The Herald Building: Now with a Duane Reade!

This post also appears on Fashion Herald.

The New York Herald building at West 35^th Street where Broadway meets Sixth Avenue, was a two-story building designed by Stanford White of architecture firm McKim, Mead & White. White was commissioned to build it for friend James Gordon Bennett Jr. to house the new Herald offices when the paper moved uptown from Park Row in 1894. The story of the Herald and its founders are here, here, and here.

Photo: MCNY

The Herald had offices in this building until Bennett Jr.’s death in 1918. Soon after, Frank Munsey bought the paper and merged it with the New York Sun to create the Herald-Sun. The new combo-paper’s offices were moved to West 42^nd Street. 

The north half of the building was demolished in 1921, leaving only the southern part, statues intact on the  building’s façade. 

Photo: MCNY

Eventually, in 1930, a new, 24-story office building was designed and built by the architecture firm Clinton & Russell where the northern half used to be. The firm was founded in 1894, the same year the Herald building was completed (weird coincidence!).

Photo: Berenice Abbott via the  NYPL and MCNY

In the 1930s the Sixth Avenue Group (a business improvement group of sorts) sponsored a contest to re-design and “beautify” the area following construction of a new underground subway line and station, and the razing of the Sixth Avenue elevated line. The low rise portion of the Herald building was completed in 1940. I’m pretty sure that "completed" meant that the building was stripped of its Stanford White-designed façade work and given the 1940s-1950s simple (sterile) treatment. The front windows are much larger in the new building, and the ground floor looks lower, but I think the building's original bones are still there. That same year, the James Gordon Bennett memorial was installed in Herald Square in the form of a 40 ft. tall monument, unveiled during a dedication ceremony on November 19, 1940. 

Postcard: Pisark's

Herald Square and the surrounding area went into a decline in the 1970s and 1980s, but were brought back to life with a late 1990s renovation by the 34th Street Partnership.The building is still there, and the first two floors are currently home to a massive Duane Reade.Time marches on.

Additional Sources:

Kruger, Richard. The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune

“Sixth Ave. Group to Beautify Parks,” NYT, March 24, 1939

“Frank A. Munsey Buys the Herald and the Telegram,” NYT, January 15, 1920

Bryant Park's Choice Seating

This post also appears on the Bryant park blog.

Bryant Park is known for many things, including an abundance of its iconic green chairs. Before the park had movable chairs, seating was much more limited. With only benches and a few picnic tables, people were often crowded together on the library steps, and perched on the balustrade (which is bad for the masonry).
 

northwest section of Bryant Park, 1983

Afternoon lunchers clustered around one of the NYPL flagpoles, 1991

During the restoration of Bryant Park, in the late 1980s, Park management heeded the advice of Urbanist William H. Whyte, and decided to introduce movable chairs into the park in time for its planned re-opening in 1992.

As Whyte aptly wrote in his book The Social Life of Urban Spaces: "Chairs enlarge choice: to move into the sun, out of it, to make room for groups, move away from them. The possibility of choice is as important as the exercise of it. If you know you can move if you want to, you feel more comfortable staying put."

During the summer of 1991, most of the park was not quite yet ready for the public. However, Park management, the NYC Parks Department, and Community Board 5, agreed to a partial opening of the fountain terrace on July 1, 1991. To prepare, the BPC (then called, Bryant Park Restoration Project) purchased 400 sturdy, white stackable chairs.

Park users enjoying the new seating on the fountain terrace, 1991



This trial run of movable furniture received ample positive feedback from the press, and more importantly, park users. By the time the entire park was re-opened to the public, on April 22, 1992, BPC replaced the white chairs with the now iconic, green Fermob chairs.  

Tunnels Under Bryant Park, Part 1

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog, and is the first of a two part entry on NYC subway trains near the park.

 

It's common knowledge that throughout the city, below ground, there is an intricate subway tunnel system that includes used and abandoned tunnels, passageways, and stations. Mass transit efforts began in NYC many years before the underground subway system was constructed in the early 1900s. The grid system for the streets was laid out in midtown Manhattan in 1807, and the first elevated trains appeared in the early 1870s. With tracks laced across the city, these above ground trains heralded all sorts of urban development, expansion, and helped put New York City on the map as a cosmopolitan destination.

In fact, if you ride several trains within the MTA system (full list, I think: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, A, B, F, J, M, N, Q, R) far enough into Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx, you can experience the glory of above-ground transit, except now there is the added annoyance of overheard yelling cell phone conversations from fellow passengers. Not so in the 1800s, though I’m sure those passengers had their grievances too.

Image: NYPL

The above image shows the elevated station at Sixth Avenue and 42^nd Street, looking east towards Fifth Avenue. The Croton Reservoir is visible on the right, as well as Bryant Park (then Reservoir Square), signified by that clump of trees just in front of the reservoir.

The train lines were owned and operated by several companies. The Metropolitan Elevated Railway Company built and ran the Sixth Avenue line; the New York Elevated Railroad handled the Third and Ninth Avenue lines; and the Suburban Rapid Transit Company took care of the Bronx section of the Third Avenue line. In 1902, a new company, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was incorporated and soon after, built an underground 9.1-mile long line that stopped at 28 stations between City Hall and 145^th Street and Broadway. This was the City’s first official subway system, and opened on October 27, 1904, to much fanfare. 

Mid-section of the 1904 IRT subway map

Part of this line ran along the northern border of Bryant Park, along 42^nd street, and connected Grand Central to Times Square (now known as the S Shuttle). 

Photo: NY Transit Museum

The photograph above is a pedestrian-level view of the construction on 42^nd Street, looking east, with Bryant Park to the right, and 42^nd Street to the left. The monument on the right is J. Marion Simms -- "father of gynecology" -- who now stands across from the Academy of Medicine on Fifth Avenue at 103^rd Street in Manhattan.

For more historical subway facts, take a look at the MTA's fact's and figures page, and for pictures, check out this NY Times slideshow.

Bryant Park's 1934 Moses Renovation

This post also appears on the Bryant Park Blog.

Over the years, Bryant Park has undergone numerous physical transformations. Some temporary, such as Citi Pond at Bryant Park -- which, to the delight of ice skaters, opened last Friday, October 29 -- and others more permanent, such as the 1934 renovation of the park headed by then Parks Commissioner Robert Moses.

Assisted by consulting architect Aymar Embury II, and landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke, Moses transformed the grounds of Bryant Park from a Victorian greensward to a French Classical landscape very similar to today’s design.

Bryant Park, circa 1930

Before Moses set to work, Bryant Park was laced with winding paths, broken up by small clumps of trees, and lined with wood and cast iron benches, common elements in Victorian Era landscaping. The paths encouraged park visitors to meander, while the trees provided shade as well as an air of mystery to what lay directly ahead on the path. The benches supplied a bit of ornamentation as well as seating for patrons.

As part of the Moses Renovation, the Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain was moved from the east end of the park, directly in front of the William Cullen Bryant monument, to the west end at 41^st Street and 6^th Avenue, where it sits today on what we call the Fountain Terrace. 

Construction in Bryant Park, May 1934, before the fountain was moved to its present location. Prior to 1934, it was located on the east end of the park, just behind the New York Public Library. Photo: NYC Parks Department

Taken in June 1934, this photo shows the present location of the Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain on the west side of the park. Photo: NYC Parks Department

An expansive lawn was added in the center of the park space. London Plane trees were planted along allées lining two sides of the lawn’s perimeter, which was also bordered by a stone balustrade.

The park re-opened to the public on September 14, 1934.

Mid-1930s postcard showing the park after the Moses Renovation.

To learn more about Bryant Park’s history, before and after the Moses Renovation, click here.

Washington Irving in Bryant Park

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog.  

Currently, the Bryant Park grounds are home to several monuments that pay homage to artists, writers, and leaders. Some, such as the statue memorializing William Earle Dodge in the Reading Room, originally stood in other parks and courtyards throughout the city before making their way to Bryant Park. (Dodge’s original home was Herald Square.) Others, such as a bust of American author Washington Irving, resided first in the park, and have since been moved elsewhere.

My interest was first piqued when I found (and bought) this postcard at the Brooklyn Flea. In case you can't read the back, it says "Same old story" and nothing else. A perfect non sequitur circa 1914.


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In the late 1800s to early 1900s, a large bronze bust of Washington Irving, mounted on a granite pedestal, stood in the south side of Bryant Park. The author of “Sleepy Hollow” and many other works, Irving was one of the first American writers to gain international acclaim. 

The statue was donated to the City of New York in 1885 by Joseph Weiner, a German physician and admirer of Irving’s. Sculpted by artist Friedrich Beers, the bust was originally intended for placement in Central Park. Upon completion some members of the NYC Art Committee declared it a success, while others insisted that it wasn’t flattering enough to Irving. The Commission decided to put the bust in Bryant Park, because Irving had served on the park’s advisory council at one point.

It remained in the park for many years, and possibly up until the 1934 renovation. Some say that the statue was moved before that, lost, and then later recovered in a storage shed under the Williamsburg Bridge.

In 1935, the Irving bust was moved to Washington Irving High School (go bulldogs!), where it remains today.

Look here for more details on the history of this and many other NYC statues, and of course, here, for more information about NYC parks, including the other Washington Irving bust, located in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

Library Under the Lawn

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog. All photos, Bryant Park Corporation. 

In 1983 the Bryant Park Corporation retained landscape architecture firm Hanna / Olin Ltd., now The Olin Studio, for the re-design of Bryant Park. Over the next several years, plans were drafted and the park began its transition into a beautiful, well used public space.

Concurrent with Bryant Park’s facelift, the New York Public Library embarked on a large construction project of its own: the addition of 120,000 square feet of library stacks beneath the surface of the Bryant Park lawn.

       

The excavation for the two story stacks began in July 1988, with Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Ltd. managing construction.

Requiring a 30 foot excavation in the center of the park, the finished stacks accommodate up to 3.2 million books and 500,000 reels of microfilm, doubling the library’s storage capacity.  The stacks are connected to the main library by a 62 foot long tunnel. Additionally, there is a fire escape on the west side of the Bryant Park lawn, disguised by a dedication plaque.

           

The stacks took less than a year to complete, and the lawn was seeded, and in place by September 15, 1989. The park partially reopened to the public in spring of 1990.