Washington Square Park
Thursday, 2nd June 2005 by Alex Turnbull
One of more than 1,700 parks in New York City, Washington Square Park is probably one of the best known (after Central Park obviously). In 1889, to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguracy as president, a large plaster and wood Memorial Arch was erected at the northern entrance to the park. The plaster and wood arch was replaced in 1892 with a marble arch designed by Stanford White, which you can see here in our thumbnail image thanks to the helpful shadow 🙂 You can also see the park's fountain where public performances often occur.
Also, this is one of the parks with all the outdoor chess tables. Cool, although apparently it's 3 bucks a game!
Thanks: Benjamin
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Not sure if this has been posted but there is a season change in the southwest corner of central park. Pretty cool
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Ah, Washington Square Park. I work a short distance away and sometimes stroll through it during lunch. Until I started doing so a few years ago, I had always thought of chess as an upscale, intellectual sort of pursuit. One look at the chess players who frequent the park quickly changed that belief. Most of them appear to have learned chess in prison, while serving lengthy sentences!
Bud? Bud? Bud?
I go to NYU so Washington Square Park is pretty much my home.
I’m pretty sure the chess tables are public, but people hustle chess games for money (Stanley Kubrick used to do that to finance one of his first movies).
It’s a shame the image wasn’t taken during the summer; it’s usually packed full of people sunbathing in the fountain or watching street performers.