Longacre Square was at the intersection in
Midtown ManhattanMidtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
of
42nd Street42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theatres, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district near that intersection...
,
Blooming dale RoadBroadway, as the name implies, is a wide avenue in New York City, which runs the full length of Manhattan and continues into the Bronx. It is the oldest north-south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to the first New Amsterdam settlement. The name Broadway is the English literal translation of...
and
Seventh AvenueSeventh Avenue/Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It carries traffic downtown south of Central Park but both ways north of it....
. Originally named Long Acre by the British colonists, it was a nexus of important roads to the north of the island.
George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the first President of the United States of America...
stayed in Long Acre while in New York during the
American Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , also sometimes known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America, and concluded in a global war between several European great powers...
.
By the mid-1800s it had become popularly called Long Acre after a
similar carriage-making districtLong Acre is a street in central London, England. Starting from St. Martin's Lane it runs from east to west just north of Covent Garden piazza, one block north of Floral Street. The street was completed in the early 17th century. It was once known for its coach-makers, and later for its car dealers...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, also a home to stables, and carriage shops.
William Henry VanderbiltWilliam Henry Vanderbilt was an American businessman and a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family.-Childhood:William Vanderbilt was born in New Brunswick, NJ...
owned and ran the American Horse Exchange there until the turn of the century.
The first theater on the square, the
OlympiaThe Olympia Theatre, also known as Hammerstein's Olympia, was a theatre complex built by impresario Oscar Hammerstein I in Longacre Square , New York City, opening in 1895...
, was built by cigar manufacturer
Oscar Hammerstein IOscar Hammerstein I was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America...
. More profitable commerce and industrialization of
lower ManhattanLower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...
pushed homes, theaters, and prostitution northward from the
Tenderloin DistrictThe Tenderloin was a once-seedy neighborhood in the heart of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Police Captain Alexander S. Williams allegedly coined the term in the late 1870s. This district was in Midtown Manhattan from 23rd Street to 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, much of...
. Long acre Square became nicknamed the
Thieves Lair for its rollicking reputation as a low entertainment district.
It was renamed
Times SquareTimes Square is a major intersection in Manhattan, a borough of New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
on April 8, 1904, by proclamation of Mayor
George B. McClellan, Jr.George Brinton McClellan, Jr., was an American politician, statesman, and educator. The son of American Civil War general and presidential candidate George B. McClellan, he served as Mayor of New York City from 1904 to 1909.McClellan, known to his family as "Max", was born in Dresden, Kingdom of...
at the urging of
Adolph OchsAdolph Simon Ochs was an American newspaper publisher and former owner of The New York Times and The Chattanooga Times .- Early life and career :...
, owner and publisher of the
New York Times. The north end later became
Duffy SquareDuffy Square, also known as Father Francis D. Duffy Monument and Duffy Square or as Father Francis P. Duffy Monument and Duffy Square, is the northern triangle of Times Square in New York City. It is located between 45th and 47th Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue...
.