Tag Archives: New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve Celebrations Of The Past, New York City 1906

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Festivities In New York City On New Year’s Eve 1906

A couple of years ago we featured photos of Times Square and New Year’s celebrations from the 1950’s – 1960’s. This time we went back in time a bit further to New Year’s Eve 1906.

Probably something you never thought about: where else did New Yorkers celebrate New Year’s besides Times Square, which started drawing crowds in 1904 with the completion of the New York Times Tower Building?

The answer is all over the city at various churches, hotels, restaurants and clubs, with Trinity Church being a focal point for large crowds.

Seen below is the crowd outside of Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Street on New Year’s Eve 1906 awaiting the arrival of 1907.

New Year's Eve 1907 outside Trinity Church

It proves again that celebrating the New Year has not changed that much over the years. People have always liked to congregate on New Year’s Eve in New York City even in freezing weather. It’s just that back then the majority of celebrants were New Yorkers, unlike today where many revelers are visiting from all over the globe.

Here is how the New York Tribune described Continue reading →

Times Square New Year’s Eve: Celebrations Of The Past

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4 Photographs Of Times Square On New Year’s Eve 1952-1965

Another New Year’s celebration tonight. What did it look like half a century ago?

Pretty much the same.

Here are four photographs of Times Square as it appeared during New Year’s Eve celebrations during the 1950’s and 1960’s.  The amount of light emanating from the vicinity leads to an overexposure, making this a difficult scene to capture.

Times Square New Year’s Eve 1952

Times Square New Years Eve December 31 1952

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Old New York in Photos #22

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Times Square And The New York Times Tower Building 1908

Times Square featuring The Times Tower 1908 – click to vastly enlarge (six megabytes!)

Times Square is burgeoning with activity in 1908 and there is so much to see in this picture.

This photograph of Times Square was part of The Detroit Publishing Company collection, now housed at The Library of Congress. The company made picture postcards from these original photographs at the turn of the century.

The area formerly known as Longacre Square became Times Square after the New York Times opened their iconic flagship office building in 1905 at what would become known as “the crossroads of the world,” the southern end of Times Square, the triangular intersection of 42nd and 43rd streets where Broadway and Seventh Avenue diverge.

Flatiron Building in 1903

The Times Tower Building design is reminiscent of the Fuller Building, which became popularly known as the “Flatiron Building” soon after it opened in 1902 between 22nd and 23rd Streets where Broadway and Fifth Avenue intersect. The two buildings don’t look alike at all. But because they were each built on irregular plots of land, the triangular buildings both resemble flatirons.

The original Times Tower Building was a Gothic structure of beautiful light limestone and featured intricate terra-cotta and granite on the facade. More about the building later in the article. Continue reading →