newyorktribunebuilding

ESPN, 1913 style.

Franklin and Greeley statues: digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm...

Looking at an enhanced version of this, the people are watching a scoreboard being updated with the plays shown on a baseball diamond sign. The game is between the Brooklyn Superbas (Dodgers) and the New York Giants. There is no score in the bottom of the third inning. It should be possible to date this picture by box scores. Something about the scoreboard they are watching: "The Evening Sun's electric scoreboard on which a ball is moved automatically about the diamond enables thousand of fans to follow every detail of the day's game." Pathe's Weekly, July 24, 1913 books.google.com/books?id=3Ew_AAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA558&... Before the advent of radio doomed them, these electric scoreboards attracted huge crowds in New York and elsewhere.

A date of 1912 was set by the Pictorial History Committee, Society for American Baseball Research, according to the notes above. However, with some enhancement the teams' rosters are legible, and the lineups match a game played at the Polo Grounds between the teams on June 24, 1913. The negative has a 1913 date written on it, though that is not dispositive. Casey Stengel, on the scoreboard lineup, did not make his major league debut until September 17, 1912, and the Giants did not play the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds after September 9 that season. Placement of the Brooklyn lineup on the left and the Giants on the right typically meant the game was played at the Giants' field. This is therefore the game of June 24, 1913 which Eddie Stack started for Brooklyn. He only lasted 3 innings, so this picture was taken early in the game. Stack was traded to the Cubs on August 5, 1913. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60914FF3E5B1373... www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BRO/1912-schedule-scores... www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BRO/1913-schedule-scores... www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stacked01.shtml www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stengca01.shtml

Another 1913 baseball crowd:
collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/d/e/a/7/M2Y9199.jpg

Pictured is Nassau Street, as it ends on Park Row. Here is a photo of the Tribune and Sun buildings circa 1885
collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/4/b/1/9/MNY216908.jpg
And an aerial view from 1916, showing City Hall, the Globe, Sun, Tribune and Times buildings.
collections.mcny.org/Doc/MNY/Media/TR3/1/b/6/0/MNY217221.jpg
By 1916, the 5 story Sun Building had been replaced by a three story building:

Looks like they put handwritten headlines above the entrance. The statue sat across from City Hall in front of the Tribure Building at Nassau and Spruce Streets. This statue was eventually moved to City Hall Park and is there today. www.nycgovparks.org/parks/cityhallpark/highlights/13314 A view from City Hall of the Tribune Building (an architecturaly important building), now demolished, in 1966: lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny0400/ny0435/photos/11992... Wikipedia says the building was demolished in 1955, but that's obviously incorrect, based on the LOC photo which is clearly from the mid-60's. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Tribune_Building Other sources correctly state that it was demolished in 1966 to make way for a Pace College building. www.nytimes.com/1988/05/15/realestate/in-the-new-york-reg...

Statue here is not the one in City Hall Park; it's the one in Greely Square Park. http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/greeleysquarepark/highlights/13313

better link: www.nycgovparks.org/parks/greeleysquarepark/highlights/13313 Interestingly enough, the NY Parks site is misleading. There are two similar Greeley statues. For some reason they accurately describe the one pictured above as in City Hall Park, but they picture it on the Greeley Park page of their site. On the City Hall Park page, they accurately describe the statue there (pictured above in the Bain photo) but they mistakenly picture the Greeley Square statue. www.nycgovparks.org/parks/cityhallpark/highlights/13314 The most obvious difference is that Greeley has a newspaper spread out on his right thigh in the City Hall Park statue, and has a book hanging down in his right hand in the Greeley Square one. maps.google.com/maps?q=greeley+square,+new+york&ll=40...

Then there's the question of why this photo is in the June, 1915 news stream. On June 13, 1915, the N.Y. Times published a story about the building's owners wanting to rent the corner space to a drugstore, and needed to move the statue to do so. It's a wry, tongue in cheek story, which notes that after the shoeshine stand was installed to the left of Greeley, it looked like he was waiting in line for a shine. The statue moved across the street into the park eventually, but the place was not determined when the article was written. It was suggested, though, that, the statue (in the famous words of Greeley) "go west ,young man", and it did. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10D13FF3D551273... Also dating the picture are the news headlines above the statue. It looks like they had someone up there on a wooden platform painting them for the passersby. These headlines, about the Wilson diplomatic note that caused his Secretary of State to resign, the turmoil in Mexico, and the Italian offensive on Trento (Trent) are all stories in the Tribune's edition of June 11, 1915: chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1915-06-11/ed-...

artolog-- Thank you for tracking down the additional details about the Greeley statues and for alerting us to the mix up in the photos on the NYC parks website. Good work on locating the stories in the news headlines in the June 11, 1915 edition of the Tribune too. I wonder how often they updated the headlines? We will add some more details when we update the description.