In 1915, more than 25,000 people gathered at the Washington Square Arch and marched up Fifth Avenue to 59th Street. It was one of the largest parades in the history of the women's suffrage movement. Three years earlier, on May 4, 1912, a 16-year-old named Mabel Ping-Hua Lee rode on horseback from Washington Square Park to 27th Street. She was part of a group of Chinese immigrant women who helped lead that year's suffrage parade.
On November 11, the park gets a second arch, 12 feet high, built for that same history. It's called the "We Follow in Her Footsteps" women's arch. It sits at the center of WE STAND, a public art and history installation from Village Preservation that will stay in the park through Women's History Month in March 2027. Most of the women it honors lived and worked on blocks you can walk to from the park, so the new arch works best as a starting point for a walk.
What arrives on November 11
Village Preservation announced WE STAND on October 6. The installation will turn a section of Washington Square Park into an outdoor gallery. The Women's Arch stands at its center, with large-scale portraits and stories set out along the park's walkways. The project page describes the centerpiece this way:
"Inspired by the hope, enlightenment, and freedom that the park's arch represents, this 'We Follow in Her Footsteps' women's arch invites visitors to take part in the rich history of these Village trailblazers and carry their stories forward."
Leslie Mason and Lannyl Sephens curated the project. The partners listed are Art in the Parks, MADE Design/Build, PS New York and Color X. MADE Design/Build has worked with Village Preservation on this kind of project before. In 2022 it built the platform for "A Monument to Choice," the interactive VILLAGE VOICES installation designed by Doyle Partners for Gansevoort Plaza in the Meatpacking District. Dancers from the Martha Graham Company performed "19 Poses," a piece honoring suffragists, on that platform.
The installation covers women tied to Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo. Village Preservation names six so far: Abigail Adams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marsha P. Johnson, Patti Smith, Jane Jacobs and Sonia Sotomayor. Some are historical figures. Others are living women who are still contributing to the neighborhood's culture and community. The group says the project is timed to the 250th anniversary of the country's founding in 2026. It is meant to raise the question of whose contributions shaped the nation and whose have too often gone unrecognized.
Some details aren't public yet. Village Preservation has described the site only as "a section" of the park, without naming a lawn, plaza or position relative to the fountain. It has not published a full list of the women or announced an unveiling ceremony. The group's events calendar currently runs only through late October, so any opening program will likely appear there first.
Why the new arch belongs in this park
The park already has a place in women's history. The original arch was the starting point of the 1915 parade, and the 1912 parade set out from the park. Some of the movement's organizers lived a few blocks away. Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read, two founders of the League of Women Voters, made their home on East 11th Street.
Village Preservation makes that connection itself. The group writes that what links these women is less that they lived in the Village and more that the neighborhood gave them places to create, organize, challenge conventions and build communities.
A walk out of the park, by address
The stops below come from Village Preservation's own research. That's the same archive WE STAND draws from. Start at the new arch, look at the old one, then head out.
- The Washington Square Arch. The 1915 suffrage parade started here and marched north up Fifth Avenue. In November, you'll be able to see the original arch and the 12-foot Women's Arch in the same park.
- 18 West 10th Street. This was the home of poet Emma Lazarus. Her lines on the base of the Statue of Liberty have welcomed generations of immigrants. It's a stop on the "Transformative Women" tour of the Greenwich Village Historic District.
- 20 East 11th Street. Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read lived here together for more than twenty years. They helped found the League of Women Voters and were close advisors to Eleanor Roosevelt, who also rented an apartment in the building.
- The former Jefferson Market Prison, Sixth Avenue. Mae West was held here for a short time, a reminder that women who defied convention in this neighborhood sometimes paid for it.
- 75½ Bedford Street. Village Preservation calls this Edna St. Vincent Millay's most famous Village home. Millay is one of the six women named for WE STAND, so you can walk from her portrait in the park to her front door.
Two more named subjects are tied to addresses just outside the core Village. Jane Jacobs's former home at 555 Hudson Street is in the far West Village. Patti Smith gave her first public poetry reading in 1971 at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, 131 East 10th Street, in the East Village, according to Village Preservation's profile. Both make sense as stops on a longer walk, since WE STAND covers all three neighborhoods.
The maps that keep going after the walk
These five stops are only a small part of what Village Preservation has already mapped. Its March 2026 roundup of women's history maps and tours gathers four resources in one place.
- The Women's Suffrage History Map covers people and places in Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo, including Mabel Ping-Hua Lee and the 1915 parade.
- The Civil Rights and Social Justice Map has more than 200 sites, and more than 60 of them connect to women's history. Amelia Earhart, Edie Windsor and Whitney Museum founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney all appear on it.
- The "Transformative Women" tour in the Greenwich Village Historic District collection visits the homes of dozens of women who changed politics, the arts and culture. The Lazarus and Jefferson Market stops above come from it.
- The Women's History Tour on the South of Union Square Map has 20 sites, with stories involving Billie Holiday, Susan B. Anthony and Ronnie Spector.
The Civil Rights map's count gives a sense of scale. More than 60 sites tied to women's history are already marked in these neighborhoods. WE STAND has named six women publicly so far. The installation highlights a few, and the maps carry the rest. Village Preservation says the women featured "represent just a few of the many whose contributions deserve to be seen, remembered, and celebrated."
Planning around a five-month run
WE STAND opens November 11 and runs into March 2027, so most of its stay falls in the park's coldest months. No end date has been set beyond Women's History Month. That makes it easy to visit more than once. You can see it in its first weeks, take the Bedford Street loop on a clear winter weekend, and come back in March, when Village Preservation plans to wrap up the project.
For those who want to support it, the project page has a donation link and a contact address, [email protected].
Village Preservation explains the idea behind the project in one line: preserving the places where these women lived and worked "allows us not only to protect architecture, but to preserve the stories and experiences that happened there." On East 11th Street, that means the League of Women Voters can be traced to a specific building on a block in the Village.
At Varun Sharma, the Johnny Lal Team works on these blocks building by building, and many Village co-ops come with a history worth knowing. If you'd like to talk about the history of your building, or what it means for owning in a landmarked Village block, Get in Touch.
