Winter in Manhattan Odyssey Weekend Six: Saturday

    "If you're quiet, you're not living.  You've got to be noisy and colorful and lively."  Mel Brooks

K and I met at the Arch in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village at 2 pm. Saturday for a the“Edgar Allan Poe Literary Walking Tour” with Uncle Sam’s New York Tours.  Our guide for the two hours was Dennis, a real character who obviously loves his City.  It was excellent.  The only negative aspect was that I truly want to live in one of the small, gorgeous Georgian Revival townhouses with a hidden garden in a new and furious way! 

                It is truly amazing how much national and artistic history abounds in a relatively small area in one of the largest cities in the world.  I should be used to this having lived most of my life in Boston.  I must share some of the things I saw and learned on this wonderful afternoon.  First the Arch where we met was designed by Stanford White and was first built of wood, then recreated in marble and granite in 1895.  The two statues of George Washington were added later, one of Him dressed as a General in battle (1916), the other dressed for his Inauguration (1918).  Washington Square Park was at one time a burial ground, for German immigrants, and also a potter’s field, burial ground for the poor.  For a very short time it was used as a parade ground for the military, but that use was put to rest when the cannons started sinking into the graves.  (Most of the bodies buried here have since been moved, but some do remain.)             

One of the most famous members of the military on Washington Square was Edgar Allan Poe who lived on the Square and needed to supplement his income!  He did much of his writing while living here, including publishing “The Raven” .  (Another Bostonian who fell in love with New York City, alas in this lifetime I don’t think I’ll be living on the Square.)

from Gourmet G

Very close to Poe’s home is the Washington Square Hotel which was a hotbed, literally, of Bohemian life in the sixties.  Joan Baez lived in room 604? and for a while allowed a young man by the name of Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, to live with her as she saw his potential. 

Another musical tidbit that I found very fascinating was that Michelle and John Phillips, of the Mamas and the Papas, wrote much of “California Dreamin” while at the hotel, and the line “went into a church, and got down on my knees”, came from when they went into Judson Memorial Church which was also designed by Stanford White and is on the south side of Washington Square Park, within site of the hotel.

Oh, so much more!  Eleanor Roosevelt bought a home on the west side of the park which was to have been the home for herself and the President after he left office.  Unfortunately she lived there alone, as FDR died while in office.  A fascinating tidbit of that building was that it was handicap accessible already back in the 40’s when she bought it. 

Thank God Landmarks Preservation Society exists.  In 1965, after the demolition of the original Penn Station (also designed by Stanford White..He was busy and amazing professionally, but pretty notorious personally!), “people” decided it was crazy to be tearing down these architectural masterpieces, and putting up monstrosities in their place.  Many buildings in Greenwich Village and around other neighborhoods in New York City were protected and preserved.  (The New York City Post Office is presently being preserved and redesigned to be used as Penn Station.)

         I could go on and on, (about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the square where the gay rights movement exploded and the Dental Clinic that went bankrupt for refusing to treat an HIV patient, the sites where Edna St Vincent Millay and Aaron Bur lived…) but long story short, it was a great afternoon led by a great Guide with a nice group of Ladies.

                   Our tour ended in front of a little Ethiopian restaurant that K had been to before.  I haven’t had Ethiopian food since my older Daughter was in school in Montreal.  So, we had a great, relatively cheap dinner with wine at Mekerem at 124 MacDougal Street.  K then headed to the East Village to get a treat to bring up to Yale, and I headed to Times Square to see what tickets may be available for a show.

The Show I wanted to see was sold out, so I headed to Esca for dessert.  Enjoyed a couple of hours at the bar with some regulars, feeling like one myself.   I think I’ve mentioned how much I love that.   Headed home as I was truly beat, and walking up 59^th Street just along side the Queensboro Bridge (or 59^th Street Bridge as I was told real New Yorkers call it) was the most gorgeous huge full moon just sitting on top of the Bridge.  I walked to the end of the street where there’s a park above the East River for a better view.  Incredibly beautiful!