Union Square in the Late 19th Century

Original title: Union Square, New York City, from southwest. Photograph copyrighted by J. S. Johnston, 1893. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

By 1890, the fashionable residential area that dominated Union Square in the mid-19 century was supplanted by hotels and commercial buildings.

The Abraham Lincoln Monument (1870) is in the foreground. The 11-story Jackson Building was completed in 1892, on the north side of the Square. It was destroyed by fire in 1930 then it was cut down to its present height. The Everett House opened in 1853 and demolished in 1908. The site is now occupied by the Everett Building.