Hotel Earle ca. 1915

The Washington Square Hotel has been a haven for writers and artists for more than a century. Built in 1902 as a residential hotel named the Hotel Earle after its first owner, Earle S. L’Amoureux, the hotel occupied a single, eight-story, red brick building on Waverly Place, in the heart of Greenwich Village. In 1908, L’Amoureux built an identical connecting building to create a grand apartment hotel, complete with reading rooms, restaurant and banquet facilities. Four years later, he added a ninth floor and, in 1917, he acquired an adjoining three-story building, bringing the hotel to MacDougal Street, at the northwest corner of picturesque Washington Square. In the 1930s, Knott Hotels, one of the nation’s first hotel chains, owned and managed the Earle and advertised:

American Plan from $3.50 single, $7.00 double European Plan from $2.00 single, $3.50 double

The 1950s saw great change in the Village which was swiftly becoming the center of New York’s bohemian counterculture, reflected by the Beat generation who gravitated to the coffee houses and jazz clubs. The once-grand hotel began to deteriorate into a shabby apartment hotel, making it an affordable location for struggling artists, actors, writers, and musicians. Ernest Hemingway stayed at there for a few weeks in 1914, just before he went off to serve in World War I. Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, the B-52’s, Maynard Ferguson and Bo Diddley have all been guests at the hotel.

Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin were evicted from the Beekman Hotel after, legend has it, the management got tired of his partying and excessive demands on room service. Seeking residence close to one of his favorite bars in the Village, the Minetta Tavern, Dylan checked into the Hotel Earle. He wrote a letter to his parents in May 1950 in which he described the Earle as “right in Washington Square, a beautiful Square, which is right in the middle of Greenwich Village, the artists’ quarter of New York.”

In recent years, Judy Paul and her husband Marc Garrett have renovated it to become a charming, beautiful boutique hotel. The restaurant has large picture windows overlooking Washington Square Park which bathe the room with sunlight. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On Sunday afternoons, they do a jazz brunch. A few years back, one of the breakfast waitresses asked if they’d let her perform. She gave them a demo CD to listen to. The Pauls were impressed and gave her the green light. She went on to win five Grammy Awards. That waitress was Norah Jones.