Duffy Square

Duffy Square, named Father Duffy Square in 1939, is the northern triangle of Times Square in Manhattan, New York City. It is located between 46th and 47th Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue and is well known for the TKTS reduced-price theater tickets booth located there.

Father Francis D. Duffy Statue and Duffy Square
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Statue of Francis P. Duffy
Location	Triangle bounded by Broadway, Seventh Ave., W. 47th. and W. 46th St., New York, New York
Coordinates	40°45′32″N 73°59′7″W
Built	1937
Architect	Charles Keck
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP reference No.	01000243
Added to NRHP	March 12, 2001[1]

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.[2] Now the square has two statues: a bronze statue 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.[3] The statue of Duffy was dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia 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.[4] The statue of Duffy and the square itself were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.[1]

Gallery

• 
  Lowes Lane meets Bloomingdale Road, 1820
• 
  A 1904 photo of north end of Times Square before the creation of Duffy Square
• 
  The red steps behind the statue of Father Duffy are the roof of the TKTS booth

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. "Statue of Purity for Times Square". The New York Times. October 5, 1909. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
3. "Georg J. Lober, 69, Sculptor is Dead; Ex-Head of Art Commission Here--Did Cohan Statue". The New York Times. December 15, 1961. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
4. Staff (June 13, 1939) "Duffy Sq, Signs To Be Put Up Today" The New York Times

External links

• The Fighting 69th Regiment Homepage
• Times Square Alliance
• NYC Parks