Greenwich Village

								

having its cornerstones christened with blood, for it was the occasion
of the well-known,--shall we say the notorious?--"Stonecutters'
Riots." The builders contracted for work to be done by the convicts of
Sing Sing Prison, and the city workmen, or Stonecutters'
Guild,--already strong for unions,--objected. In fact, they objected
so strenuously that the Twenty-seventh Regiment (now our popular
Seventh) was called out, and stayed under arms in the Square for four
days and nights; after which the disturbance died down.
The next important labour demonstration in the Square was in 1855,
when, during a period of "hard times," eight thousand workmen
assembled there with drums and trumpets, and made speeches in the most
approved and up-to-date agitator style, collecting a sum of money
which went well up into four figures!
In 1833 society folded its wings and settled down with something
resembling permanence upon the corner of the "Snug Harbour" lands,
which formed the famous North Side of Washington Square. Of all social
and architectural centres of New York, Washington Square North has
changed least. Progress may come or go, social streams may flow
upward with as much speed, energy and ambition as they will; the
eddies leave one quiet and lovely pool unstirred. That fine row of
stately houses remains the symbol of dignified beauty and distinction
and an aristocracy that is not old-fashioned but perennial.
Such names as we read associated with the story of Washington Square
and its environs! Names great in politics and patriotism, in art and
literature, in learning and distinction, in fashion and fame and
architecture. Hardly one of them but is connected with great position
or great achievement or both. Rhinelander, Roosevelt, Hamilton,
Chauncey, Wetmore, Howland, Suffern, Vanderbilt, Phelps,
Winthrop,--the list is too long to permit citing in full. Three mayors
have lived there, and in the immediate vicinity dwelt such
distinguished literary persons as Bayard Taylor, Henry James, George
William Curtis, N.P. Willis (Nym Crynkle), our immortal Poe himself,
Anne Lynch,--poetess and hostess of one of the first and most
distinguished salons of America--Charles Hoffman, editor of the
Knickerbocker, and so on. Another centre of wit and wisdom was the
house of Dr. Orville Dewey,--whose Unitarian Church, at Broadway and
Waverly Place, was the subject of the first successful photograph in
this country by the secret process confided to Morse by Daguerre.
Edgar Allan Poe lived with his sick young wife Virginia, on Carmine
Street, and lived very uncomfortably, too. The name of his
boarding-house keeper is lost to posterity, but the poet wrote of her
food: "I wish Kate our cat could see it. She would faint."
Poor Poe lived always somewhere near the Square. Once in a while he