Guess where?

            This photo was taken circa 1900. At the time this photo was taken this intersection was known as Longacre Square. It became Times Square in April 8, 1904, when it was renamed by Mayor George McClellan Jr at the urging of Adolph Ochs, owner of the New York Times.  (We are looking southward - that building in the background is where the ball is now dropped every New Year's Eve.)

            The Cadillac Hotel (seen in the above photo) was on the northeast corner of Broadway and 43rd Street. Built in the 1880's, it was originally known as the Barrett House and became the Cadillac Hotel in 1898.  It was renamed in 1914, then torn down in the 1940's.  Today an office tower stands in its place.

            The New York Theater on the left was originally called Hammerstein's Olympia - The Music Hall which opened in 1895. The Ziegfield Follies performed here for five years and many other famous musicals ran here as well. Another historical note worth mentioning:  the Biograph Company's first Mutoscope "peepshow flickers" (early risqué movies) were premiered here in 1899 which set off the 'moving pictures' craze. In 1915 the New York Theater was taken over by Lowe's as a movie-vaudeville house. The theater was demolished in 1935.  Now there is a three-level Toys 'R Us store.

            This photo was one of many old pictures that I used for historical research while I was writing The Depth of Deception (A Titanic Murder Mystery Thriller).  I find it personally interesting to stand in the place where that photographer stood, and observe what has remained the same and what has changed. The fun of historical research! 

Photo by Alexander Galant - 2010

Update: My novel Depth of Deception (A Titanic Murder Mystery) can now be purchased in Kindle & paperback from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007O3IKTY as well as in other e-book formats from http://www.depthofdeception.com/buy-the-book.html