The Times Square District
Earlier in this essay, it was mentioned that for most of the 19^th Century the newspapers of New York were clustered downtown in an area known as Printing House Row. Its location was ideal for reporters: they were across the street from City Hall; a few blocks north of Wall Street; two blocks east of the seaport; and a short walk to The Five Points slum. Reporters, therefore, had easy access to political, economic and shipping reports, as well as juicy stories of violence and vice.

By 1900, however, the proliferation of telegraphs and telephones made the location unnecessary. (Besides, the value of downtown real estate was soaring, making newspaper owners desperate to sell their Printing House Row addresses.) One of the first to leave was /The Herald/, which bought cheap land uptown on 34^th Street and Broadway, which it renamed Herald Square. /The New York Times/ went a half mile further uptown to a somewhat seedy location on 42^nd Street, where Broadway and 7^th Avenue cross, called Longacre Square. In April 1904, publisher Adolph Ochs successfully lobbied the city government to rename the place Times Square. That New Year.s Eve, the Times held a huge street party to celebrate the new name and the new year, beginning a long tradition of New Year.s Eve bashes in Times Square. This (rather eerie) postcard of the New York Times Tower was printed in 1909.

Ochs was only one man who saw the potential of Times Square. Oscar Hammerstein, taking advantage of the low prices of real estate and the population.s hunger for recreation, built several theaters and a few restaurants in the surrounding area. Hotel owners took note, and erected lavish dwellings in and around the area. From that point to the mid-1960s, there were few spectacles more fantastic than The Great White Way.

The Hudson Theater
145 West 44^th Street

And

The Broadhurst Theater
235 West 44^th Street
(no photo available)

There have been several great theaters in Times Square. Many of the old ones are gone, due to the greed of real estate developers and an apathetic citizenry. But the Hudson and the Broadhurst theaters have survived. Built in 1904 and 1917, respectively, these city landmarks were home to scores of great plays and performances. Among the most famous plays, some of which won TONY Awards and/or Pulitzer Prizes, are:

Men in White
The Petrified Forest
Ten Little Indians
Anniversary Waltz
Auntie Mame
Fiorello!
Cabaret
Amadeus
Broadway Bound
The Plough and the Stars
State of the Union
Toys in the Attic
Strange Interlude

Eugene O.Neill birthplace
1500 Broadway

.Born in a hotel room - - and God damn it . died in a hotel room..
Eugene O.Neill.s last words

The Barrett House hotel stood on the northeast corner of 43^rd Street and Broadway, just about where the tall skyscraper at the center of this photo sits. Eugene O'Neill was born in that hotel, appropriately in what would become the heart of the theater district, on October 16, 1888. His father, James O.Neill, was a popular actor, and was performing in the successful melodrama, /The Count of Monte Cristo/, when Eugene was born. Although the hotel no longer exists, there is a plaque on 1500 Broadway dedicated to the birthplace of the only American playwright to win a Nobel Prize in Literature, as well as three Pulitzers.

And, as his last words so vividly indicate, O.Neill died in a hotel room in Boston in 1953.

Lindy.s
1525 Broadway

/"Always try to rub against money, for if you rub against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you."
/ from Damon Runyon.s .A Very Honourable Guy.

In the mood for a nice pastrami sandwich with a slice of world-class cheesecake for dessert? Diagonally opposite the O.Neill birthplace, Leo Lindy.s famous restaurant is a favorite stopping place for theater-goers. But more important for us, it was the favorite haunt of Damon Runyon. Although Runyon was born in Manhattan in 1880, it was Manhattan, /Kansas///. He didn.t come to New York City until his adulthood, but he fit in quickly and comfortably. He hobnobbed with writers, actors, athletes, and crime bosses. Admittedly, Runyon may not be considered a major writer on the American literary scene. However, he was an omnipresent figure in journalism, short-story writing, and Broadway theaters for decades. And, considering that some of his works would be the bases for films like /The Lemon Drop Kid, Pocketful of Miracles, Lady for a Day, A Slight Case of Murder/, and /Guys and Dolls, /he/ /earns an honorable mention here.

Scribner.s & Sons Building
597 Fifth Avenue

Just a couple of blocks east of the Times Square district stands this neo-Classical building, designed by Ernest Flagg. Constructed in 1914, this building was home to the publishing heavyweight Charles Scribner.s & Sons. In that same year, the company turned to its young advertising manager, Max Perkins, to fill a void in the editorial department, launching the career of the 20^th Century.s greatest editor. One of Perkins. first moves was to push Scribner.s to publish a novel by a 24-year-old mid-Westerner named F. Scott Fitzgerald. Readers gobbled up over 30,000 copies of /This Side of //Paradise// /within the first two months of publication. While Perkins (and Scribner.s) would make a fortune on Fitzgerald.s novels, Perkins actively pursued the manuscript of another young writer, Ernest Hemingway. Working closely with the 26-year-old, Perkins deleted several of the expletives in the novel, but left quite a few in, much to the horror of the elder statesmen of Scribner.s. However, /The Sun Also Rises /was an enormous success, quickly easing the fears of Scribner.s senior staff. Max Perkins would also be influential in editing and publishing the works of Ring Lardner, Thomas Wolfe, and James Jones.

But what gives this building an added bonus in its .literary landmark. stature is what happened between Hemingway and another Scribner.s editor, Max Eastman. In a published letter, Eastman had questioned Hemingway.s masculinity. (Why he did that is another story.) Hemingway promptly strode into Eastman.s office and, after a few words, smacked the editor around. Sensitive guy, that Hemingway.

Tiffany.s
727 Fifth Avenue

/.What I've found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany's. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets."
/ From Truman Capote.s .Breakfast at Tiffany.s.

When my wife and I went shopping for wedding rings, we decided to check out Tiffany.s. We looked at their diamond rings and our bank account balance, then sighed, took in the architecture, and left empty-fingered. Still, when you enter the place, you can appreciate Holly Golightly.s awe of it. Capote.s heroine, desperate for acceptance and security, is irresistibly drawn to this place, and for good reason: it.s thick, vault-like walls have the look of a fortress, while the baubles inside are more than pleasing to the eye. This literary landmark comes with a warning: If you decide to visit it, LEAVE YOUR WALLETS AND PURSES HOME!

Central Park
1. The Zoo

/.Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly..
/ From Edward Albee.s .The Zoo Story.

Thoroughly rehabilitated after years of neglect, the Central Park Zoo is a favorite among native New Yorkers and visitors alike. But in the mid-20^th Century, it was a very depressing, run-down place with old cages and sickly animals. Seeing this place as a metaphor for modern urban life, Edward Albee set his play, /The Zoo Story/, here.

2. The Mall

[One]/ hot night I stop off at the Goldman Band concert in the Mall in //Central Park//. The people seated on the benches fanned out in front of the bandshell are attentive, appreciative. In the trees the night wind stirs, bringing the leaves to life, endowing them with speech. On the bench directly in front of me, a boy sits with his arm around his girl; they are proud of each other and are swathed in music. The cornetist steps forward for a solo, begins, .Drink to me only with thine eyes.. In the wide, warm night the horn is startlingly pure and magical. Then from the North/ [Hudson] /River another horn solo begins.the Queen Mary announcing her intentions. She is not on key; she is half a tone off. The trumpeter in the bandstand never flinches. Along the asphalt paths strollers pass to and fro; they behave considerately, respecting the musical atmosphere. Popsicles are moving well. In the warm grass beyond the fence, forms wriggle in the shadows, and the skirts of the girls approaching on the Mall are ballooned by the breeze, and their bare shoulders catch the lamplight. .Drink to me only with thine eyes.. It is a magical occasion, and it.s all free.
/ From E. B. White.s .Here is New York.

A literary landmark? All right, maybe I.m indulging. But White.s glorious little book is filled with such perfect and marvelous paragraphs like the one above that if it is not a landmark, it.s a literary oasis.

3. The Carousel

/"All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddamn horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them"
/ From Salinger.s .The Catcher in the Rye.

There is something soothing about a carousel: even Holden Caulfield, restless and agitated as he was, found solace at the sight of one. As he watched his little sister, Phoebe, go .around and around., Holden felt .so damn happy all of a sudden., that he could finally break down.

There has been a carousel in Central Park ever since 1871. The original one was powered by a mule and a blind horse that walked around in a circle beneath the ride. Later carousels were steam powered and then electrically powered. Unfortunately for our discussion, the carousel that Holden sat before was destroyed by fire in 1950. Still, the location is the same, and the Parks Department was very careful in finding a suitable replacement that would capture the flavor of the older ones. The current one is almost 100 years old, and, like all the previous ones, was hand-carved and hand-painted. Appropriately enough, this one was a favorite in Coney Island before it was moved here.

115 West 95^th Street

Think of this as a late intermission or a diversion because it is not a literary landmark. But after leaving the northwestern end of Central Park, I happened to spot this interesting brownstone (the photo did not come out). This was home to a little girl named Virginia O.Hanlon in 1897. The eight-year-old was distraught over something her friends at school had told her. On the advice of her father, the child wrote a letter to the /New York// Sun/ newspaper. She asked, .Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?.

The editor, Francis P. Church, published this response in the newspaper: .Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [that which] they see. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus..

(I sometimes wonder how many years of therapy Virginia had to go through when she later discovered the truth.)

Harlem

Can an entire neighborhood be declared a literary landmark? Yes. When one considers Harlem.s output over the decades, it becomes obvious it would need its own website of landmarks.

The African-American population, which had always been relegated to Manhattan.s fringes, was pushed further north, as the City.s population expanded throughout the centuries. Harlem (which was spelled Haarlem by the Dutch, after a town in the Netherlands) was as far north as you could go in the early 20^th Century. Many of the African-American soldiers returning home from World War I found affordable housing and financing in this way uptown neighborhood. By the Roaring Twenties, Harlem became the magnet for jazz musicians, writers, painters, and political activists. Although the working class African-American never really profited from or was even aware of it, the Harlem Renaissance was taking hold. Among the writers who lived here during those years were Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, Walter White, George Schuyler, and Langston Hughes.

Unfortunately, the good times didn.t last long. Fewer places were hit harder by poverty and unemployment than Harlem during the great depression. Tensions mounted. The Harlem Riot of March 19-20, 1935 was only the beginning of a long list of displays of social unrest. Throughout the 40s and 50s things only got worse, prompting Langston Hughes, in 1951, to write his famous poem, .Harlem.:

/What happens to a dream deferred?

/ / / /Does it dry up
/ /like a raisin in the sun?
/ /Or fester like a sore -
/ /And then run?
/ /Does it stink like rotten meat?
/ /Or crust and sugar over -
/ /like a syrupy sweet?

/ / / /Maybe it just sagsbr>/ /like a heavy load.

/ /Or does it explode?

/ / / Today, Harlem is undergoing a major economic renaissance, becoming one of the most sought-after places to live and work in the City. It can only be hoped that a new literary renaissance will erupt, as well.

CONCLUSION

I stumbled upon the idea for this essay quite by accident when I was re-reading Melville.s /Moby Dick/. There, in the first chapter, Ishmael listed the streets along which he was walking. And I realized that I had walked along those same streets hundreds of times when I worked near the South Street Seaport. (See Part One of this essay.) This led me to wonder what else might still exist in New York from the 19^th and 20^th Centuries. works of literature. There was more than I.d ever thought. What was presented here is only a fraction of what I.d found.

So what was omitted? Let.s see:

The Flat Iron Building
The Empire State Building
The Plaza Hotel
Gramercy Park
N.Y.U. and Columbia University
The 42^nd Street Library
And
Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island, and that.s just for starters.

I hope that you.ve enjoyed this virtual tour. But more importantly, I hope that this might prompt you to explore the literary landmarks of your city, town, county, or state. Believe me, it.s worth the time! /

/ / / Rocco Dormarunno was born and raised in New York City. He earned his BA in Humanities from Brooklyn College, his MA in English literature and language from Rutgers University, and was a student at the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop. He has taught at each of those institutions, and currently teaches at he College of New Rochelle, Manhattan Campus. Along with his passion for literature, he also concentrated his studies in American and, specifically, New York City history. He and his wonderful wife Jenny live close to the city in West Orange, NJ.
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