Union Square History

Union Square took its name from the union of Bowrie Lane and Bloomingdale Road, now Broadway, and its history included excavation views looking south from what is now 18th Street, a celebratory fountain built at the completion of the Croton Aqueduct, and the funeral procession for President Jackson passing through in 1845. In the 1840's, it was surrounded by private residences, and later scenes included horsecars, the southeast corner in 1852, the Academy of Music built in 1854, and the third Tammany Hall in 1868 on 14th Street east of the square. Union Square also became a center of civic and cultural life, with the George Washington statue by Henry Kirke Brown, assisted by John Quincy Adams Ward, views south over the square in the 1860's, theatre and concert hall posters and tickers, the Great Meeting of 150,000 supporters of the Union cause with the flag fired upon at Fort Sumter placed on the Washington statue, 14th Street near the square known in the 1860's as Piano Row, and the presentation of colors to the 20th U.S. Colored Infantry at the Union League Club House. The Lincoln funeral cortege passed up Broadway and through Union Square on April 25, 1865, the stretch of fashionable stores along Broadway above 14th Street was called Ladies' Mile, the Abraham Lincoln statue by Henry Kirke Brown was dedicated in 1870 and moved to its present location in 1930, and by the 1870's many hotels stood around the square. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi cast his Marquis de Lafayette statue in 1873, and it was dedicated on July 4, 1876, originally facing the Washington statue and depicting Lafayette pledging his sword to the general, while the first Labor Day Parade reached Union Square on September 5, 1882.

New York, New York · United States