After the Dutch had ousted the natives, they gave the land over to freed slaves, in order to create a buffer zone between native land and that occupied by the Dutch. The area was farmland until 1797, when it was bought up by the city to be used as a public burial ground, particularly of natives and people of unknown origin. During the yellow fever epidemic, it also served as the graveyard for those who died of the disease. At that time, the area is far outside the town limits, so was regarded as distant from inhabited areas.

Washington Square Park only began to take its present appearance in the 19th century 800 500 the City bought the land. In the beginning, it was used as a military parade ground. The parade ground was only renovated to become a park in around 1849.

The most famous landmark at Washington Square Park is the Washington Square Arch. I will describe it in a separate article.

Getting there

The nearest subway stations are W 4 St station (A, B, C, D, E, F and M) and 8 St-NYU station (N, R).

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Thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye. My hobby is to research information about places, and share the information with people on this website. I started this website on 5 January 2003, and since then, have written about over 20,000 places, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. While I try my best to provide you information that is as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors. Also, as I might not be able to update some information on time, some of these pages may contain outdated information.