Waverly Place is a narrow street in theGreenwich Village section of theNew York Cityborough ofManhattan, that runs fromBank Street toBroadway. Waverly changes direction roughly at its midpoint atChristopher Street, turning about 120degrees from a north–south street to a northwest–southeast street. At Christopher Street, the traffic direction changes as well, from southbound to westbound. At the intersection where this transition occurs, Waverly branches into a Y, creating an intersection with itself.
The two blocks which form the northern border ofWashington Square Park – fromMacDougal Street toFifth Avenue, and from Fifth Avenue toUniversity Place – are calledWashington Square North.[1] In the block from Fifth to University, there is a unified line ofGreek Revivaltownhouses, sometimes called "the Row", which are owned and used byNew York University. Some of the buildings at the Fifth Avenue end have retained their exterior facades, but are connected together inside to make one larger building.[2]
The street was named afterSir Walter Scott's 1814 novelWaverley in 1833; prior to that it was calledSixth Street.[3]
In the 1840s, New York City's elite established Washington Square, far from the increasingly commercial environment ofLower 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 ofFifth Avenue presented the unified and dignified appearance of privilege. When the center of New York City society moved north after theAmerican 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, depicted this nostalgic view in his 1880tragicomedic novel,Washington Square. Today, the buildings all belong toNew York University.
The 1830s row house at 1–3 Washington Square North may be the house in the city most closely associated with a single artist. From 1913 until his death in May 1967, the artistEdward Hopper and his wife,Josephine, lived in a studio on the building's top floor. Chosen for its low rent and the artist's belief that his hero, the American artistThomas Eakins had painted there, Hopper and his wife leased rooms that lacked central heat or private baths.[4] They decorated their rooms simply, with pieces of early American furniture.
