Washington Square North

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Washington Square North, also called "The Row" presents a unified line of Late Classical townhouses along the northern End of Washington Square Park.

In the 1840s, New York City's elite established Washington Square, far from the increasingly commercial environment of Lower Manhattan, 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 center of New York society moved north after the American 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 depicted this nostalgic view in his 1881 novel, Washington Square. Today, most of the buildings belong to New York University's campus facilities.

Washington Square North 1-3: Perhaps no building in New York is more closely associated with a single artist that this 1830s row house. From 1913 till his death in May 1967, the Hoppers lived in a studio on the top floor. Chosen for its low rent and the artist’s belief that his hero, the Philadelphia artist, Thomas Eakins had painted here, Edward Hopper and his wife leased rooms having neither heat nor private bath. They decorated their rooms simply, with pieces of early American furniture.