Willy's Memorial Garden, just north of Washington Square Park at One-Half Fifth Avenue (the actual address), is an exuberantly planted alley-like courtyard that I've walked by hundreds of times on the way to and from Washington Square Park.
Yet I've never really noticed it. Maybe the gate's usually closed?
Landscaped by NYU, the 8,000-square-foot garden with its native inkberry functions as the entrance to the university's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and some faculty residences. But the garden extends its welcoming, flowery arms even to passersby who have no business there – when the gates are open, anyway.
According to the Local Ecologist website: "The garden was planted in zones: woodland, flowering meow, berry patch, and Three Sisters," all species "collected by the Lenape peoples," the original inhabitants of today's Big Apple.
Beckoning to the explorer from the far end is a figure who, on close approach, turns out to be Miguel de Cervantes.
The statue is a replica of an 1835 work by Spanish neoclassical sculptor Antonio Solá. The original remains in Madrid; La Paz and Beijing also have replicas. The Mayor of Madrid presented the statue to New York City in 1986. It stood for a few years in Bryant Park. Then, deeming it too delicate for Washington Square, the city donated it to NYU. Here it has stood since 1989.
The one thing I haven't been able to glean from an internet search is who Willy was. After whom did NYU name this peaceful space? Please leave a comment if you know the answer!
All photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media
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