NEW YORK—As New Yorkers were celebrating Fourth of July Wednesday, a few were bearing in mind that the city was the first capital of the United States.
NYC Discovery Walking Tours led their annual Presidential Greenwich Village and Gramercy Park Tour on Wednesday. It is a chance for locals and tourists alike to learn something unexpected about how presidents and other historical figures left marks on the buildings that New Yorkers walk by daily.
As New York University students and park-goers rest at Washington Square Park, perhaps some have wondered why Washington’s figure, carved on the arch, is oddly disproportionate. The face was carved after Washington himself, while the body belongs to Charles Atlas—the iconic weight-lifter.
“They tried to create a more idealized portrait of the president—the father of our country—by making him look a little bulkier than he did in his old age,” said Richard Anthony, historian for NYC Discovery Walking Tours.
One hundred years after Washington was inaugurated on Wall Street at the Federal Hall, a wooden arch was built to commemorate him at Washington Square Park. In the 1890s, Stanford White, a famous American architect, redesigned the Washington Memorial Arch to what it is today.
Gilt-Edged Hotel
One of the stops was an inconspicuous pink building in Greenwich Village. “Back in the 1800s this was the location,” Anthony said.
What is now a regular office building was once the most popular presidential hotel.
Presidents such as Grover Cleveland, Ulysses Grant, Chester Arthur—and their wives—frequently stayed at the St. Denis Hotel.
One of the reasons behind its popularity was its location, across the street from Grace Church; the hotel was not allowed to sell liquor—providing a safe environment at the time (1869–1897).
“That’s one of the things that stands out [about this tour], instead of just looking at the major points of interests like Empire State Building, they are finding out about the hidden history of lesser known things,” Anthony said.
An Unconventional Presidential Marriage
An amalgam of office workers, shoppers, and New School students squeeze by Fifth Avenue, past the quiet Church of Ascension. Many look over, or try not to look over, at the musical homeless man who has designated his spot in front of the church.
But few realize that this was the location where the first New York presidential marriage—while the president was already serving his term—took place.
In the summer of 1844, Julia Gardiner, age 23, married President John Tyler, age 54, shortly after his first wife passed away.
“She walked in those doors and said ‘I do,’ and walked out as the first lady of the White House,” Anthony said.
“She was the second-youngest first lady in American history ... The first was Cleveland’s wife,” he said.
Gramercy—JFK Memories
The former notorious neighborhood in central lower Manhattan, Five Points, was at the time the center of crime and disease in New York. The elite wanted to create their own community, far away from the ghetto, while escaping the city’s congestion; hence the emergence of suburbs, such as Greenwich Village and Gramercy.
To this day, Gramercy Park is one of the two private parks in the city. Only residents who live in buildings directly surrounding the park get a key to access the exclusive park; however, Gramercy hotel guests can get the key.
“It’s the loophole,” Anthony said.
In the 1920s, John F. Kennedy’s father rented a floor inside Gramercy Hotel, right across from the park. “It was the temporary home for the Kennedy family,” Anthony said. It is said that John F. Kennedy had some childhood moments there.
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