1893

Manhattan: Union Square - [University Place - 14th Street.]

Union Square, seen from the S.W. corner at University Place and 14th Street. Henry K. Browne's statue of Lincoln, erected by popular subscription in 1868, stands in the left foreground, facing away from the camera. Bartholdi's Lafayette, erected in 1876 by the French residents of the city, is visible in the extreme right of the picture. Behind it may be seen the old Union Square Hotel on the S.E. corner of Union Square East (Fourth Avenue) and 15th Street, built in the late 1870's. Union Square, a broad common where Fourth Avenue, the old Bowery Road, and other streets converged, was like Washington Square, once used as a Potter's Field. In 1845 it was made into a park, and was soon surrounded by fine mansions, remaining the Belgravia of New York up to the time of the Civil War. At the time of this picture, the fashionable shopping district was located here and north to Madison Square. On the N.W. corner of Fourth Avenue and 17th Street stands the Everett House, a famous old hotel named after the orator Edward Everett. Behind it is a 9-story wing very recently added, on the corner of 16th Street; it will later become the Bradley Building, even before the Everett is torn down. Adjoining the Everett, to the left of the picture, is a new 6-story office building. The Westmoreland apartment house, on the S.E. corner of 17th Street and Union Square East, is the building in which William Lloyd Garrison died. Compare this with the same view in January, 1928, New York Edison photo No. 60533 1893 New York Edison Company Collection

Photo from the New York Public Library - Milstein Collection