#100 MY WORK IS DONE

#100 MY WORK IS DONE

I set out to do 100 “musings” on the Park. This is 100. 

I leave you with some famous spirits who have passed through. You will know some names. If you are of a certain age, you will know them all. 

 Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain, in September 1887, “settled comfortably into a sunny part of the northwest corner of the park and spent the next five hours telling stories to one another.” 

 Edward Hopper, Childe Hassam, William Glackens, John Sloan, Paul Cornoyer, and countless others did paintings of the Arch and paint it still. 

Andre Kertesz photographed the Park many times from his twelfth-floor apartment at 2 Fifth Ave. 

Henry James wrote a novel titled Washington Square, but didn’t like the Arch. The “new bohemia” was growing around it. "Harrumph," said James, who became a British subject in 1915. 

Marlon Brando, 19 years old, went to Washington Square and “got drunk for the first time. I fell asleep on the sidewalk, and nobody bothered me.” 

Matthew Broderick as a kid played in the Park, “We would play Frisbee around the fountain. We played handball against the Arch.”

Dave Chappelle did a few minutes of stand-up at the Fountain before anyone knew who he was. 

Buddy Holly spent time in the Park listening to people play guitar and teaching others guitar chords. That was 1958. 

Ai Wei Wei installed a work of art inside the Arch in 2017. 

Barack Obama spoke to a rally in front of the Arch in 2007. 

Elizabeth Warren did it too, in 2019. 

                            Use your imagination when you visit the Park. 

                            The famous were here. Now so are you.