M A Andrew Black and White Photography Blog

In 1686, when the area was still a wilderness, New York’s colonial governor, Thomas Dongan, designated the area now known as Bryant Park as a public space. George Washington’s troops crossed the area while retreating from the Battle of Long Island in 1776. Beginning in 1823, Bryant Park was designated a potter’s field (a graveyard for the poor) and remained so until 1840, when thousands of bodies were moved to Wards Island.

The first park at this site opened in 1847 as Reservoir Square. It was named after its neighbor, the Croton Distributing Reservoir. In 1853, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations with the New York Crystal Palace, featuring thousands of exhibitors, took place in the park.

The square was used for military drills during the American Civil War, and was the site of some of the New York Draft Riots of July 1863, when the Colored Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street was burned down.

In 1884, Reservoir Square was renamed Bryant Park, to honor the New York Evening Post editor and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant. In 1899, the Reservoir building was removed and construction of the New York Public Library building began. Terraces, public facilities, and kiosks were added to the park. This photograph was taken in 2009.

Bryant Park, New York Black and White

• This photograph was taken in the middle of Central Park, in 2009. Apparently New Yorkers cleared acres and acres of swampland to put in this oasis of calm in the middle of one of the worlds busiest cities.
  

  New York Central Park Black and White

This photograph was taken at the end of Wall St in 2009. Wall Street gets its name from the fact that it used to denote the end of Manhattan island when the first Europeans settled there. After this wall, the rest of Manhattan was aswampy mess

wall street new york

This was taken in New York City in 2009.

Radio City Black and White

When I was younger I remember reading On The Road by Jack Kerouac and always imagined what Times Square was like. Originally the square was known as Longacre Square but was renamed after the New York Times moved into the square in 1904.

Times Square, New York Black and White