Powerful Women in Greenwich Village
Originally built as a celebratory symbol of George Washington’s inauguration, the Washington Square Arch in Greenwich Village has come to represent a new, liberated America with the potential to reach out in many directions. As the neighborhood surrounding the arch became more bohemian during the 20th century, the arch grew stronger as a symbol of artistic and social rebellion. One of the most powerful movements that fostered the rebellious Village was feminism. Many incredible women influenced the Village scene with their creativity, intelligence, and individual perspectives. Of the wealth of brilliant women Greenwich Village had to offer, two in particular—Dawn Powell and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn—remarkably contributed to the main goal of feminism: women fighting for women. Powell and Flynn, both migrants to the city, managed to influence Greenwich culture and carry out the Arch’s theme of a new America capable of becoming something original with their societal contributions. Their accomplishments and relationship to Greenwich Village, as well as the Washington Square Arch itself, has developed New York City’s rich artistic culture in great ways.
American writer Dawn Powell grew up in Mount Gilead, Ohio, before moving to New York City in her adulthood. Powell had a great understanding of the dreams in which Villagers held about their city since they were hers, as well. Years after moving to the city, she wrote in retrospect, “Most of my childhood was spent waiting for New York” (Wetzsteon). When Dawn Powell first arrived in New York in 1918, she immediately joined the U.S. Naval Reserve as a yeoman. However, since the war ended ten days later, she moved into a cheap rooming house and started to write. She began her career writing articles for several New York newspapers and even tried to create plays, as well, but her specialty was fiction. She published fifteen novels with its themes split roughly into two halves: Ohio novels of people dreaming to escape to a new city and New York novels where characters recalled their Midwestern backgrounds. She often addressed the idea of young men and women escaping restrictions placed upon them by small-town America but holding onto their upbringings as they face a morally different culture. Outside of the literary field, Powell had a strong sense of female empowerment through intelligence; she harshly struck down the perception that Dorothy Parker was the only witty woman in New York and once said that, “true wit should break a wise man’s heart. It should rest on a pillar of truth and not on a gelatine base” (Wetzsteon 510).
Powell strongly felt that New York City, specifically the Village, was a convincing character in itself. Powell described that the Village can be “gay, openhearted, overflowing with opportunities, but it can also be dissipated, thoughtless, destructive of dreams” (Wetzsteon 514). In explaining various parts of the Village’s nature, she once considered the Washington Square arch at the end of Fifth Avenue to be “a gate to freedom.” Powell’s novels continue to serve as the best remaining record of the Village’s landscape from the 1930s into the 1950s. As she grew older and remained a New York City resident, she began to see her peers, once young, dream-filled spirits, loathe the Village and retreat into deep depressions. Yet, her love never ceased; in a letter to her cousin, she wrote, “New York, it’s the only place where people with nothing behind them but their wits can be and do everything” (Wetzsteon 519).
Of the major feminist figures who existed in the early 20th century, ‘East Side Joan of Arc’ figure Elizabeth Gurley Flynn had a huge impact on Greenwich Village’s society. Flynn moved from Concord, New Hampshire to South Bronx in 1900. She first began taking action at sixteen years old, “dressed as a schoolgirl in white blouse and a long skirt” (Coogan 313), with a speech called What Socialism Will Do for Women. Though her voice had a slight quiver during her speech delivery, she declared after her conclusion was followed by silence, “Just because I’m young and a girl is no reason you shouldn’t ask me questions”(Wetzsteon 173)! Later on in her career, Flynn enraptured audiences with her youth, charm, and penchant for public speaking. Her first arrest occurred only a few months later delivering her first speech, where she was taken in for “speaking without a permit” and “blocking traffic” at 38th Street and Broadway. But her first negative encounter with the law didn’t stop her efforts; through leading demonstrations, organizing strikes, and marching on picket lines, Flynn was arrested more than fifteen times by 1920. In reference to her mother, a member of the socialist party, she said, “[she] was strong for girls…’having a life of their own.’ … I saw no reason why I… should give up my work for [my husband’s]. I knew… I could make more of a contribution to the labor movement than he could. I would not give up.” Her determination to fight for women regardless of the obstacles involved shows a genuine sense of rebellion for a cause emblematic of the Village state of mind.
The Washington Square Arch throughout the 19th Century stood for an American society free to create openly, unbound from prior restrictions. What Flynn and Powell set out to accomplish absolutely contributes to this ideal and establishes Greenwich Village as a place worth observing for its cultural prosperity.
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Personal Response to the Washington Square Arch
When I first came across the Washington Square Arch, I felt overwhelmed by its aura and size. It stands proudly above all surrounding buildings and trees, making it obvious that the intent of its presence is to be acknowledged and appreciated. I hadn’t expected it to be so large and detailed in person, but something about it felt very personal. When Darren and I arrived there, I observed how people comfortably leaned against its supporting structure and walked through it freely, as if it was theirs undeniably. I also loved that, despite its massive passageway, it is blockaded from any automobile entrance- a further step in keeping the arch and the park it serves as an entrance to a true belonging of its people.
Keeping my original impressions in mind, as I researched the development of the arch, its design plans seem to coordinate well with how I felt about confronting it in person. The fact that its original purpose was to celebrate the centennial of Washington’s inauguration supports the necessity for grandeur and enormity. America’s liberation from England and its entry into the world as a free and independent country was no small feat, and the arch is a clear representation of how much Americans, especially thought-oriented New York City residents, value that accomplishment. I feel that the style chosen to depict the arch is significant, as well. I commonly associate Roman architecture with triumph, victory, and glory, all of which can be considered appropriate terms to explain the arch’s symbolic status in Greenwich Village. Perhaps my most favorite part about the arch’s design is the choice to have Washington at war and Washington at peace on opposing sides of the structure. I feel that it speaks representatively about what goes on in between the two, perhaps suggesting that Greenwich Village is a manifestation of both war and peace in the struggles its citizens face as well as the successes they triumph, be it financially, socially, or artistically.
The Washington Square Arch is an incredible architectural structure. Now cognizant of its historical attributes, I can look upon it with a newfound respect along with a connection to its significance as a symbol of rebellion and arts in American culture.
