Washington Square Park



© Ann Mulloy Ashmore 2012

      “The Village is New York to me,” Hans once told a reporter for The Villager newspaper in 1962.  If Greenwich Village was their neighborhood, Washington Square Park was their front yard. It was where they walked their black cocker spaniel, Charcoal, where Hans sat and read his morning papers, where the couple greeted friends walking to and from shops and restaurants. In less than a year after their arrival in the United States, the couple had settled into an apartment located at 42 Washington Square South. Their front window faced the park with a view of the stately Greek Revival homes along its northern boundary and the Washington Arch, erected in 1889 from a design by noted architect,

© Ann Mulloy Ashmore 2012

Stanford White. Land for the park had been acquired by the city in 1795. Originally used as a Potter's Field, or burial ground for the poor, it was converted into a parade ground in 1826. Subsequently, New Yorkers began to build townhouses along its perimeter. The first fountain appeared in 1852, and over the years various statues and monuments have been added. Today the park serves as a "quad" for New York University (NYU) whose buildings, (noted in blue in the image below) almost completely surround it on three sides. In 1949, when NYU claimed the southwestern corner of  Washington Square South for its new law school, the Reys were forced to relinquish their park side home and move a few blocks away to 82 Washington Place.

 



 

42 Washington Square South

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

1945 New Years Card



“We came to the U. S. A. with the idea that it was a progressive and liberal country,” Margret Rey recalled shortly after the couple became citizens in 1946.  In the six years they had called New York home, the couple published twenty children’s books. 

“We had prepared ourselves for a difficult start,” Hans added,  “but fate was kind—within a month four of the manuscripts I had brought along were accepted for publication.”          

The Reys chose New York for several reasons. First, Margret’s sister, Mary Waldstein Eichenberg, and her husband had lived on Long Island since the mid-1930s. Second, Hans knew the city. Prior to immigrating to Rio de Janeiro, he spent several months working in the New York office of his brother-in-laws’ import-export firm. Finally, New York was the epicenter for trade publishing, and the Reys were determined to make their mark.

Within months of their arrival, the couple had found an apartment on Washington Square, in Greenwich Village. Like many authors and artists before them, the aesthetics of The Village—its irregular streets, classical architecture, diverse cultural life—seeped into their souls. Hans featured their third floor walk-up on South Square in the couple’s 1945 New Year’s card, and in a small sketch depicting its interior.

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi



Here they entertained family and friends, listened to music, argued over politics, chatted about movies and reviews in The New York Times. Ironically, their biggest success, the Curious George series, was with a Boston-based publishing house, Houghton Mifflin. Yet for nearly a quarter of a century, the Reys (and Curious George) roamed the streets of New York, rode its subways and buses, and called it home. George liked to ride on top of the bus. Don’t believe me? Re-read Curious George Takes a Job. You’ll see them all on 5th Avenue—George, riding the bus, Hans in a blue suit walking beside his friend and author, Jesse Jackson (Call Me Charley, 1945), and Margret with Charcoal, their black cocker spaniel, a little to the right greeting a four-legged friend.