North From 14th St. & University Place Towards Union Square

This photograph was taken by the Savastano Photographic Studio on December 5, 1937. We are looking north up Broadway from 14th Street and University Place.

Our photograph was taken on a Sunday and because of New York City’s Blue Laws, almost no businesses are open.

Besides bus number 222 heading west along 14th Street, vehicular traffic in the area is sparse. There are a dozen automobiles, mostly parked, around this normally busy thoroughfare by Union Square Park.

Bus service was relatively new on 14th Street. The city discontinued running trolleys along the route on April 20, 1936.

On 17th Street at the northern edge of the park is the Union Square Park Pavilion and comfort station constructed in 1931 at a cost of $85,000.

Just in front of the Pavilion. stands sculptor Henry K. Brown’s statue of Abraham Lincoln. The statue was moved, also in 1931 from approximately where the fenced triangle is in our photo.