Washington Square Park is getting a second arch. WE STAND, a public art and history project from Village Preservation, will install a 12-foot-high structure in the park this November, and it will stay through March 2027, Women's History Month.

A women's arch

The centerpiece is called the We Follow in Her Footsteps women's arch. Village Preservation says it was designed for Washington Square Park and inspired by the hope, enlightenment and freedom the park's own arch stands for. The marble Washington Square Arch, designed by Stanford White, has marked the foot of Fifth Avenue since the 1890s.

The new arch invites visitors to learn about women who lived and worked in Greenwich Village and the surrounding neighborhoods and who shaped the country. The project names a wide span of them: Abigail Adams and Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marsha P. Johnson and Patti Smith, Jane Jacobs and Sonia Sotomayor.

Part of a year of Village history

WE STAND belongs to Revolutionary Village, the theme Village Preservation has run through its 2026 programs for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The series looks at how Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo fed American movements over two and a half centuries, from abolition and women's suffrage to labor organizing, LGBTQ+ rights, free speech and the arts, with walking tours, talks and school workshops.

One more Revolutionary Village event is on the calendar for December: the last 2026 installment of Richard Barone's Village Nights, at The Bitter End, 147 Bleecker Street, on Sunday, Dec. 6, at 6:30 p.m. Each Village Nights evening covers one decade of the Village's music history with musical guests and a panel. The Bitter End opened in 1961 and marks its 65th anniversary this year. Tickets are linked from Village Preservation's events page.

Who is behind it

Village Preservation, formally the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, is a neighborhood organization based at 232 East 11th Street that works on landmarking and historic protections in Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo, and runs public history programs.

How to see it

The arch will be in the park from November 2026 through March 2027; Village Preservation has not yet published an exact installation day. The park is bordered by Washington Square North, South, East and West, a short walk from the A, B, C, D, E, F and M at West 4th Street–Washington Square. For information, or to support the project, Village Preservation asks people to write to WeStand@villagepreservation.org.

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