City Hall Park - Fountain - statue of "Civic Virtue", 1940 

Manhattan Cable cars station which ran across the Brooklyn bridge, 1911.   Mullets Monstrosity, City Hall, Park Row and City Hall Park. The structure on the right is the Manhattan station for the cable cars which ran across the Brooklyn Bridge.

City Hall Park - View taken from Murray Street, the World Building rear of City Hall, 1910 

City Hall Park, 1887 

New York CIty hall access at the intersection of Park Row and Broadway 

City Hall Park Path, with NNY City Hall on the left, and Tweed Courthouse on the right 

City Hall Park corner 

City Hall Park corner plaza, opposite the Brooklyn Bridge 

The Seal of the City of New York Medallion  Medallion perimeter: "It must not be forgotten that the park is still the refuge of the people, the cradle of liberty." Medallion center: The Seal of the City of New York 9 medallion segments, each with an area map, descriptive text, and a laser-engraved illustration. 1. 1625 to 1664: Founding and Settlement 2. 1665 to 1775: Under British Rule 3. 1776 to 1799: Revolution and Independence 4. 1800 to 1835: City Hall 5. 1836 to 1869: Progress, Prosperity and Civil War 6. 1870 to 1897: The Federal Post Office 7. 1898 to 1938: Expansion 8. 1939 to 1998: Renovation and Excavation 9. 1999: The Restoration of City Hall Park

Temporary artwork - Melvin Edwards 'Brighter Days', May 4 - November 28 2021 

1940 City Hall Park plaque location, on the City Hall Park Path  'CITY OF NEW YORK Fiorello H. LaGuardia Mayor Robert Moses, Commissioner Gilmore D Clarke, Designer 1940 CITY HALL PARK 1999 Rudolph W Giuliani Mayor Rudy Washington Deputy Mayor C Virginia Fields Borough President Kathryn Freed Council member Henry J Stern COmmissioner George P Vellonakis Designer PARK AND RECREATION'

1871 City Hall Park plaque near the Broadway, Park Row entrance  'CITY OF NEW YORK A Oakey Hall Mayor Andrew H. Green, Parks Comptroller Pilat & Kellogg Designers 1871 CITY HALL PARK 1999 Rudolph W Giuliani Mayor Rudy Washington Deputy Mayor C Virginia Fields Borough President Kathryn Freed Council member Henry J Stern Commissione George P Vellonakis Designer PARK AND RECREATION'

Temporary artwork - Melvin Edwards 'Brighter Days', May 4 - November 28 2021 

Temporary artwork - Melvin Edwards 'Brighter Days', May 4 - November 28 2021 

Temporary artwork - Melvin Edwards 'Brighter Days', May 4 - November 28 2021 

Temporary artwork - Melvin Edwards 'Brighter Days', May 4 - November 28 2021 

Temporary artwork - Melvin Edwards 'Brighter Days', May 4 - November 28 2021 

1818 - The Rotunda, City Hall Park  A building that stood in City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan, New York City, from 1818 to 1870. The Rotunda was built at the initiative of American artist John Vanderlyn to display panoramic paintings. According to historians Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Vanderlyn was motivated by the refusal of the city's cultural elite to include paintings such as his nude Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos in public exhibitions on the grounds that it was an affront to public decency. Backed by John Jacob Astor and other wealthy New Yorkers, he built The Rotunda. Widely regarded as the city's first art museum, it operated on a commercial footing. The building was designed on the model of The Pantheon in Rome. It was fifty-six feet in diameter, crowned with a thirty-foot dome. The Rotunda opened in 1818 to display Vanderlyn's Panoramic View of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles, a cyclorama now on display in a purpose-built, circular room in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. In the painting, to the right of the Latona Fountain, Vanderlyn painted himself pointing towards Czar Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick William III of Prussia. In time its use changed to housing government agencies, and the building was altered accordingly.

1768 - Bridewell Prison  The Bridewell was a municipal prison built in 1768 on the site now occupied by City Hall Park in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Designed by Theophilus Hardenbrook, the building was notorious for its harsh conditions; it had bars, but no windows. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Bridewell is a common English noun referred both to a gaol in which prisoners were held, or a workhouse to which they were confined. The term was used for a number of jails in the Thirteen Colonies. Construction on the New York City Bridewell began in 1768, although the building was not completed until after the end of the American Revolutionary War. Even though it was incomplete, the British used the jail to house prisoners of war during the Revolutionary War. Bridewell Prison opened in 1775. It stood until it was replaced by The Tombs in 1838; some of the dressed stone blocks from the Bridewell were used to construct The Tombs. Designed by Theophilus Hardenbrook, the building was notorious for its harsh conditions; it had bars, but no windows.

1757 - New Gaol, turned Debtor's Prison, turned Provost Prison, turned Hall of Records  Construction began on the city's 1st jail in 1757. Became redundant when Bridewell Brison was erected in 1775, now the New Goal was used exclusively for debtors, earning its new name, The Debtors’ Prison. On August 27, 1776 the British took possession of the city, and the Debtors’ Prison would receive another name: The Provost Prison. After the war the building returned to use as a debtors’ prison.

1734 - 1st Almshouse Established  The first Almshouse was opened on the Commons of the City in 1736 and fell under the care and control of the Overseers of the Poor, House of Correction, Workhouse and Poorhouse, headed by two men appointed by the Office of the Mayor.
Established by the Quakers on the grounds of City Hall. The plaque was installed on City Hall Park 1999.

1766 - Liberty Pole  Liberty poles were often erected in town squares in the years before and during the American Revolution. The poles were periodically destroyed by the royal authorities, only to be replaced by the Sons with new ones. During the imperial crisis with Britain in the 1760s, an often violent struggle over liberty poles erected by the Sons of Liberty (or "Liberty Boys") in New York City to symbolize their displeasure with British authorities raged for 10 years. The first such pole was put up by Governor Moore in City Hall Park on May 21, 1766, in celebration of the repeal of the 1765 Stamp Act and to strengthen loyalty of citizens, it rather became central to the story of the protests leading up to the Revolution. The British hated this pole and chopped it down in August in protest of the fact that the New York government had refused to enforce the Stamp Act. Another pole was put up which was quickly cut down. A third pole was put up which stayed up until 1767 when British soldiers cut it down after seeing colonists celebrating the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act. A fourth was put up this time secured with iron bands. In 1767, the Quartering Act was passed which the New York government mostly left unenforced. Parliament reacted to this by dissolving the assembly and replacing it with one that did agree. The Sons of Liberty posted a broadside called “To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York” in response. The British blew up this liberty pole on January 16 because of the broadside and as a result of the fact, soldiers were given 1800 pounds for supporting the act. They left the remains of the pole on the door of a tavern owner named Mr. Montanye. The "red coats" also posted their own handbills which attacked the Sons of Liberty as "the real enemies of society" who "thought their freedom depended on a piece of wood". The conflict lasted from the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 until the revolutionary New York Provincial Congress came to power in 1775. Here the Declaration of Independence was read to Washington's Army July 9, 1776.

1922 - Civic Virtue  Commissioned in 1915 by the city to create a sculpture for City Hall Park, he carved a 55-ton piece of marble into “Civic Virtue”: a figure of a strapping young man holding a sword while standing astride two beautiful women, who symbolized vice and corruption. This statue originally stood directly in front of City Hall in Manhattan. But even before the 22-foot statue was unveiled in the park in 1922, it was under fire. Women’s groups claimed it was demeaning to have virtue represented by a male figure, while women were equated with vice. MacMonnies found the argument ridiculous and blamed “literal” minded people who didn’t think allegorically. “Temptation is usually made feminine because only the feminine really attracts and tempts,” quoted the Times. Mayor Hylan thought it was “a travesty of good taste,” but the statue went up anyway, earning the nickname “Rough Guy” because of his naked, chiseled, somewhat caveman-like features.