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| Re: Historic Subway Tiles With Nothing To Do With Racism Or Even Confederacy to be Removed (1447548) | |||
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Re: Historic Subway Tiles With Nothing To Do With Racism Or Even Confederacy to be Removed |
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Posted by Michael549 on Wed Aug 23 22:59:37 2017, in response to Re: Historic Subway Tiles With Nothing To Do With Racism Or Even Confederacy to be Removed, posted by AlM on Wed Aug 23 20:23:11 2017. You neglected to look at the history of Squires Vickers, the architect beyond the subway station designs for the entire subway system at the time.There are several postings of his life, history and works in the NYC subway system that I also posted. Just keep reading. Squire Vickers designed the tile banner designs at the Times Square station that opened in 1917 to reflect the "Cross-roads" of the World - Broadway and Seventh Avenue. Squire Vickers was the master architect for the subways for decades and produced plenty of works seen every day by millions of riders. His work has been documented in a number of places over the decades. The modification of the 1811 Street Grid Plan for New York City which originally did not have Broadway within the design created a "circle" or "square" at every intersection where Broadway met one of the "avenues". That is why there's Union Square, Herald Square, Times Square, Lincoln Square (the intersection of Broadway and Columbus Avenue), Columbus Circle, Verdi Square (Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue) and so on. Each of these places could be called a "cross-roads". The early owners of the Times Newspaper did have a relationship with the Confederacy, at least the mother of Adolph Ochs. However her husband Julius Ochs enlisted and fought with the Union Army, and the issue divided the family. All of this is "interesting" history but there is ONE PROBLEM! What is the one problem? Did Vickers know what Och's political opinions were? So far there does not seem to be ANY EVIDENCE of such a tie or knowledge. THAT IS WHAT IS MISSING!!! Here's the other thing that IS in plain evidence - the various banner tiles that exist through out the 42nd Street-Times Square station. Then there's the various tile banner designs that Vickers made in several subway stations - basically just functional tile designs. Pointing to some of the original subway stations with art work and tile work at places such as Astor Place reflective UNDERCUTS the arguments made about Times Square and the Confederacy. In case of the Astor Place subway station (similar to other stations) - the artwork is reflective of John Jacob Astor's fortune derived from the beaver-pelt trade. This association was spelled out from Day 1 - it was not a "hidden fact." Mike |
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