Of all the blocks in the stretch of tradition that carries the Avenue up to Fourteenth Street, the richest in interest is, naturally, that which lies immediately north of the Square.  Dividing this block in two, and running respectively east and west, are Washington Mews and MacDougall Alley.  When Fifth Avenue was young and addicted to stately horse-drawn turnouts, it was in these half streets that were stabled the steeds and the carriages.  Of comparatively recent date is the remodelling that has converted the old stables into quaint, if somewhat garish artist studios.

From the top of a north-bound bus as it leaves the Square may be seen the beautiful gardens that have always been a feature of these first houses.  Mrs. Emily Johnston de Forest, in her life of her grandfather, John Johnston, has described these gardens as they were from 1833 to 1842.  “The houses in the ‘Row,’ as this part of Washington Square was called, all had beautiful gardens in the rear about ninety feet deep, surrounded by white, grape-covered trellises, with rounded arches at intervals, and lovely borders full of old-fashioned flowers.”  Although some of the “Row” had cisterns, all the residents went for their washing water to “the pump with a long handle” that stood in the Square.  Of that pump Mrs. de Forest tells the following tale.  One of her grandfather’s neighbours told his coachman to fetch a couple of pails of water for Mary, the laundress.  The coachman said that this was not his business, and upon being asked what his business was, replied:  “To harness the horses and drive them.”  Thereupon he was told to bring the carriage to the door.  His employer then invited the laundress with her two pails to step in and bade the coachman to drive her to the pump.  There was no further trouble with the coachman.

As has been told elsewhere, before the Avenue was ever dreamed of, this land belonged to the Randall estate.  The founder of the family was one Captain Thomas Randall, described as a freebooter of the seas, who commanded the “Fox,” and sailed for years in and out of New Orleans, where he sold the proceeds of his voyages and captures.  To this genial old ruffian was born a son, Robert Richard, after which event the father settled down and became a respectable merchant in Hanover Street, New York.  He was coxswain of the barge crew of thirteen ship’s captains who rowed General Washington from Elizabethtown Point to New York, on the way to the first inauguration.  When Robert Richard came to die, in 1801, he dictated, propped up in bed, his last will.  After the bequests to relatives and servants, he whispered to his lawyer:  “My father was a mariner, his fortune was made at sea.  There is no snug harbour for worn-out sailors.  I would like to do something for them.”  Incidentally, the lawyer who drew up the will was Alexander Hamilton.

[Illustration:  At the northeast corner of the avenue and tenth street is the episcopal church of the ascension, built in 1840, and consecrated November 5, 1841.  It belongs to A part of the avenue, from the square to twelfth street, which has changed little since 1845]