Greenwich Village, Times Square & Central Park

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http://www.heygo.com Greenwich Village - Times Square - Children’s area Central Park



Greenwich Village

Its name comes from Groenwijck, Dutch for Green District. In the 20th century, Greenwich Village was known as an artists' haven, the Bohemian capital, the cradle of the modern LGBT movement.

We started the tour in Christopher Park - Located just across from the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park has been at the center of the LGBT rights movement since the historic 1969 uprising.

In June 2016, after a multi-year effort by local advocates, President Barack Obama designated Stonewall National Monument, the boundaries of which encompass Christopher Park.

Across the street a small shop Village Cigars with a triangular plaque on the sidewalk. The plaque reads "Property of the Hess Estate which has never been dedicated for public purposes.

The plaque is the result of a dispute between the city government and the estate of David Hess, a landlord from Philadelphia who owned the Voorhis, a five-story apartment building. In the early 1910s, the city claimed to demolish 253 buildings in the area in order to widen Seventh Avenue and expand the subway. By 1913, however, the Hess family had exhausted all legal options. In 1928, Hess's heirs discovered that, when the city seized the Voorhis, the survey had missed this small corner of Plot 55 and they set up a notice of possession. The city asked the family to donate the diminutive property to the public, but they chose to hold out to and installed the present, defiant mosaic in 1922.

In 1938 the property, reported to be the smallest plot in New York City, was sold to the adjacent Village Cigars store for US$100 (equivalent to $1,816 in 2019) all subsequent owners have left the plaque intact.



Times Square



Known early on as Long Acre Square, it had an unsavory reputation as the centre of illicit activity in the 1890s, though earlier in the 19th century it had been both a commercial and a residential area. The square was renamed in 1904 after the New York Times opened its new offices in the Times Tower.

The square became the place where New Yorkers gathered to celebrate the arrival of the new year. In 1907 the Times began lowering a huge glass ball down its flagpole at midnight on New Year’s Eve.



As the Great Depression deepened, theatres on Time Square began to close and were frequently converted to motion picture theatres. As the 20th century progressed, the area became increasingly tawdry. By the 1960s and ’70s it had become a centre for sleazy adult entertainment and was again crime-ridden. Time Square’s resurgence in the 1990s, with the introduction of large tourist-friendly stores, theatres, and restaurants, is often credited to New York Mayor Giuliani and to investment in the area by Disney Corp.



Children’s area Central Park

There are 21 children's playgrounds in Central Park. The largest, at three acres is Heckscher Playground.

Ice skating, a zoo, just two of the many facilities for children to enjoy.

Some of the sculptures we saw.



Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is pictured sitting on a giant mushroom reaching toward a pocket watch held by the White Rabbit.

Publisher and philanthropist George Delacorte Jnr ordered the sculpture in honor of Delacorte's late wife, Margarita, and to the enjoyment of the children of New York. Unveiled in 1959. The design of the sculpture attracts many children who want to climb its many levels, resulting in the bronze's glowing patina, polished by thousands of tiny hands over the years since the sculpture was unveiled.



Hans Christian Andersen’s statue features him sitting and reading to a stray duck. The 1956 work was constructed with contributions from Danish and American schoolchildren.

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