Even Back Then, NYU Was Ruining the Village

The Park in the 1930s “The beauty of the square is marred on its east side by the tall drab buildings of New York University.” In looking at these guides, I thought I would be interesting to see what the New York City guide says about the places we experience every day. Today, Washington Square Park is certainly a tourist destination; it’s difficult to walk through the park on a nice day without stepping in someone’s picture of the fountain or the arch. From the previous statement, it seems like these WPA tour guide writers felt the same way as many do today.

NYU hatred aside, I found the guide presented an interesting view not only what the Village contained, but also what tourists would want to know about it. I feel like tour guides today are overwhelmingly about directing a tourist to some sort of attraction rather than telling them about everything around them. The 1930s guide differs greatly in that it seems to assume it is speaking to an educated audience who desires some sort of knowledge regarding the location. Reading this felt more like reading a history of the area rather than a guide for tourists (also, the fact that the guide was 600 plus pages wouldn’t exactly make it the easiest thing to stick in your pocket to accompany you on a day of sightseeing).

Another aspect I found interesting was how the writer viewed the area (which indeed may have actually been what the space was like in the thirties). In describing Greenwich Village the author writes there are “two focal points…Sheridan Square can best be described as the “Times Square” of Greenwich Village.” Today, there is probably not a single person who would make that comparison. Nevertheless, it serves to illustrate what the space was like at the time.

As far as this functioning as a tour guide, it gets the standard “here’s how you get around” stuff over in the beginning and then seems to serve more as an educational tool. The guide does state in the beginning that “it is intended to give both the permanent resident and the visitor an intimate, accurate knowledge of the metropolis.” From the small excerpt I read, it seems that it would have done just that, but did it suffer a fate like that of the numerous works of fiction published during the 1930s and reach little readership? In any event, it would certainly be interesting to revive the guide today and see how much of the city has changed (taxis are definitely not five cents per quarter mile anymore).