The 350-year-old “hangman’s elm” (near right), which still stands at the park’s northwest entrance, was said to have been used by Marquis de Lafayette to execute 20 horseback thieves.

Washington Square Park is a place that will always get out of control if you let it. ... The dark, shadowy northwest corner by the ancient Hangman’s Elm was always where the drug dealing went on.

Despite being the oldest tree in Manhattan, the Hangman’s Elm is actually an English elm, located in the northwest corner of Washington Square Park. English elms were amongst the first non ...