Herald Square
Encyclopedia
Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)
Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
(officially named Avenue of the Americas) and 34th Street
34th Street (Manhattan)
34th Street is a major cross-town street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, connecting the Lincoln Tunnel and Queens-Midtown Tunnel. Like many of New York City's major crosstown streets, it has its own bus routes and four subway stops serving the trains at Eighth Avenue, the trains at...
in the borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Named for the New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
, a now-defunct newspaper formerly headquartered there, it also gives its name to the surrounding area. The intersection is a typical Manhattan bow-tie square that consists of two named sections: Herald Square to the north (uptown) and Greeley Square to the south (downtown). Most non-New Yorkers know of it from the song Give My Regards to Broadway
Give My Regards to Broadway
"Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song written by George M. Cohan for his musical play Little Johnny Jones ....
where the singer asks "remember me to Herald Square", or from the fact that Herald Square is the terminus for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
, broadcast nationally each year by NBC-TV.
Greeley Square lies between West 32nd Street and West 33rd Street and between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, and is taken up almost entirely by a triangular park. It is named after Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
, who was the publisher of the New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
, the Herald's rival newspaper. (The two papers later merged to form the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
.) There is a statue of Greeley inside the park, created in 1890 by Alexander Doyle The small park has great deal of charm, it is planted with trees and shrubbery, enclosed by a wrought-iron fence, and provided with inviting chairs, tables and a restaurant kiosk.
Herald Square itself is the north end of the square between West 34th Street and West 35th Street. The old New York Herald Building was located on the square. The square contains a huge mechanical clock whose mechanical structures were constructed in 1895 by the sculptor Antonin Jean Carles
Antonin Carlès
Jean-Antonin Carles was a French sculptor.Born in Gimont, Carlès began his studies in Marseille and then successively to the École des Beaux-Arts de Toulouse and that of Paris. He was a pupil of François Jouffroy and Ernest-Eugène Hiolle , he won the Grand Prix de l'Exposition Universelle in 1889...
. The monument, known as the James Gordon Monument consists of the Goddess of Wisdom, Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
with her owls in front of a bell, flanked by two bell ringers mounted on a Milford pink granite pedestal. The monument's bell was designed to chime on the hour. The two seven-foot-tall bronze laborers, nicknamed Stuff and Guff give the appearance of ringing the bell with their mallets, while in actuality is rung by mallets located behind the bell. The figures and the clock were originally part of the 1894 New York Herald Building that was located at the square. Prior to the demolition of the building in 1921, the figures were removed and reinstalled in the Square in 1940.
Since 1992, Herald and Greeley Squares have been operated by the 34th Street Partnership, a Business Improvement District
Business improvement district
A business improvement district is a defined area within which businesses pay an additional tax or fee in order to fund improvements within the district's boundaries. Grant funds acquired by the city for special programs and/or incentives such as tax abatements can be made available to assist...
(BID) operating over 31 blocks in midtown Manhattan. The 34SP provides sanitary and security services, maintains a horticultural program that includes trees, gardens, and planters, and produces events, product launches, and photo shoots. 34SP also added movable chairs, tables, and umbrellas, to the parks. In 1999, the parks were completely renovated by 34SP. Since 2008, each park has had a food kiosk operated by 'wichcraft, the highly regarded sandwich, soup and salad purveyor owned by Tom Colicchio
Tom Colicchio
Thomas Patrick "Tom" Colicchio is an American celebrity chef. He co-founded the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, and formerly served as a co-owner and as the executive chef. He is also the founder of Craft and Colicchio & Sons restaurants...
of "Top Chef" fame. In 2009, 34SP converted the parks' Automated Pay Toilets into free public facilities, a rarity in New York City.
With the introduction of "Broadway Boulevard", a project by the NYC Department of Transportation to close Broadway to vehicles on the stretch between 33rd and 35th Streets, the passive space provided by Herald and Greeley Squares more than doubled, radically changing the character of the area. The parks' operators, 34SP, filled the newly-pedestrianized space with chairs, tables, umbrellas, and free public programs such as chess tables, dance lessons, and exercise classes.
Herald and Greeley Squares stand today as rest areas for the thousands of shoppers that flood the neighborhood, as a lunchroom for thousands of midtown office workers, and as a stage for product launches, musical performances, and photo and film shoots.
The area around Herald Square along Broadway and 34th Street is a retail hub. The most notable attraction is the Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
flagship department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
, the largest in the United States (and according to Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
the largest in the world). In 2007, Macy's, Inc. moved its corporate headquarters to that store after renaming from Federated. Macy's archrival Gimbels was also located in the neighborhood until 1984; in 1986 the building became the Manhattan Mall
Manhattan Mall
The Manhattan Mall, one of the few traditional indoor malls in New York City, is located at 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue. There are entrances to the 34th Street – Herald Square subway station and the 33rd Street PATH station, on the second basement level.This mall is a high-traffic shopping venue...
. Other past retailers in the area included E.J. Korvette, Stern's
Stern's
Stern's was a regional department store chain serving the U.S. states of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The chain was in business for more than 130 years, prior to its 2001 integration into Macy's and Bloomingdale's...
, and Abraham & Straus
Abraham & Straus
Abraham & Straus was a major New York City department store, based in Brooklyn. Founded in 1865, in 1929 it became part of Federated Department Stores, which eliminated the A&S brand shortly after its 1994 acquisition of R.H. Macy & Company...
. J.C. Penney
J.C. Penney
J. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...
opened its first Manhattan flagship store in August 2009 at the former A&S location inside the Manhattan Mall. The square is roughly equidistant between Madison Square
Madison Square
Madison Square is formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States and the principal author of the United States Constitution.The focus of the square is...
to the south, and Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
to the north. Herald Square's south side borders Koreatown
Koreatown, Manhattan
Koreatown, or K-town as it is colloquially known, is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, that is generally bordered by 31st and 36th Streets and Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenues...
, at West 32nd Street. The area is served by the 34th Street – Herald Square station ( trains) and the 33rd Street
33rd Street (PATH station)
The 33rd Street PATH station, opened on November 10, 1910, is located on Sixth Avenue , between 32nd and 33rd Streets in Manhattan, under Greeley Square and just south of Herald Square....
station (HOB–33, JSQ–33 trains) of the PATH
Port Authority Trans-Hudson
PATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey...
.