Times Square Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===1900sβ1930s=== In 1904, ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' publisher [[Adolph Ochs|Adolph S. Ochs]] moved the newspaper's operations to a new skyscraper on 42nd Street at Longacre Square, on the site of the former [[Pabst Hotel]], which had existed on the site for less than a decade since it opened in November 1899.<ref>[[Christopher Gray (architectural historian)|Gray, Christopher.]] [https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/01/realestate/a-small-hotel-a-mock-battleship-and-the-titanic.html "Streetscapes: A Small Hotel, a Mock Battleship and the Titanic"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103234706/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/01/realestate/a-small-hotel-a-mock-battleship-and-the-titanic.html |date=November 3, 2016 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', December 1, 1996. Accessed November 1, 2016. "Q The Pabst Hotel was on the site of the old New York Times Tower, at the northwest corner of 42d and Broadway. Was it owned and operated by Pabst Brewing? . . . David Steigerwald, Fanwood, N.J.A Yes. The Pabst opened in November 1899, in the middle of the first wave of theater construction to arrive in the area, then known as Longacre Square."</ref> Ochs persuaded Mayor [[George B. McClellan Jr.]] to construct a [[Times Square β 42nd Street (New York City Subway)|subway station]] there, and the area was renamed "Times Square" on April 8, 1904.<ref name="NYT20040408">[[James Barron (journalist)|Barron, James]]. [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/nyregion/100-years-ago-an-intersection-s-new-name-times-square.html?_r=0 "100 Years Ago, an Intersection's New Name: Times Square"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909125612/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/nyregion/100-years-ago-an-intersection-s-new-name-times-square.html?_r=0 |date=September 9, 2017 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 8, 2004. Accessed May 26, 2017.</ref> Just three weeks later, the first electrified advertisement appeared on the side of a bank at the corner of 46th Street and Broadway.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM7J68_Times_Square_New_York_New_York |title=Times Square β New York, New York β Scenic at Night on |publisher=Waymarking.com |access-date=April 21, 2010 |archive-date=June 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606134320/http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM7J68_Times_Square_New_York_New_York |url-status=live }}</ref> The north end later became Duffy Square, and the former Horse Exchange became the [[Winter Garden Theatre]], constructed in 1911.<ref>[http://forgotten-ny.com/2016/02/winter-garden-theatre-district/ WINTER GARDEN, Theatre District] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170120184114/http://forgotten-ny.com/2016/02/winter-garden-theatre-district/ |date=January 20, 2017 }}, Forgotten New York, February 2, 2016. Accessed May 26, 2017.</ref> ''The New York Times'' moved to more spacious offices one block west of the square in 1913 and sold the building in 1961.<ref name="NYT20040408"/> The old Times Building was later named the [[Allied Corp.|Allied Chemical]] Building in 1963.<ref>Ennis, Thomas W. [https://www.nytimes.com/1963/04/17/archives/old-times-tower-to-get-new-face-26story-building-will-be-stripped.html "OLD TIMES TOWER TO GET NEW FACE"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221235213/https://www.nytimes.com/1963/04/17/archives/old-times-tower-to-get-new-face-26story-building-will-be-stripped.html |date=February 21, 2022 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 17, 1963. Accessed February 21, 2022.</ref> Now known simply as [[One Times Square]], it is famed for the Times Square Ball drop on its roof every New Year's Eve. In 1913, the [[Lincoln Highway Association]], headed by entrepreneur [[Carl G. Fisher]], chose the intersection of 42nd Street and Broadway (at the southeast corner of Times Square) to be the Eastern Terminus of the [[Lincoln Highway]]. This was the first road across the United States, which originally ran {{cvt|3389|mi|km}} coast to coast through 13 states to its western terminus in [[Lincoln Park (San Francisco)|Lincoln Park]] in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=18026 |title=The Lincoln Highway Marker |publisher=Hmdb.org |access-date=April 21, 2010 |archive-date=March 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308143326/http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=18026 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Pollak, Michael. [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/nyregion/a-highways-starting-line-and-a-flemish-firehouse.html "A Highway's Starting Line, and a Flemish Firehouse"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308234042/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/nyregion/a-highways-starting-line-and-a-flemish-firehouse.html |date=March 8, 2017 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 8, 2016. Accessed November 1, 2016. "The sign, which has been restored to the northeast corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, is quite authentic. It was placed there on Feb. 12, 2009, the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, to mark the Lincoln Highway, which was created in 1913 and was the nation's first coast-to-coast road."</ref> Times Square grew dramatically after [[World War I]].<ref name="leach339">Leach, William R. ''[[Land of Desire|Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture]]'', p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=VHZ6UAudSiUC&pg=339 339], [[Knopf Doubleday]] Publishing Group, 2011, {{ISBN|9780307761149}}. Accessed May 26, 2017.</ref> It became a cultural hub full of theatres, [[music hall]]s, and upscale hotels.<ref name=leach339 /> {{Blockquote|Times Square quickly became New York's [[agora]], a place to gather to await great tidings and to celebrate them, whether a World Series or a presidential election.|[[James Traub]]|''The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square''|}} [[Advertising]] also grew significantly in the 1920s, growing from $25 million to $85 million over the decade.<ref>Leach (1993), [https://books.google.com/books?id=VHZ6UAudSiUC&pg=340 p.340]</ref> For example, the [[Wrigley Company|Wrigley]] Spearmint Gum sign, possibly the biggest electric sign "in the world," cost $9,000 per month to rent.<ref>Leach (1993), [https://books.google.com/books?id=VHZ6UAudSiUC&pg=341 p.341]</ref> Some contemporary critics, such as [[Thorstein Veblen]]<ref name="leach345">Leach (1993), [https://books.google.com/books?id=VHZ6UAudSiUC&pg=345 p.345]</ref> and [[G. K. Chesterton]],<ref name="leach346">Leach (1993), [https://books.google.com/books?id=VHZ6UAudSiUC&pg=346 p.346]</ref> disliked the advertising at Times Square. [[Fritz Lang]], after seeing Times Square in 1923, used it as inspiration for his dark industrial film ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]''.<ref name=leach345 /> Entertainment icons such as [[Irving Berlin]], [[Charlie Chaplin]], and [[Fred Astaire]] were closely associated with Times Square in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. However, it was also during this period that the area began to be besieged by crime and corruption, in the form of gambling and prostitution; one case that garnered huge attention was the arrest and subsequent execution of police officer [[Charles Becker]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/becker/2.html |title=Killer Cop: Charles Becker β Crime Library on |publisher=TruTV |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212212812/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/becker/2.html |archive-date=December 12, 2013 |access-date=April 21, 2010}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). 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