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WASHINGTON SQUARE
NORTH, NOS. 21-25 In the 1840s, New York's elite established Washington Square, far from the increasingly commercial environment of downtown, as the address of choice. Anchored by the mansion of William C. Rhinelander at the center of Washington Square North, "the Row" of Greek Revival town houses on either side of Fifth Avenue presented the unified and dignified appearance of privilege. When the epicenter of New York society moved north after the Civil War, the houses on the square came to represent the gentility of a bygone age. Henry James, whose grandmother lived at 18 Washington Square North, brilliantly depictedly this nostalgic view in his 1881 novel, Washington Square. By the time Abbott photographed the venerable houses at the northwest corner of the Square, Old New York's foothold was slipping. Although not built until 1952, an apartment house was planned in 1929 for the Rhinelander properties, east of nos. 21-26, and shortly after Abbott's photograph, nos. 7-13 were gutted and renovated as apartments. The photograph documented the beauty of the old facades but also revealed incipient change. Nos. 22 and 23 (center) were shuttered with "for sale" signs affixed to them. At the west end of the block (left) was the 16-story Richmond Hill Apartments. The leaves of a tree in Washington Square Park, softly framing the left and top edges of the photograph, give a romantic air to this otherwise sharp-focused view of fading elegance. These houses now belong to New York University and conform to the stringent requirements of landmark regulations: awnings, such as those captured by Abbott, have been removed, and window air conditioners are forbidden. Return to Greenwich Village |