Worth it if you value history and location over hotel-brand hardware. It is the rare Manhattan address where paying less buys you a better story than paying more would.
North Square's Sunday jazz brunch is open to non-guests and rarely makes the bigger brunch guides because the hotel does not push it on social. Book a table for 11am and ask to be seated near the back of the room for the best sightlines to the trio.
Dylan's 1961 stay cost $19 a week, and Joan Baez wrote about the 1964 room 305 stay in her song Diamonds and Rust. Ramblin' Jack Elliott met Dylan here. The Rolling Stones used it as a base for their first US tour. The hotel does not trade on this history loudly; it just quietly still exists.
Judy Paul opened North Square in 1992 as the hotel restaurant, and it has since become one of the Village's durable Sunday jazz brunch spots. Complimentary continental breakfast is included for hotel guests every morning. The restaurant is the quiet reason locals know the address.
A front-facing room at Washington Square Hotel gives you direct Washington Square Park views at under half what you would pay at a luxury hotel a few blocks north. The park is the real amenity; the window is how you get it without the room rate that hotels on Fifth use to justify the same line of sight.
150 rooms in 1902 Hotel Earle at 103 Waverly Place facing Washington Square Park. Paul family-run for 50+ years. Rooms small, furniture honest. Dylan lived here for $19/week 1961, room 305 with Joan Baez 1964.
No published Instagram signal. Paul-family-50-year-tenure plus Bob Dylan/Joan Baez literary lineage plus Greenwich Village park-front address pull history-priority continuity-loyalists. Less marble-bath than living-artifact demographic.
150 rooms: front-facing King high floor with Washington Square Park in window. Only category that justifies price gap over standard Village budget hotel; back rooms lose entire argument.
At $$$$ in Greenwich Village, Washington Square competes with Marlton ($$$$ MacPherson Honey-I-Shrunk-the-Ritz) and Standard High Line. Wins on 1902 Earle continuity plus Paul-family ownership plus Dylan room 305 lineage, not on Margaux or Le Bain rooftop.
The Washington Square Hotel opened in 1902 as the Hotel Earle at 103 Waverly Place, facing Washington Square Park. Bob Dylan lived here for $19 a week in 1961 and shared room 305 with Joan Baez in 1964.
The Paul family has owned it for more than 50 years. It is one of the last genuinely family-run hotels in Manhattan, with an Art Deco lobby, North Square restaurant downstairs, and rates that make sense for a 150-room Greenwich Village property rather than a luxury opening.
Late April–early May beats Met Gala. First two weeks of September beat UNGA. Anything Sep–Dec needs 60–90 days of lead time.
Signal stable — composite holding within ±2 points over 17 days (currently 41). No single dimension moved more than the rest.
File closes at MODERATE. Book direct two to three weeks out for September through December weekends and NYU graduation. Skip the back-facing rooms entirely; they lose the whole argument.