Waverly Place

[3] In the 1840s, New York City's elite established Washington Square, far from the increasingly commercial environment of Lower Manhattan, as the address of choice.

Anchored by the mansion of William C. Rhinelander at the center of Washington Square North, "the Row" of Greek Revival town houses on either side of Fifth Avenue presented the unified and dignified appearance of privilege.

When the center of New York City society moved north after the American Civil War, the houses on the square came to represent the gentility of a bygone age.

From 1913 until his death in May 1967, the artist Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine, lived in a studio on the building's top floor.

Chosen for its low rent and the artist's belief that his hero, the American artist Thomas Eakins had painted there, Hopper and his wife leased rooms that lacked central heat or private baths.