Greenwich Village Walking Tour

Esther Farkas

04/27/19

MCHC 1002

Professor Campos

Washington Square Park Walking Tour

As my second “field trip” for this seminar, I accompanied Professor Napoli’s class on a walking tour of Washington Square Park. Professor Napoli’s class is focused on the historical background of the ever changing New York City population and neighborhoods, however many things that he addressed also related to our subject of the treatment of immigrants and their relationship to American culture.

Washington Square Park is located in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. The neighborhood was mostly Italian immigrants, who came to America for work opportunities, much like in “A View From the Bridge” by Arthur Miller, which we read in class. The famous arch, which gives the park it’s name, was erected in 1889 to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of Washington’s presidency. The arch was modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but contained elements of Italian architecture, such as flowers inlaid in the ceiling, reminiscent of Italian churches. Professor Napoli suggested that this was a deliberate choice on the part of the designers; to link the idea of Washington- the quintessential American- to the homeland of many of the citizens of the neighborhood. By juxtaposing Washington’s image with Italian art, the city hoped to sway the Italian population into viewing Washington as a part of their culture as well, now that they are “Americans”. We discussed this idea in class with the differentiation of “job-seeking immigrants” and “home-seeking immigrants”. In terms of characters from Arthur Miller’s play, the city hoped that the immigrant population of Greenwich Village change from “Marco” to “Rodolpho”.

This became even more blatant when we continued around the park and arrived at a statue of italian hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, who united the individual kingdoms of italy and earned the title of “The George Washington of Italy.” Garibaldi was hugely popular among Italians and including his statue in a park dedicated to the forefather of this country sent a strong message of acceptance to Italian immigrants. In my opinion, the situation is comparable to a quid pro quo, where the city essentially said, “you may keep your culture, as long as you adopt ours as well.” This is an example of the fusion model of the melting pot, where immigrants are encouraged to mix their own unique culture with that of preexisting American culture to create a new baseline American culture. However, while the city made an effort to appear as though the cultures were equal, in practice the immigrant population was mistreated regardless of statues or arches.

While several overtures were made to court the immigrant population, one cannot ignore the sad history of the surrounding neighborhood. Just around the corner from Washington Square Park is the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, where 146 workers, mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants, were killed when the factory caught fire. There was no way out because the overseers locked the doors. Professor Napoli read the account of a man who witnessed the horrific sight of young men and women jumping from windows, only to die on the concrete. The contrast between the welcoming artistry of the park and the actual treatment of the immigrants is staggering. While the city wanted immigrants to adopt George Washington as their national hero, equal to Garibaldi, they also looked the other way as sweatshops ran on the labor of underpaid, overworked, immigrants- many of whom were barely teenagers. Factories took advantage of the immigrant population, mistreating them and getting away with it because they were minorities- all the while the government implied that all Americans are united and share a culture. The fire- a tragedy on such a large scale it could not be ignored-  galvanized the nation and became the inciting incident for change in the industrial sweatshops that characterized New York City commerce in the early twentieth century. Unions and labor laws sprang up to protect laborers, who were mostly poor immigrants.

Today, the neighborhood around Washington Square Park is trendy and gentrified. Most of the surrounding buildings are owned by NYU and used as student housing. The park is full of people playing music loudly and teenagers skateboarding defiantly in front of signs that say “No Skateboarding.” The neighborhood has changed significantly since it first became home to Washington Square Park, for better or for worse. There is no singular dominant population in the area and all cultures fuse together to create this diverse and unique neighborhood. Though its success may be contested, from its inception, Washington Square Park was intended to bring together Americans- new and old- to enjoy the city they now called home.