Duffy Square, officially named Father Duffy Square in 1939, is the northern triangle of
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, New York City. It is bounded by
45th and
47th Streets,
Broadway and
Seventh Avenue. It is now well known for the
TKTS reduced-price theater tickets booth located there.
In the 18th and 19th centuries Lowes Lane connected Bloomingdale Road to
Eastern Post Road. The west end of the lane was at the modern Duffy Square, and the east end at approximately the modern Third Avenue and 42nd Street. Lowes Lane and Eastern Post Road were suppressed late in the 19th century, but Bloomingdale Road survives under the name of Broadway.
Duffy Square was briefly dominated by a fifty-foot, eight-ton plaster statue entitled ''Purity (Defeat of Slander)'' by
Leo Lentelli in 1909. Now the square has two statues: a
bronze statue
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloids (su ...
of Chaplain
Francis P. Duffy of New York's
"Fighting 69th" Infantry Regiment, after whom the square is named, sculpted by
Charles Keck, and another
statue depicting composer, playwright, producer and actor
George M. Cohan, by sculptor
Georg J. Lober. The statue of Duffy was dedicated by Mayor
Fiorello LaGuardia
Fiorello Henry La Guardia (born Fiorello Raffaele Enrico La Guardia; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as the 99th mayor of New Y ...
on May 2, 1937, who also signed the law authorizing the renaming of the square to "Father Duffy Square" on March 29, 1939; on June 13 of that year, the street signs were changed.
[Staff (June 13, 1939]
"Duffy Sq, Signs To Be Put Up Today"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' The statue of Duffy and the square itself were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 2001.
Gallery
Image:TimesSquare1820 Map2 crop.JPG, Lowes Lane meets Bloomingdale Road, 1820
Image:Duffy Square 1904.jpg, A 1904 photo of north end of Times Square before the creation of Duffy Square
Image:Monuments & memorials - statue of Virtue. N.Y. LCCN97517194.jpg, Defeat of Slander statue
Image:Father Duffy statue and TKTS booth risers.jpg, The red steps behind the statue of Father Duffy are the roof of the TKTS booth
Image:Ferris wheel Bway 2021-08-24 jeh.jpg, Ferris wheel under construction, August 2021
References
External links
The Fighting 69th Regiment HomepageNYC Parks
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
National Register of Historic Places in New York City
New York State Register of Historic Places in New York County
Squares in Manhattan
Times Square