MacNeil.

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