Union Square | |
 Union Square seen from the south in May 2010 | |
 | |
| Location | Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°44′08″N73°59′26″W / 40.73556°N 73.99056°W /40.73556; -73.99056 |
| Built | 1882 (laid out c. 1832)[2] |
| Architect | Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi,et al. |
| NRHP reference No. | 97001678[1] |
| NYSRHP No. | 06101.009534 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 9, 1997[1] |
| Designated NHL | December 9, 1997[3] |
| Designated NYSRHP | December 9, 1997 |
Union Square is a historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood inManhattan, New York City, United States, located whereBroadway andthe former Bowery Road – nowPark Avenue north of the Square[4] – came together in the early 19th century. Its name denotes that "here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island".[5][6] The currentUnion Square Park is bounded by14th Street on the south,17th Street on the north, andUnion Square West andUnion Square East to the west and east respectively. 17th Street links together Broadway andPark Avenue South on the north end of the park, while Union Square East connects Park Avenue South to Fourth Avenue and the continuation of Broadway on the park's south side. The park is maintained by theNew York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Adjacent neighborhoods are theFlatiron District to the north,Chelsea to the west,Greenwich Village to the southwest,East Village to the southeast, andGramercy Park to the east. Many buildings ofThe New School are near the square,[7] as are several dormitories ofNew York University.[8] The eastern side of the square is dominated by the fourZeckendorf Towers, and the south side by the full-square-block mixed-use One Union Square South, which contains a wall sculpture and digital clock titledMetronome. Union Square Park also contains an assortment of art, including statues ofGeorge Washington,Marquis de Lafayette,Abraham Lincoln, andMahatma Gandhi.
Union Square is part ofManhattan Community District 5[9] and its primaryZIP Code is 10003.[10] It is patrolled by the 13th Precinct of theNew York City Police Department.[11] TheNew York City Subway's14th Street–Union Square station, served by the4, 5, 6, <6>, L, N, Q, R, and W trains, is located under Union Square.
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Prior to the area's settlement, the area around present-day Union Square was farmland. The western part of the site was owned by Elias Brevoort,[5]: 221 who later sold his land to John Smith in 1762;[12] by 1788 it had been sold again to Henry Spingler (or Springler).[13][14] On the eastern part of the land were farms owned byJohn Watts andCornelius Williams. The northwestern corner of the park site contained 1 acre (0.40 ha) of land owned by the Manhattan Bank, which supposedly was a "refuge" for businesses during New York City'syellow fever epidemics.[5]: 222
WhenJohn Randel was surveying the island in preparation for theCommissioners' Plan of 1811, the Bloomingdale Road (nowBroadway) angled away from theBowery at an acute angle. Because it would have been difficult to develop buildings upon this angle, the Commissioners decided to form a square at the union.[15] In 1815, by act of the state legislature, this formerpotter's field became a public commons for the city, at first named Union Place.[5][16] Union Place originally was supposed to extend from 10th to 17th Streets. Several city officials objected that Union Place was too large and requested that it be "discontinued", and in 1814, theNew York State Legislature acted to downsize the area by making 14th Street the southern boundary.[17][18][19]: 3
In 1831, at a time when the city was quickly expanding and the surrounding area was still sparsely developed,Samuel Ruggles, one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce and the developer ofGramercy Park to the northeast, convinced the city to rename the area "Union Square". In doing so, Ruggles also got the city to enlarge the commons to 17th Street on the north and extend the axis ofUniversity Place to form the square's west side, thus turning the common from a triangular to a rectangular area.[20][19]: 5 By 1832, the area had been renamed Union Square.[17][18][21] Ruggles obtained a fifty-year lease on most of the surrounding lots from 15th to 19th Streets, where he built sidewalks and curbs. In 1834, he convinced theBoard of Aldermen to enclose and grade the square, then sold most of his leases and in 1839 built a four-story house facing the east side of the Square.[22] The park at Union Square was completed and opened in July 1839.[17]
A fountain was built in the center of Union Square to receive water from theCroton Aqueduct, completed in October 1842.[17][23] In 1845, as the square finally began to fill with affluent houses, $116,000 was spent in paving the surrounding streets and planting the square, in part owing to the continued encouragement of Ruggles.[17] The sole survivors of this early phase, though they have been much adapted and rebuilt, are a series of three- and four-story brick rowhouses, 862–866 Broadway, at the turn where Broadway exits the square at 17th Street. The Everett House on the corner of 17th Street and Fourth Avenue (built 1848, demolished 1908) was for decades one of the city's most fashionable hotels.[24] In the early years of the park, a fence surrounded the square's central oval planted with radiating walks lined with trees.[citation needed] After theassassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, arrangements were made for the erection of thestatue of Lincoln in the square.[25] In 1872,Frederick Law Olmsted andCalvert Vaux were called in to replant the park, as an open glade with clumps of trees.[citation needed]
Initially, the square was largely residential: theUnion League Club first occupied a house loaned for the purpose byHenry G. Marquand at the corner of 17th Street and Broadway. After the Civil War the neighborhood became largely commercial, and the square began to lose social cachet at the turn of the twentieth century, with many of the old mansions being demolished.[17]Tiffany & Co., which had moved to the square from Broadway and Broome Street in 1870, left its premises on 15th Street to move uptown to 37th Street in 1905; the silversmithsGorham Company moved up from 19th Street in 1906. The last of the neighborhood's free-standing private mansions, Peter Goelet's at the northeast corner of 19th Street, made way for a commercial building in 1897.[citation needed]
The Rialto, New York City's first commercial theater district, was located in and around Union Square beginning in the 1870s. It was named afterVenice'sRialto, a commercial district.[26][27][28] The first facility to open within the Union Square Rialto was theAcademy of Music, which opened at Irving Place in 1854.[6] The theater district gradually relocated northward, into less expensive and undeveloped uptown neighborhoods, and eventually into the currentTheater District.[6][26][29]
Before theCivil War, theatres in New York City were primarily located along Broadway and theBowery up to14th Street, with those on Broadway appealing more to the middle and upper classes and the Bowery theatres attracting immigrant audiences, clerks and the working class. After the war, the development of theLadies' Mile shopping district along Fifth and Sixth Avenues above 14th Street had the effect of pulling the playhouses uptown, so that a "Rialto" theatrical strip came about on Broadway between 14th and 23rd Streets, between Union Square andMadison Square.[30][6]
At the same time, a transition from stock companies, in which a resident acting company was based around a star or impresario, to a "combination" system, in which productions were put together on a one-time basis to mount a specific play, expanded the amount of outside support needed to service the theatrical industry. Thus, suppliers of props, costumes, wigs, scenery, and other theatrical necessities grew up around the new theatres. The new system also needed an organized way to engage actors for these one-off productions, so talent brokers and theatrical agents sprang up, as did theatrical boardinghouses, stage photographers, publicity agencies, theatrical printers and play publishers. Along with the hotels and restaurants which serviced the theatregoers and shoppers of the area, the Union Square Rialto was, by the end of the century, a thriving theatrical neighborhood, which would soon nonetheless migrate uptown to what became known as "Broadway" as the Rialto became subsumed into the more vice-orientedTenderloin entertainment district.[30]
By the first decade of the 20th century, Union Square had grown into a major transportation hub with severalelevated andsurface railroad lines running nearby, and theNew York City Subway's14th Street–Union Square station having opened in 1904.[31]: 2 [32] With the northward relocation of the theater district, Union Square also became a major wholesaling district with several loft buildings, as well as numerous office buildings.[33]: 2 [6] The office structures included theEverett Building, erected at the northwest corner of Park Avenue South and 17th Street in 1908;[34]: 4 theGermania Life Insurance Company Building, erected at the northeast corner of the same intersection in 1910–1911;[31]: 6 and theConsolidated Edison Building, constructed three blocks south at 14th Street between 1910 and 1914.[35]: 5, 8 Existing houses were also converted into stores, including a pair of merchants' houses on the east side of the park at 16th Street in 1916.[36]
During this era, many of the older homes on Union Square were converted intotenements for immigrants and industrial workers. Numerous artists relocated into the attics of the remaining mansions along 14th Street, where they had their studios. The 1939WPA Guide to New York City said that by the 1920s, the "south side of Fourteenth Street became virtually an ex-tension ofGreenwich Village".[6] Further, real estate values around Union Square had declined by the 1920s, with "burlesque houses, shooting galleries, and shoddy businesses" lining the square.[6] Throughout the decade, most buildings on the eastern part of the square were purchased by department storesS. Klein andOhrbach's.[33]: 2 [6] Real estate activity resumed in the late 1920s, and according to a 1928 piece inThe New York Times, “several smaller operations are planned or are under way in the neighborhood".[37] By then, at least eight banks had opened locations on the western and eastern sides of the park.[38]
City officials announced in 1910 that they would install a firefighters' memorial near the northern end of the park.[39] The same year, there was a failed proposal to construct a courthouse within the park.[40] As part of theDual Contracts, workers began constructing the14th Street–Union Square station, on theBrooklyn Rapid Transit Company'sBroadway Line, under the park in 1913. The station was built using anopen cut method, and a 120-foot-wide (37 m) strip of land, running diagonally through Union Square Park, was closed and excavated.[41] By late 1913, large portions of Union Square Park had been demolished as part of the construction of the Broadway Line's Union Square station.[42][43] New York City's parks commissioner promised members of the public that the park would be remodeled after the station was finished.[42][41] The station had been completed by early 1916, and workers began restoring the section of Union Square Park above the 14th Street station.[44]
The city's park commissionerFrancis D. Gallatin proposed relocating the park'sWashington,Lincoln, andLafayette statues in 1922 to bring the Washington statue closer to the center of the park.[45] A group of sculptors approved his proposal the same month.[46] In 1927, theMunicipal Art Society approved plans for a renovation of the park, which was to include a covered parking area at the north end of the park.[47]
To make way for a further expansion of the Union Square subway station, the park was raised by about 3 feet (0.91 m) as part of a renovation during the late 1920s.[48][49] The plans, announced in June 1929, also included relocating several statues and building a concert plaza with a bandstand at the park's northern end.[49] There were also plans to relocate the Washington statue toWashington Square Park, although this proposal was opposed.[50][51] Although the city decided to keep the Washington statue in Union Square Park, the statue was relocated to the southeast corner[52] to make way for aflagpole honoring formerTammany Hall leaderCharles F. Murphy.[53][54] Landscaping of the park was delayed by the construction of the subway mezzanine below it.[55] The park's renovation was nearly completed by mid-1931;[56][57] the last construction contract, for the bandstand, was awarded that August.[58][59] After building the bandstand, theNew York City Department of Parks and Recreation could not afford to landscape the park.[60] As a result, civic groups started landscaping the park for free in June 1932.[61][62]
Most of the neighborhood's largest retailers, such asOhrbach's and Hearn's, had relocated by the 1950s, and the area began to decline.[63] One of the last major retailers on Union Square,S. Klein, closed in 1975.[64] The S. Klein site remained vacant until 1983, whenWilliam Zeckendorf leased the site for theZeckendorf Towers development.The New York Times wrote at the time, "The former S. Klein store, boarded up since 1975, is a melancholy monument to a once-thriving commercial district."[63]
In 1982, a $1.5 million refurbishment of Union Square Park was announced. At the time, the park was frequented by drug users because of its tall hedges, and many of the benches, lights, and statues had been vandalized.[65] The first phase of the renovation, which cost $3.6 million, was completed in May 1985.[66][67] The renovations included removing hedges, increasing lighting, and erecting new subway entrances.[67] The renovation of Union Square, along with the construction of the Zeckendorf Towers, caused real-estate values in the area to increase.[68] By 1987, there were plans to close off two blocks of the little-used Union Square West to make way for an expansion of the park. This plan was not carried out at the time due to a lack of funds. When the idea of closing Union Square West was again proposed in 1996, local business owners opposed the proposal because the park had become extremely popular, causing vehicular traffic in the neighborhood to increase significantly.[69] Union Square was named aNational Historic Landmark in 1997, primarily to honor it as the site of the first Labor Day parade.[3][70][71] MayorRudy Giuliani announced plans in early 1998 to spend $2.6 million on expanding the park, following advocacy from area residents.[72][73] The expansion consisted of apocket park in a traffic island at the southeast corner of Union Square, which was completed in 2000.[74]
Following theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001, Union Square became a primary public gathering point for mourners. People created spontaneous candle and photograph memorials in the park and vigils were held to honor the victims. At the time, non-emergency vehicles were temporarily banned and pedestrian travel was restricted inLower Manhattan below 14th Street.[75]
In March 2008, an eighteen-month renovation began on the northern end of the park. The renovation was controversial because of disagreements over whether to place a restaurant in the pavilion at the north end of the park.[76][77] ANew York Supreme Court judge approved the renovation of the park's north end in April 2008 but placed an injunction temporarily banning the city from renovating the pavilion.[78][79] In early 2009, a judge dismissed the lawsuit against the renovation, allowing a seasonal restaurant in the pavilion.[80] CMS Architecture and Design was hired in 2011 to design the restaurant in the pavilion.[81][82] The Pavilion restaurant opened in Union Square Park in May 2014,[83][84] following years of disputes.[85]
In 2021, the Union Square Partnership proposed spending $100 million to overhaul Union Square.[86][87] The plan entailed closing off adjacent streets to increase the park's size by 33%, as well as adding benches and lighting, improving restrooms, and refurbishing a dog run in the park itself.[88]
There are several notable buildings surrounding Union Square. Clockwise from southwest, they are:
In addition, theConsolidated Edison Building is located one block east of the Zeckendorf Towers.[35] TheCentury Association clubhouse is located on 15th Street between Irving Place and Union Square East.[96]
Union Square containsa large equestrian statue ofU.S. PresidentGeorge Washington, modeled byHenry Kirke Brown and unveiled in 1856. Located at the south end of the park, it was the first public sculpture erected in New York City since the equestrian statue ofGeorge III in 1770, and the first American equestrian sculpture cast in bronze.[97]
TheMarquis de Lafayette, at Union Square East and 16th Street, was modeled byFrédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated in 1876, the 100th anniversary of U.S. independence.[98]
Thestatue of Abraham Lincoln, modeled byHenry Kirke Brown (1870), is located near the north end of the park.[99]
Astatue of Mahatma Gandhi in the southwest corner of the park was added in 1986.[100]
TheUnion Square Drinking Fountain (1881) near Union Square West, also known as the James Fountain, is aTemperance fountain with the figure of Charity who empties her jug of water, aided by a child. It was donated byDaniel Willis James and sculpted byAdolf Donndorf.[101]
The Charles F. Murphy Memorial Flagpole, also known as theIndependence Flagstaff, was cast in 1926[102] and dedicated in 1930 to mark the 150th anniversary of U.S. independence. It is located in the center of the park.[103]
In October 2023, an outdoor version of the sculptureN.Y.C. Legend by the Swedish artistAlexander Klingspor, featuring a New Yorksewer alligator, was unveiled in the square byQueen Silvia of Sweden.[104][105]
A double line of trees is planted along 17th Street, and a corresponding plaque installed nearby, as a monument to victims of theArmenian genocide.[106]
In 1976, the Council on the Environment of New York City (now GrowNYC) established the Greenmarket program, which provided regional small-family farmers with opportunities to sell their fruits, vegetables and other farm products at open-air markets in the city. There were originally seven farmers at the first Greenmarket, and their selection sold out by noon.[107] That summer, two more markets opened in New York City. Despite some backlash from local merchants and supermarkets who believed the Greenmarket was cutting into their profits, more markets opened in the city.
Today, the Union Square Greenmarket, the best known of the markets, is held year-round on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between 8 am and 6 pm. The market is served by a number of regional farmers, as the average distance between farmers and the market is 90 miles (140 km). During peak seasons, the Greenmarket serves more than 250,000 customers per week,[108] who purchase more than one thousand varieties of fruits and vegetables can be found at the Greenmarket;[109] and the variety of produce available is much broader than what is found in a conventional supermarket.[110]
Union Square hosts the Union Square Holiday Market every November and December, in which more than 150 vendors sell handcrafts.[111] Around two million people visit the Holiday Market annually.[112] Starting in 2024, UrbanSpace also hosted the Night Market food market in Union Square during the summer.[113]
Union Square is a popular meeting place, given its central location in Manhattan and its many nearby subway routes. There are many bars and restaurants on the periphery of the square, and the surrounding streets have some of the city's most renowned (and expensive) restaurants. S. Klein's department store promoted itself in the mid-20th century as an "On the Square" alternative to higher prices uptown,[114] and late in the century several big-box chain stores established a presence, includingBarnes & Noble in theCentury Building,[115]Babies "R" Us in the formerUnited States Communist Party headquarters,[116] andStaples in theSpingler Building.[117]
TheW New York Union Square, part of theW Hotels chain, is located at the park's northeast corner, in the former Guardian Life building.[118] Additionally, theHyatt Union Square New York hotel is located at the park's southeast corner, in a former post office.
The park has historically been the start or the end point for many political demonstrations. Although the park was known for its labor union rallies and for the large 1861 gathering in support of Union troops, it was actually named for its location at the "union" of Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) andthe former Bowery Road decades before these gatherings.[6][119] On April 20, 1861, soon afterthe fall of Fort Sumter,Major Robert Anderson, who was the commander of Fort Sumter brought theFort Sumter Flag that flew at the fort to the park. The flag was flown from the George Washington statue, gathering patriotic rally of perhaps a quarter of a million people that is thought to have been the largest public gathering in North America up to that time. The flag was shortly removed after to be used as a patriotic fundraiser by being auctioned across the country repeatedly. In the summer of 1864 the north side of the square was the site of theMetropolitan Fair.
Union Square has been a frequent gathering point for radicals of all stripes to make speeches or demonstrate. In 1865, the recently formedIrish republicanFenian Brotherhood came out publicly and rented Dr. John Moffat's brownstone rowhouse at 32 East 17th Street, next to the Everett House hotel facing the north side of the square, for the capitol of the government-in-exile they declared.[120][121] On September 5, 1882, in the firstLabor Day celebration, a crowd of at least 10,000 workers paraded up Broadway and filed past the reviewing stand at Union Square. On March 28, 1908, an anarchist set off a bomb in Union Square which only killed himself and another man.[122]
In 1893,Emma Goldman took the stage at Union Square to make her "Free Bread" speech to a crowd of overworked garment workers.[123] She also addressed a crowd in 1916 on the need for free access to birth control, which was banned by theComstock laws.[124] Her visits to Union Square pulled hundreds of followers; some of these rallies resulted in her arrest.[125]
Union Square has been used as a platform to raise awareness about theBlack Lives Matter movement, such as during theGeorge Floyd protests in New York City in 2020.[126]
The Square's shopping district saw strikes in the S. Klein and Ohrbach department stores in 1934. White collar workers were among the worst paid inGreat Depression-era New York City, with union memberships being highly discouraged by store managers and often seen as fireable offenses. These strikes often involved acts of disobedience by the workers as many of them did not want to lose their jobs.[127] This period saw Union Square as a gathering point for many of the city's socialist and communist groups. The centennial of Union Square was seen as a thinly veiled effort to displace those elements with its draping of the square with flags and police demonstrations of anti protester drills.[128]
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The Villager, a local newspaper, reported in 2013 that most of the street chess players atWashington Square Park—whereBobby Fischer had played—had moved their games to Union Square because the latter had more foot traffic.[129] Street chess players playfast chess with passers-by for three to five dollars a game, withtime controls of five minutes on each side being the most common.[130] Writer Lauren Snetiker at theGreenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation also documents this migration of the historical Washington Square Park chess scene to Union Square, noting the "dozens of chess players [who] sit on crates and bring their own boards... as there are no permanent ones like there are in Washington Square Park".[131]
Union Square is the site of a regular hip-hopfreestyle rap cypher called Legendary Cyphers since 2012.[132] The events draw residents from across the city and tourists and encourage participation in freestyle hip-hop. Notable local hip-hop artists such asJoey Bada$$ have attended in the past.[133]
The Union Square Partnership (USP), abusiness improvement district (BID) and a local development corporation (LDC), was formed in 1984 and became a model for other BIDs in New York City. Jennifer E. Falk became its executive director in January 2007.[134]
The Union Square Partnership provides a free public Wi-Fi network in Union Square.[135]
TheWashington Irving Campus at 40Irving Place between East 16th and 17th Streets, a block east of Union Square Park, was formerly the location of a comprehensive high school, but now houses Gramercy Arts High School, the High School for Language and Diplomacy, the International High School at Union Square, the Union Square Academy for Health Sciences and the Academy for Software Engineering. In 2012,Success Academy Charter Schools announced its plan to open an elementary school in the building,[136] and an elementary school opened there the next year.[137]
Notes
Ruggles was also helping to develop a collection of vacant lots from 14th Street to 17th between Broadway and Fourth Avenue into Union Square, a 3.48-acre field indicated in the commissioners' plan as Union Place and renamed Union Square in 1832.
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