NYHS

I’m surprised at how much past material we still have. Blueprints and declarations are typically archived, I suppose, but who would have thought to save personal journals and address books? The address book was interesting because if you can get names, addresses and people’s occupations, then there is a good chance you can reconstruct each person’s life. I’m sure there are other resources that contain different information within the same time period. Someone must have recorded names and addresses of businesses, schools, stores, parks, churches and personal information. If you start cross-referencing all these sources I’m sure it’s possible to take one family and find out where the parents worked and shopped and where the kids went to school and played. All the details of these people’s lives can be reconstructed and seeing that personal journal confirmed this for me.
I’m not really interested in how the land in/around the park has slowly evolved, but I can understand why the map that they showed us is significant. Anywhere I go in this city, I see buildings being demolished and new ones constructed in their place. It’s easy to forget what used to be there, or to not know at all.
I’ve also noticed, from the readings and the old NYU flyer asking for donations, that it’s impossible to talk about the history of Washington Square without bringing NYU into the picture. The school and the community are intertwined because they share the same physical space.