August 2023

2023-08-30 04:54:11

Half a million people cross Times Square every day, the famous intersection of avenues in Manhattan. There are white-collar employees, who occupy the offices at the top of the skyscrapers, and endless waiters, taxi drivers or kellys from the nearby Marriot, Macklowe or Crowne Plaza hotels.

Then there are those who “live” on the street. Beggars, prostitutes, hustlers and those individuals dressed as Winnie the Pooh, Mickey and Superman that give the New York Police Department so much trouble.

And, of course, tourists, who are the usual victims of the latter’s harassment. With that mosaic of luminous panels that frame it, the square is for them an impressive vision. That’s why New Yorkers call that part of Broadway the “Great White Avenue.”

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Before the arrival of the Dutch, there was nothing in Manhattan except the huts of the Lenape Indians, its first inhabitants. There is, therefore, no underground treasure waiting for archaeologists. There history is written towards the sky, in the form of skyscrapers, and, due to the speed at which it went, it is a sensational story.

Barely two centuries ago the island was still eminently rural. Among farms and horse farms -the latter was the main activity- the mansion of John Morin Scott (1730-1784) stood out, a potentate who actively participated in the conspiracy once morest the British Crown and who later served as a general during the War of Independence (1775-1783).

It was he who sold the land to John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), the famous animal fur and opium trader who, among other things, is considered the first billionaire in United States history.

A skilled real estate investor, Astor was able to see that the growth that was already taking place in the north of the island (now Upper Manhattan) would spread to the south, and that he might leave his grandchildren plots that would be highly valued in the future.

At first, however, like many of his neighbors, what he did was invest in the horse business, which, for lack of anything else, was what made money there.

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This is how the first name of our square, which used to be called Longacre, came to be. It’s an emulation of London’s Long Acre Street, once also a center for horse breeding and manufacturing of everything from carriages to saddles.

And what regarding the theaters? Do not forget that Broadway crosses Times Square, so it is part of the famous drama circuit. The connection of the place with entertainment began at the end of the 19th century, when the industrialization of the southern part of the island (Lower Manhattan) pushed its inhabitants towards the center, Midtown.

Broadway junction with 42nd Street in 1898

Public domain

The space that remains between Broadway Street, Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street began to accommodate the restaurants and dance halls that until then had been in the south. And with these came prostitutes, beggars and a bad reputation that remained there until very recently.

And, of course, the theaters. Although The Park Theater (opened in 1798) is considered the beginning of what was later Broadway, in what is now Times Square the first was the Olympia, a giant of gray stone that occupied 62 meters of sidewalk.

Then they opened the Winter Garden Theater, which was built on what until then had been a horse market, and hotels such as the Pabst, opened in 1899. But, for now, the intersection was only a very popular point, not the showcase of America that ended up being. That would happen with the turn of the century.

In 1904, the New York Times newspaper moved its headquarters to the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Broadway – the former location of the Pabst Hotel – where they built an imposing triangular skyscraper. It was that building, One Times Square, that ended up giving the square its name.

The One Times Square building, home of the ‘New York Times’ until 1913, in a 1919 photo

Public domain

It was an strategy by Adolph Ochs (1858-1935), the owner of the newspaper. The same can be said of the installation of that luminous sphere that every December 31 descends from a pole during the last minute of the year. In 1907 it was the first time it was done, and since then it has become the most attended New Year’s Eve show in the world.

A well-connected man, Ochs even managed to get the city council to build a subway station at the foot of the skyscraper. This, and the layout of the Lincoln Highway in 1913 –the first to cross the continent from coast to coast and which ended at Times Square– confirmed its location as a communications hub.

The New York Times moved in 1913, but the building is still there. What happens is that you can’t see it because the entire façade is occupied by billboards, which are the hallmark of Times Square, like the huge screens that broadcast the news.

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On August 14, 1945, the largest crowd in New York history gathered there to celebrate the victory over Japan and the end of World War II (1939-1945). On the screen at One Times Square it read: “Truman announces the surrender of Japan.” From that day, the photograph of the kiss between a sailor and a young woman is also very iconic.

That’s a picture of Times Square. The other is the one that appears in movies like Midnight Cowboy (1969). It had never been a safe place, but in the 1960s and into the 1980s it experienced an infamous decline. Many companies abandoned the nearby skyscrapers, prostitution and drug sales increased, and a good part of the theaters were converted into adult cinemas and peep shows, erotic shops where for a few pennies you might feel a butt, or whatever.

If businesses, hotels and good theaters returned, it was thanks to the initiative of the city council, which from the nineties invested to revitalize the area. In this, the mayor Rudy Giuliani stood out, who, before supporting Trump and getting into endless scandals, was the most beloved mayor in the United States, the one who had “cleaned up” the streets of New York, and Times Square.

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