Proudly overlooking the Northwest corner of Washington Square Park sits 103 Waverly Place. It was built in 1902 as a residential hotel named the Hotel Earle, after its first owner Earle L’Amoureaux. In the 1930s you could get a single room for as little as $2.00 a night. Through the years many well known people can say that they’ve slept there including Ernest Hemingway, Bob Dylan and Bo Diddley. In 1973 the hotel was sold and in 1986 it was renamed the Hotel Washington Square, also housing their wonderful North Square Restaurant.
One of my favorite streetscapes occupies the other side of the street and includes 108 and 110 Waverly Place. Originally a carriage house for the Wanamaker Department Store family, the building that now houses Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo was built in 1826 along with its neighbor, 108 Waverly Place.
On the other side of Sixth Avenue, corner of West 10th Street, you will find The Three Lives & Co. bookstore. Named for Gertrude Stein’s first book (1909) about three women living in the fictional town of Bridgepoint, it occupies the street level of an 1829 townhouse.
Waverly Place from beginning to end is a Greenwich Village street not to be missed.
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