Candid Photo Of City Hall & Fountain By An Amateur Photographer -1897

This cabinet card amateur photo of City Hall and its park has a notation on the rear “1897. Who took it and when in 1897 will never be known.

We cannot see the time on the clock of City Hall’s tower. The fountain does not appear to have its water running. Based upon the leaves on the trees and clothing worn, it is likely this scene was captured sometime between April and October. That doesn’t narrow the date down, but it gives us a general time frame.

Men, all wearing hats, sit on benches wiling away the time. Pedestrians cross the park to and from Park Row to Broadway. A park worker stands dead center in front of the fountain with a broom.

In the intervening 129 years since the photo was taken the main difference is access. Today an unfriendly security fence surrounds City Hall. No one can just walk up to the building to “fight City Hall.”