The hippies who famously turned up and tuned out in Washington Square Park are still there in spirit, and indeed often in person. In warmer months the park—which was once a potter’s field—is one of the best people-watching spots in the city, humming with musicians and street artists, while skateboarders clatter near the base of the iconic 1895 Washington Arch (a modest replica of Paris’s Arc de Triomphe).
A quick history lesson: The iconic arch came to the city in the late 1800s to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration. A temporary, wooden arch was erected outside of the park near the mansion of businessman and philanthropist William Rhinelander Stewart.
New Yorkers loved the arch so much that they raised money to erect a permanent version of it for the park. The arch we know and love today was built with those privately raised funds.
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