Residential section, Lower Manhattan , New York , New York, U.S. A village settlement during colonial times, it became in successive stages an exclusive residential area, a tenement district, and, after 1910, a rendezvous for writers, artists, students, bohemians, and intellectuals.
The quaintness of its old townhouses led to rising rents in the 1980s and '90s. Washington Square, in its centre, is dominated by Washington Arch and New York University.