In 1894, New York University tore down the 1835 Gothic Revival beauty that was the school’s main building.

This lovely structure on the east side of Washington Square had housed all of the college’s functions.

For six decades, it anchored the college community and watched the neighborhood go from posh and stylish to more bohemian and rougher around the edges.

By the 1890s, NYU had decided to move its undergraduate school to the Bronx, and the main building had outlived its usefulness.

Lucky for us, when the building met the bulldozer, NYU officials saved one architectural detail: a small spire, complete with a handful of grotesques.

They ceremoniously named it the Founder’s Memorial and brought it to the new Bronx campus, where it spent most of the 20th century.

But the Bronx campus was sold off in the 1970s, and NYU once again concentrated its educational offerings in Greenwich Village. When the school came back, the spire came returned as well.

Today it sits off West Fourth Street between Bobst Library and Shimkin Hall, a modest sliver of the 1830s hiding in the shadows of the modern city.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Reddit

Tumblr

Pinterest

Email

LinkedIn

Like this: Like Loading... Related

Tags: Building Spire NYU, Founders Memorial NYU, New York in the 1830s, NYU history, NYU in Greenwich Village, Washington Square 19th century