Washington square a place where a lot of grand townhouses seats gracefully on the north side of the square. This writing is about downtown Manhattan in the 19th centuries. My visit started in Washington Square park and after we walk a little to Greenwich village and end it in Soho.

It started with a quite educated story on why the arch in the park was here for and what it represents. The arch which is a marble Roman triumphal arch was built in the 1800’s, it celebrates the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration as president of the United States. To me it looks like a gate that you can enter or get out a different part of New york city. Each part has it’s own beauty the one going up in 5th avenue is surrounding with tall building and always busy, rather with a lot of traffic or people. the other part is more peaceful with less traffic and people are drawn to live there, also the buildings are quite different it’s mostly Greek revival townhouses. Those four-story townhouses were built by rich merchant in the 1800’s. The style was geek revival which include dentils under the roof, sidelights and a transom surrounding the front door, plain window headers, shouldered architrave trim, and iron detailing. also the streets surrounding by those townhouses are very cozy and it really give you a sense of simplicity and elegance.

During my visit I also have a sense of what gothic architecture represents especially in New York. Basically it’s a style borne in Europe during the middle age and kinda completed it’s evolution by Renaissance architecture. As beautiful and very detailed those church on 5th Avenue are, I kept asking my self why all the amazing architecture were from the other side of the globe. Some features of the gothic style include the use of rib vault, flying buttress, stained glass, rose window, pointed arch and also some islamic architecture. I also learned a little of SoHo’s history. SoHo is the location of many artists loft, art galleries and trendy upscale boutique, but wasn’t the same in the 18 and 19 Centuries it was more an industrial place and some part of it was empty. Compare to Washington Square townhouses cast iron is the main part of Soho’s buildings they are also townhouses but built much more higher.