In the spring of 1789, New York City was full of ceremony, dust, and hope. The American Revolution was won, the Constitution ratified, and the country’s first president—General George Washington—was on his way to be inaugurated at Federal Hall in New York’s Financial District. Though the seat of government was temporary, placed in Manhattan until a permanent capital could be established, New York was the beating heart of the new republic.
And as the city braced for his arrival, the area just north of the main colonial settlements—then a semi-rural patchwork of farmland, taverns, and modest homes called Greenwich Village—felt his presence too.
Washington’s connection to Greenwich Village was not one of residence, but of geography, history, and legacy. During the Revolutionary War, he had marched through the region multiple times, and now, as the newly elected president, his journeys to and from his official residence often brought him near the Village. These pathways became early threads in the fabric of the neighborhood’s place in national memory.
From General to President: A Path Through the Village
In 1776, thirteen years before he became the first president of the United States, General George Washington had used New York as a key defensive point during the Revolutionary War. After the British landed on Long Island in August of that year, Washington oversaw a strategic withdrawal from Brooklyn Heights across the East River—one of his most brilliant tactical decisions. His army moved through what is now lower Manhattan, including the area of today’s Greenwich Village, to avoid British entrapment.
At that time, Greenwich Village was still largely pastoral. It was known as “Greenwich” (“Green Village” in Dutch) and sat just beyond the main city boundaries, offering a safer and healthier retreat from the crowded, disease-prone streets of lower Manhattan. The Village served as a temporary haven for troops and, occasionally, Washington himself, particularly when downtown became unsafe.
Washington’s 1776 movements along roads that would later become Bleecker Street and Greenwich Avenue placed him in direct proximity to the area. He met with officers in outposts and taverns in or near the Village, such as the famed Coach and Horses, a popular gathering place along the King’s Highway (present-day Greenwich Avenue), used by patriots and Tories alike.
April 1789: The Inauguration March
By April 1789, the Revolution was over and a newly born nation began its rise. Washington had been unanimously elected as the first president. His journey from Mount Vernon to New York became a national celebration. When he finally arrived in Manhattan by barge on April 23, crowds lined the streets. Church bells rang. Cannons thundered.
Washington took up residence at the Samuel Osgood House at 1 Cherry Street in Lower Manhattan—long gone now but remembered as the first presidential mansion. However, the roads he traveled—both formal and informal—regularly brought him near Greenwich Village. He often passed through on his way to inspect fortifications along the Hudson River or to visit military sites and civic leaders stationed in or near the area.
Local lore holds that Washington occasionally passed through what would later be Washington Square Park, then still a potter’s field and militia training ground. Though there’s no surviving evidence that he stood exactly where the arch now rises, his movements around the area would eventually inspire the naming of the square and, later, the erection of the grand marble Washington Arch at its northern end.
Washington Square and a Lasting Tribute
The land that became Washington Square Park was purchased by the city in 1797, eight years after Washington’s inauguration, and transformed from a burial ground into a parade ground for militia drills. Over the next few decades, the area developed rapidly, becoming one of New York’s most fashionable neighborhoods in the early 19th century.
By the 1880s, Greenwich Village’s residents—by then a mix of wealthy families and working-class immigrants—pushed for a monument to commemorate the centennial of Washington’s inauguration. In 1889, a temporary triumphal arch made of wood and plaster was erected at the northern edge of the square. It proved so popular that the city commissioned the current marble arch, designed by Stanford White and completed in 1895.
Though Washington never lived in the Village, the square became a permanent symbol of his legacy and the young republic he helped forge. Over time, the Village itself became known for its independence, its resistance to conformity—a spirit that echoed the ideals Washington fought for, even if the man himself was a figure of discipline and order.
Washington and the Village’s Revolutionary Character
Washington’s personal values—stoicism, public service, cautious progress—may seem at odds with the later bohemian spirit of Greenwich Village. But his presence, however indirect, laid a foundational link. The Revolutionary War, and the fledgling government it created, shaped the geography and identity of the neighborhood. The roads he marched became avenues. The open fields he crossed became protest grounds, parks, and public gathering spaces.
Even the neighborhood’s later role in civil disobedience—whether in labor strikes, suffrage rallies, or the Stonewall Uprising—echoes the nation’s original break from British rule, which Washington so powerfully embodied.
Legacy in Stone and Street
Today, the Washington Arch stands at the foot of Fifth Avenue, its clean white stone rising proudly over a square that has seen centuries of change. Tourists pose for photos beneath it, students gather in circles on the grass, and street musicians fill the air with jazz and protest songs.
Few may realize that the man it honors walked nearby—not as a myth, but as a general trying to hold a fragile army together, and later, as a president trying to build a fragile nation. Greenwich Village, with its winding streets and layered histories, still carries the faint footsteps of George Washington—etched in the paths he traveled and in the republic he helped bring to life.
