Across New York and cities worldwide, public squares are centers of urban vitality, drawing diverse populations at different times of day for different activities. They are prisms of the city—microcosms of urban diversity, commerce, and interaction. In conjunction with the Union Square Partnership and the Municipal Art Society of New York, Lapham’s Quarterly presents a weekend of historically themed tours and readings celebrating the special character of Union Square, the magazine’s home since its founding in 2007 and one of the most storied crossroads in New York City.
Join us for an exciting program of historically themed walks in and around Union Square, led by Lapham’s Quarterly and a team of local historians, authors, and tour guides in conjunction with Jane’s Walk NYC. These tours will explore the rich past and present of the park in light of its connections to New York’s history, architecture, urban planning, radical politics, and activism; Andy Warhol’s fascinating life and artistry; and the Union Square Partnership’s Vision Plan for the future of the park.
Tours are scheduled for May 5 and May 7 as listed below; please RSVP at the corresponding Jane’s Walk link to reserve your spot. We hope to see you there for a privileged look at one of the most vital intersections of our city!
1:00 pm - Union Square: Prism of the City
Led by Lapham’s Quarterly
This in-person guided group walk explores the multifaceted history of Union Square. We’ll take a close look at its plazas and monuments, including the statue of Abraham Lincoln and the Tammany Hall Building, and touch upon the rich history of the Square as a site of political activism. On Friday’s tour, we’ll take a close look at the Greenmarket and its evolution; on Sunday’s tour, we’ll hear from representatives of the Union Square Partnership about the Union Square Vision Plan and next steps for this essential ‘prism of the city’, and we’ll end the tour with a close-up look at the Center for Jewish History’s Emma Lazarus exhibit.
3:00 pm - The New School and the Literary and Publishing Worlds of Union Square
Led by John Reed
John Reed—acclaimed novelist, native New Yorker, and preeminent historian of the New School—leads a tour through the the intellectual, literary and publishing worlds of Union Square past and present. Major publishing giants have come and gone, risen and fallen in Union Square and environs, including Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Grove, and many more. Join Reed and Lapham’s Quarterly for a trip through time and cultural landmarks known and unknown, including the Players’ Club, the old and present-day New School, and the place where Hannah Arendt ate lunch.
3:00 pm - Big Onion Tours presents: The Private and Public Worlds of Union Square
Led by Big Onion Tours
In the surefooted guidance of Big Onion Tours, visitors are invited to explore the history and mythology of Union Square. Constructed as a residential district in the decades before the American Civil War, both were designed after London’s fashionable “garden squares”. This walk traces how Union Square grew into a communal urban gathering space, a site of commerce, entertainment, and public demonstrations. Stops could include: the Players Club, Block Beautiful, and the former Tammany Hall headquarters, along with sites associated with the Civil War Draft Riots, Emma Goldman, Stanford White, Peter Cooper, and Andy Warhol.
6:00 pm - New Schools: Radical Educational Institutions in Greenwich Village
Led by Lucie Levine
Greenwich Village is home to some of the first public educational institutions in New York City, from the city’s first free circulating library to the People’s Institute, open to “whatsoever things are true.” The Village’s pedigree as a bastion of free expression has its roots in these institutions, which were at the center of some of the great radical and progressive movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On this tour, we’ll drop by the New School and discuss how opposition to World War I (and to stodgy uptown academia) inspired its creation. We will also visit the first law school in New York City to admit women, an anarchist educational collective on St. Marks Place, and other historic sites.
11:00 am - Andy Warhol’s Union Square
Led by Thomas Kiedrowski
Thomas Kiedrowski, author of Andy Warhol’s New York City, will lead a tour surrounding Andy Warhol’s fascinating life in connection with Union Square. The locations include Warhol-centric Businesses: 33 Union Square West, 860 Broadway; Eateries: 213 Park Ave South, 21 East 16th, 39 Union Square West; Nightlife: 860 Broadway, 126 East 14th. The tour will also speak to the history of Union Square at the time Warhol’s businesses occupied the square. The tour will broadly cover Warhol’s childhood and schooling, career, and rise in becoming the Pope of Pop Art.
1:00 pm - Union Square: Prism of the City
Led by Lapham’s Quarterly
This in-person guided group walk explores the multifaceted history of Union Square. We’ll take a close look at its plazas and monuments, including the statue of Abraham Lincoln and the Tammany Hall Building, and touch upon the rich history of the Square as a site of political activism. On Friday’s tour, we’ll take a close look at the Greenmarket and its evolution; on Sunday’s tour, we’ll hear from representatives of the Union Square Partnership about the Union Square Vision Plan and next steps for this essential ‘prism of the city’, and we’ll end the tour with a close-up look at the Center for Jewish History’s Emma Lazarus exhibit.
3:00 pm - Big Onion Tours presents: The Private and Public Worlds of Union Square
Led by Big Onion Tours
In the surefooted guidance of Big Onion Tours, visitors are invited to explore the history and mythology of Union Square. Constructed as a residential district in the decades before the American Civil War, both were designed after London’s fashionable “garden squares”. This walk traces how Union Square grew into a communal urban gathering space, a site of commerce, entertainment, and public demonstrations. Stops could include: the Players Club, Block Beautiful, and the former Tammany Hall headquarters, along with sites associated with the Civil War Draft Riots, Emma Goldman, Stanford White, Peter Cooper, and Andy Warhol.
These events presented in partnership with the Municipal Art Society of New York / Jane's Walk NYC and the Union Square Partnership. Lapham's Quarterly events are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
