NYU Scavenger Hunt – 48 Finds Round Washington Square

How it works

Is there a street that crosses itself near campus? There is, along with a 300-year-old elm and a 36-foot concrete head by Picasso. This NYU scavenger hunt holds 48 finds, all seen from outside.

Read the full guide

The park first

Washington Square Park opens first. Round the square circles it, Village side streets runs west toward Hudson Street, and Astor Place and Cooper Sq sits a few blocks east. Pick one in the menu, then press Print this list.

Written answers win

Every find asks for a count, a word or a color. A team that writes it has found it, and the note below each line settles any argument.

Tips

Keep out of university buildings. The Row, the Mews and the library are all scored from the sidewalk.
Welcome week? Give each floor a different area, then compare sheets over dinner.

Questions and answers

Can you do a scavenger hunt at NYU without a student ID?

Yes. Every find is outdoors in the park or on a public sidewalk, and no line asks anyone to enter a campus building, a museum or a shop.

How far apart are the four areas?

The park and the ring of buildings round it make one short walk. The Village streets reach west to Hudson Street, and Astor Place is a short walk east of the park along Eighth Street.

Is there a hunt for the rest of Manhattan?

Yes: the NYC hunt covers Lower Manhattan, Midtown and the High Line, and the Central Park hunt covers the park from 59th Street up.

All 48 finds

Washington Square Park 12

A bronze bust of a steel engineer Alexander Lyman Holley bought the US rights to the Bessemer steel process in 1863. His bust went up in the park in 1890. Copy one word from the base.
A bronze Italian general unveiled in 1888 Giuseppe Garibaldi, by Giovanni Turini, who had fought in Garibaldi's own regiment. It was moved 15 feet east in 1970. Write what his hands are doing.
A fenced run where dogs play off the leash The park has two. Count the dogs in the one you find.
A flower bed inside a low fence Write the color most of its flowers share.
A musician playing to a crowd Performers have played here for decades. Write the instrument, then move on.
A plaque for the woman who kept cars out of the park Shirley Hayes led the campaign that closed the park to traffic in August 1959. Write one word from her plaque.
A stone book with a Latin motto on the west pier It reads Exitus Acta Probat, 'the end justifies the deed', on Alexander Stirling Calder's Washington as President. Copy the words.

Show all 48 finds (41 more)

Washington Square Park, continued

A table with a game board set into it The park keeps a chess and Scrabble area. Watch one move and touch no piece.
An English elm said to be more than 300 years old Hangman's Elm, in the park's northwest corner, is counted as Manhattan's oldest tree. No record shows a hanging from it. Sketch one leaf.
Capital letters carved among stars on the arch The frieze holds 13 large stars and 42 small ones. Write the letter that sits between them.
Washington in uniform on the east side of the arch George Washington as Commander-in-Chief, by Hermon A. MacNeil, 1914 to 1916. Fame and Valor stand behind him. Write which side Fame is on.
Winged figures over the arch opening They are winged victories, borrowed from Roman triumphal arches. Count the wings on one face.

Round the square 12

A 12-story library across from the park Bobst Library, NYU's largest, opened on September 12, 1973, to a design by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster. Count its floors from the sidewalk.
A 36-foot concrete head designed by Picasso Bust of Sylvette, built by Carl Nesjar and dedicated in 1968, stands in the courtyard of University Village, NYU housing by I. M. Pei. Write which way her pigtail falls.
A building with a university name cut in stone Copy the words, and the year if one is carved.
A church bell tower on the south side of the square Judson Memorial Church, whose sanctuary Stanford White designed. Its tower went up in 1895 and 1896. Write the two streets it stands between.
A corner sign for Washington Square North Past the park corners it becomes Waverly Place. Write the other street named on the pole.
A doorway with its street number in gold Write the number.
A gated lane of old stables off Fifth Avenue Washington Mews was built as stables and has been NYU housing and offices since about 1950. Look through the gate and write one door color.
A memorial to 146 garment workers The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911, was in the Brown Building at Washington Place and Greene Street. Read it quietly and write the year.
A row of Greek Revival townhouses facing the park The Row, on the north side between Fifth Avenue and University Place, belongs to NYU. Count the front doors.
A violet flag with a torch on it NYU's color is violet, and its torch comes from the Statue of Liberty. Count the flags on one building.
The law school's main building on the south side Vanderbilt Hall stands near the southwest corner, between MacDougal and Sullivan Streets. Write the word over its door.
The student center on Washington Square South The Kimmel Center is the hub of student life. Count the flags or banners on its front.

Village side streets 12

A brick house with a date set in its front Write the year.
A cat asleep in a window Write the color of the cat.
A church from 1822 on Hudson Street The Church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street, was built on farmland given by Trinity Church. Count the windows on its tower.
A front door below street level, down a few steps Count the steps from the sidewalk.
A gated alley of old stables off MacDougal Street MacDougal Alley was laid out in 1833 for the stables of the houses around it; Jackson Pollock lived at No. 9. It is private, so look through the gate.
A gated dead end of ten brick houses Patchin Place, off West 10th Street near Sixth Avenue, went up in 1848 or 1849. E. E. Cummings lived here. Count the houses you can see.
A street sign with a name instead of a number Village streets bend and meet at odd angles. Write two street names from one corner.
A street that crosses itself At Christopher Street, Waverly Place turns about 120 degrees and splits into a Y. It was named in 1833 for a Walter Scott novel. Stand at the Y.
A theater that began as a farm silo in 1817 Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, opened in 1923 and is the oldest off-Broadway theater still running. Write the color of its front.
A tree guard around a sidewalk tree Write its color and what it is made of.
A window box full of flowers Write the color of the box.
An artists' club on Fifth Avenue since 1917 The Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Avenue, began in 1871 as a sketch class. Write the color of its front door.

Astor Place and Cooper Sq 12

A black steel cube balanced on one corner Alamo, by Tony Rosenthal, went up in 1967 for six months and stayed. Each side is 8 feet. Find the small plaque with its name.
A brownstone college hall with a round elevator shaft Cooper Union's Foundation Building was the first built with an elevator shaft; Peter Cooper guessed elevators would be round. Count its floors.
A corner sign for Cooper Square It opened in 1850 as Stuyvesant Square and was renamed for Peter Cooper after he died in 1883. Write the avenue it turns into.
A library from 1854 that is now a theater The Astor Library first opened at 425 Lafayette Street on January 9, 1854; a theater company has used it since 1967. Count its arched windows.
A sign for Lafayette Street John Jacob Astor laid it out as Lafayette Place, after the Marquis de Lafayette. Write the number on the nearest building.
A statue in the small park south of Astor Place Copy the name on its base.
A street sign for Astor Place It was named for John Jacob Astor soon after he died in 1848. Before that it was Art Street. Write one cross street.
A subway entrance near the cube Write the letters or numbers on its sign.
An 1832 brick house on East Fourth Street The Merchant's House, 29 East Fourth Street, is the only 19th-century home in Manhattan with its original outside and inside. Count the steps to its door.
The hall where Lincoln spoke in February 1860 Abraham Lincoln gave his Cooper Union Address in the Great Hall on February 27, 1860, to about 1,500 people. Copy the college's name from its front.
Manhattan's second-oldest church building St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery was finished in 1799 on Peter Stuyvesant's old farm; its steeple came in 1828. Sketch the steeple.
Marble columns across four old houses on Lafayette Street Colonnade Row went up as nine Greek Revival houses in the 1830s; four remain. Count the columns.

How this list was compiled: Written for this page in September 2026: 48 finds on foot around New York University's Washington Square campus in Manhattan, in Washington Square Park, round the square, on the Greenwich Village side streets and at Astor Place and Cooper Square, sorted by area, all scored from public paths, plazas and sidewalks with nothing bought, no ticket and no entry to a university building. Nothing was copied from another list. Levels are our judgment. Names, dates, sizes and places in the notes were checked on 2026-09-24 against English Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by Washington_Square_Park, Washington_Square_Arch, Hangman%27s_Elm, Statue_of_Giuseppe_Garibaldi_(New_York_City), Alexander_Lyman_Holley, New_York_University, Elmer_Holmes_Bobst_Library, Judson_Memorial_Church, Waverly_Place, Washington_Mews, Brown_Building_(Manhattan), Bust_of_Sylvette, MacDougal_Street, Patchin_Place, Salmagundi_Club, Cherry_Lane_Theatre, Church_of_St._Luke_in_the_Fields, Alamo_(sculpture), Cooper_Union, Colonnade_Row, Astor_Library_Building, Merchant%27s_House_Museum, St._Mark%27s_Church_in-the-Bowery, Astor_Place and Cooper_Square. Licence: own work