Category: History

For nearly 170 years Union Square has been a gathering place—for commerce, for entertainment, for labor and political events and for recreation. The park owes its name to its location at the intersection—or union—of two major roads in New York City, Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and Bowery Road (now Fourth Avenue).

To stop this potential disaster from destroying one of the oldest intact corners of Lower Manhattan, the community and city went to work, demanding the developer to restore (the intact 19th century painted signage on the buildings

The historic Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at 229-231 West 14th Street was founded in 1902 in two adjacent 1850 townhouses that had belonged to the storied Delmonico Family; the current Spanish Baroque facade dates to 1921.

Parks are often the heart of a neighborhood, but public markets can serve that vital uniting function as well. A case in point is the Jefferson Market, bounded by Sixth Avenue, Greenwich Avenue, Christopher Street and West Tenth Street, forming a triangular block.