Hoochie Coochie Man

"Hoochie Coochie Man" (originally titled "I'm Your Hoochie Cooche Man") is a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. The song makes reference to hoodoo folk magic elements and makes novel use of a stop-time musical arrangement. It became one of Waters' most popular and identifiable songs and helped secure Dixon's role as Chess Records' chief songwriter.

The song is a classic of Chicago blues and one of Waters' first recordings with a full backing band. Dixon's lyrics build on Waters' earlier use of braggadocio and themes of fortune and sex appeal. The stop-time riff was "soon absorbed into the lingua franca of blues, R&B, jazz, and rock and roll", according to musicologist Robert Palmer, and is used in several popular songs. When Bo Diddley adapted it for "I'm a Man", it became one of the most recognizable musical phrases in blues.

After the song's initial success in 1954, Waters recorded several live and new studio versions. The original appears on the 1958 The Best of Muddy Waters album and many compilations. Numerous musicians have recorded "Hoochie Coochie Man" in a variety of styles, making it one of the most interpreted Waters and Dixon songs. The Blues Foundation and the Grammy Hall of Fame recognize the song for its influence in popular music and the US Library of Congress' National Recording Registry selected it for preservation in 2004.

## Background

Between 1947 and 1954, Muddy Waters charted a number of hit recordings for Chess Records and its Artistocrat predecessor. One of his first singles was "Gypsy Woman", recorded in 1947. The song shows Delta blues guitar-style roots, but the lyrics place "emphasis on supernatural elements—gypsies, fortune telling, [and] luck", according to musicologist Robert Palmer.

> > You know the gypsy woman told me that you your mother's bad luck child Well you havin' a good time now, but that'll be trouble after awhile

Waters expanded the theme in "Louisiana Blues", which was recorded in 1950 with Little Walter accompanying on harmonica. He sings of traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana, to acquire a mojo hand, a hoodoo amulet or talisman; with its magical powers, he hopes "to show all you good lookin' women just how to treat your man". Similar lyrics appeared in "Hoodoo Hoodoo", a 1946 recording by John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson: "Well now I'm goin' down to Louisiana, and buy me another mojo hand". Although Waters was ambivalent about hoodoo, he saw the music as having its own power:

> When you're writin' them songs that are coming from down that way [Mississippi Delta], you can't leave out somethin' about that mojo thing. Because this is what black people really believed in at that time ... even today [circa 1980], when you play the old blues like me, you can't get from around that.

From 1946 to 1951, Willie Dixon sang and played bass with the Big Three Trio. After the group disbanded, he worked for Chess Records as a recording session arranger and bassist. Dixon wrote several songs, but label co-owner Leonard Chess failed to show any interest at first. Finally, in 1953, Chess used two of Dixon's songs: "Too Late", recorded by Little Walter, and "Third Degree", recorded by Eddie Boyd. "Third Degree" became Dixon's first composition to enter the record charts. In September, Waters recorded his "Mad Love (I Want You to Love Me)", which Dixon biographer Mitsutoshi Inaba calls "a test piece for the forthcoming 'Hoochie Coochie Man'" because of its shared lyrical and musical elements. The song became Waters' first record chart success in nearly two years.

The term "hoochie coochie", with variations in the spelling, is used in different contexts. Appearing in the late 19th century, the hoochie coochie was a sexually provocative dance. Don Wilmeth identifies it as "a precursor of the striptease ... from the belly dance but punctuated with bumps and grinds and a combination of exposure, erotic movements, and teasing." By one account, it first appeared at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876 and was a popular attraction at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The dance is associated with entertainers Little Egypt and Sophie Tucker, but by the 1910s it declined in popularity. "Hoochie coochie" is also used to refer to a sexually attractive person or a practitioner of hoodoo. In his autobiography, I Am the Blues, Dixon included "hoochie coochie man" in his examples of a seer or a clairvoyant with a connection to folklore of the American South: "This guy is a hoodoo man, this lady is a witch, this other guy's a hoochie coochie man, she's some kind of voodoo person".

## Composition and recording

Not long after the success of "Mad Love" in November 1953, Dixon approached Leonard Chess with "Hoochie Coochie Man", a new song he felt was right for Waters. Chess responded, "if Muddy likes it, give it to him". At the time, Waters was performing at the Club Zanzibar in Chicago. During an intermission, Dixon showed him the song. According to Dixon, Waters took to the tune immediately because it had so many familiar elements and he was able to learn enough to perform it that night. Jimmy Rogers, who was Waters' second guitarist, remembered that it took a little longer:

> Dixon came to the club and he would hum it to Muddy and write the lyrics out. Muddy would work them around for a while until he got it down where he could understand it and fool around with it. He would be onstage and try it out, do a few licks of it. We were building the arrangement, that's what we were really doing.

On January 7, 1954, Waters entered the recording studio with his band to record the song. Considered the classic Chicago blues band, music critic Bill Janovitz described Waters' group as "a who's who of bluesmen". Waters sings and plays electric guitar along with Rogers, blues harmonica virtuoso Little Walter, and drummer Elgin Evans, all of whom had been performing with Waters since 1951. (Fred Below, who replaced Evans during 1954, is sometimes listed as the drummer.) Pianist Otis Spann, who joined in 1953, and Dixon, in his debut on double bass for Waters' recording session, round out the group. Two takes of the song were recorded. Although there are some moments in the alternate take when a player's timing rushes or drags perceptibly, because the band is so tight, the difference with the master is only six seconds (for a nearly three-minute song).

"Hoochie Coochie Man" follows a sixteen-bar blues progression, which is an expansion of the well-known twelve-bar blues pattern. The first four bars are doubled in length so the harmony remains on the tonic for eight bars or one-half of the sixteen bar progression. Dixon explained that expanding twelve-bar blues was in response to amplification, which gave instruments more sustain. The extra bars also increase the contrasting effect of the repeating stop-time musical figure or riff. For the second eight bars, the song reverts to the last eight of the twelve-bar progression, which functions as a refrain or hook. The different textures provides the tune with a strong contrast, which helps underscore the lyrics. The song is performed at a moderate blues tempo (72 beats per minute) in the key of A. It is notated in time and contains three sixteen-bar sections.

A key feature of the song is the use of stop time, or pauses in the music, during the first half of the progression. This musical device is commonly heard in New Orleans jazz, when the instrumentation briefly stops, allowing for a short instrumental solo before resuming. However, Waters' and Dixon's use of stop time serves to heighten the tension through repetition, followed by a vocal rather than an instrument fill. The accompanying riff, which Dixon described as a five-note figure, is similar to that of "Mad Love". He attributed it to the band and using such a phrase for eight bars was a new approach. Although Palmer comments that the entire group phrases the riff in unison, Boone describes it as a "heavy, unhurried counterpoint by all the instruments together". Campbell identifies the opening as actually having "two competing riffs" or contrapuntal motion, with one played by Little Walter on an amplified harmonica and another by Waters on electric guitar.

For the second eight-bars of the progression, the song follows the standard I–IV–V7 structure, which maintains its connection to traditional blues. The whole band plays it as a shuffle with a triplet rhythm, which Campbell describes as a "free-for-all [with] harmonica trills, guitar riffs, piano chords, thumping bass, [and] shuffle pattern on the drums". He adds that this type of heavy sound was rarely heard in small music combos before rock. However, unlike the polyphony of New Orleans jazz, the instrumentation parallels Waters' aggressive vocal approach and reinforces the lyrics. The players' use of amplification, pushed to the point of distortion, is a key feature of Chicago blues and another rock precedent. In particular, Little Walters' overdriven saxophone-like harmonica playing weaves in and out of the vocal lines, which heightens the drama.

## Lyrics and interpretation

"Hoochie Coochie Man" is characterized as a "self-mythologizing testament" by Janovitz. The narrator boasts of his good fortune and his effect on women as aided by hoodoo. Waters explored similar themes in earlier songs, but his approach was more subtle. According to Palmer, Dixon upped the ante with more "flamboyance, macho posturing, and extra-generous helping of hoodoo sensationalism". Dixon claimed that the idea of a seer was inspired by history and the Bible. The verses in the song's three sixteen-bar sections proceed chronologically. The opening verse starts before the narrator is born and references Waters' 1947 song "Gypsy Woman":

> > The gypsy woman told my mother, before I was born I [sic] got a boy child's comin', gonna be a son of a gun He gonna make pretty womens, [sic] jump an' shout And then the world wanna know, what this all about

As a boy in the South, Dixon recalled gypsies in covered wagons plying their trade from town to town. The fortune tellers would emphasize auspicious circumstances to enhance their earnings, especially when doing readings for pregnant women. In the second section, the narrative is in the present and several references are made to charms used by hoodoo conjurers. These include a black cat bone, a John the conqueror root, and a mojo, the last of which figured in "Louisiana Blues". Their magical powers assure that the gypsy's prophecy will be borne out: women and the rest of world will take notice. The song concludes with a final section which projects the good fortune into the future. The number seven is prominent: on the seventh hour, on the seventh day, etc. The stringing together of sevens is another good omen and is analogous to the seventh son of a seventh son of folklore. Dixon later expanded the theme in his 1955 song "The Seventh Son".

Each section is linked by a refrain or recurring chorus. It functions as a hook and it differs from the usual "free-associative aspect" of traditional blues. Writer Benjamin Filene sees this and Dixon's desire to tell complete stories, with the verses building on each other, as sharing elements of pop music. The chorus, "But you know I'm here, everybody knows I'm here, Well you know I'm the hoochie coochie man, everybody knows I'm here", confirms the narrator's identity as both the subject of the gypsy's prophecy as well as an omnipotent seer himself. Dixon felt that the lyrics expressed part of the audience's unfulfilled desire to brag, while Waters later admitted that they were supposed to have a comic effect. Music historian Ted Gioia points to the underlying theme of sexuality and virility as sociologically significant. He sees it as challenge to the fear of miscegenation in the dying days of racial segregation in the United States. Record producer Marshall Chess took a simpler view: "It was sex. If you have ever seen Muddy then, the effect he had on women [was clear]. Because the blues, you know, has always been a women's market".

## Releases and charts

In early 1954, Chess Records issued "I'm Your Hoochie Cooche Man" backed with "She's So Pretty" on both the standard ten-inch 78 rpm and the newer seven-inch 45 rpm record single formats. It soon became the biggest hit of Waters' career. The single entered Billboard magazine's Rhythm & Blues Records charts on March 13, 1954, and reached number three on the Juke Box chart and number eight on the Best Seller chart. It remained on the charts for 13 weeks, making it Waters' longest charting record up to that time (two more Waters-Dixon songs, "Just Make Love to Me (I Just Want to Make Love to You") and "Close to You", both later also lasted 13 weeks).

Chess included the song on Waters' first album, the 1958 compilation The Best of Muddy Waters, but retitled it "Hoochie Coochie". Numerous later Waters' official compilations contain it, such as Sail On; McKinley Morganfield a.k.a. Muddy Waters; The Chess Box; His Best: 1947 to 1955; The Best of Muddy Waters – The Millennium Collection; The Anthology (1947–1972); Hoochie Coochie Man: The Complete Chess Masters, Vol. 2: 1952–1958; and The Definitive Collection. Marshall Chess arranged for Waters to remake the song using psychedelic rock-style instrumentation for the 1968 album Electric Mud, which was an attempt to reach a new audience. In 1972, Waters recorded an "unplugged" rendition of the song, with Louis Myers on acoustic guitar and George "Mojo" Buford on unamplified harmonica. Chess released it in 1994 on the Waters rarities collection One More Mile. He revisited the song with original guitarist Jimmy Rogers in 1977. They re-recorded it for I'm Ready, the Grammy Award-winning album produced by Johnny Winter.

Waters featured the song in his performances and several live recordings have been issued. His acclaimed At Newport 1960, one of the first live blues albums, includes a rendition by his later band with Spann, Pat Hare, James Cotton, and Francis Clay. Other live albums have versions that span his career with different backup bands. These include Live in 1958 (recorded in England in 1958 with Spann and Chris Barber's trad jazz band, released in 1993 and re-released as Collaboration in 1995); Authorized Bootleg: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium – San Francisco Nov 04–06 1966 (released 2009); The Lost Tapes (recorded 1971, released 1999); Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live (recorded 1977, released 1979); and Live at the Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago 1981 with members of the Rolling Stones (released 2012).

## Influence and recognition

"Hoochie Coochie Man" represents Waters' recording transition from an electrified, but more traditional Delta-based blues of the late 1940s–early 1950s to a newer Chicago blues ensemble sound. The song was important to Dixon's career and signaled a change as well – Chess became convinced of Dixon's value as a songwriter and secured his relationship as such with the label. Waters soon followed up with several variations on the sixteen-bar stop-time arrangement written by Dixon. These include "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "I'm Ready", and "I'm a Natural Born Lover". All of these songs follow a similar lyrical theme and "helped shape Muddy Waters' image as the testosterone king of the blues", according to Gioia.

Bo Diddley modified the song's signature riff for his March 1955 song "I'm a Man". He reworked it as a four-note figure, which is repeated for the entire song without a progression to other chords. Music critic and writer Cub Koda calls it "the most recognizable blues lick in the world". Waters, not to be outdone, responded two months later with an answer song to "I'm a Man", titled "Mannish Boy". "Bo Diddley, he was tracking me down with my beat when he made 'I'm a Man'. That's from 'Hoochie Coochie Man.' Then I got on it with 'Mannish Boy' and just drove him out of my way", Waters recalled. Emphasizing the origin of Bo Diddley's song, Waters sticks to the original first eight-bar phrase from "Hoochie Coochie Man" and includes some of the hoodoo references.

According to Palmer, songwriters adapted the phrase for other artists and it was "soon absorbed into the lingua franca of blues, jazz, and rock and roll". In 1955, songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller used the riff for "Riot in Cell Block Number 9" (later reworked by the Beach Boys as "Student Demonstration Time") and "Framed" for the R&B group the Robins. "Trouble", another Leiber and Stoller composition that uses the riff, was sung by Elvis Presley in the 1958 musical drama film King Creole. American composer Elmer Bernstein quoted the figure in another film, The Man with the Golden Arm, which received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1955. Dixon remarked, "we felt like this was a great achievement for one of these blues phrases to be used in a movie".

As numerous artists recorded it in a variety of styles, "Hoochie Coochie Man" became a blues standard. Janovitz describes the song as "a vital piece of Chicago-style electric blues that links the Delta to rock & roll". Rock musicians are among the many who have interpreted it. In 1984, Waters' original "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. The Foundation noted that "In addition to countless versions by Chicago blues artists, the song has been recorded by performers as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, and jazz organist Jimmy Smith" to which Grove adds B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John P. Hammond, the Allman Brothers Band, and Eric Clapton. A Grammy Hall of Fame Award followed in 1998, which "honor[s] recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance". The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" recognizes the song's influence on rock. Representatives of the music industry and press voted it number 226 for Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2004, the National Recording Preservation Board, advisors to the US Library of Congress, selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry and noted the contributions of the band members.

Blues standard written by Willie Dixon

United States National Recording Registry recordings


Pickawillany

Pickawillany (also spelled Pickawillamy, Pickawillani, or Picqualinni) was an 18th-century Miami Indian village located on the Great Miami River in North America's Ohio Valley near the modern city of Piqua, Ohio. In 1749 an English trading post was established alongside the Miami village, selling goods to neighboring tribes at the site. In 1750, a stockade (Fort Pickawillany) was constructed to protect the post. French and English colonists were competing for control of the fur trade in the Ohio Country as part of their overall struggle for dominance in North America. In less than five years, Pickawillany grew to be one of the largest Native American communities in eastern North America.

The French decided to punish Miami chief Memeskia (also known as La Demoiselle or Old Briton), for rejecting the French alliance and dealing with the English traders, which threatened what had previously been a French monopoly over local commerce. On 21 June 1752, the village and trading post were destroyed in the raid on Pickawillany, also known as the Battle of Pickawillany, when French-allied Indians attacked the village, killing Memeskia and at least one English trader and burning the English stockade and the trading post. Following the attack, the village of Pickawillany was relocated about a mile to the southeast. The city of Piqua, Ohio, was established later near this site.

Pickawillany's destruction directly encouraged greater British fortification and military presence at other outposts in the Ohio Valley, and has been seen as a precursor to the wider British-French conflict that would become the French and Indian War.

## Etymology

The English term Pickawillany derives from pkiiwileni, the Shawnee word for the Miami people – literally, "foreigner". The Miami name for the village (Pinkwaawileniaki) is a direct translation of the Shawnee pekowiiøa or "ash people."

## Establishment and early history

In the two decades preceding the French and Indian War, France struggled to maintain military and economic control of the Ohio Country, which was strategically crucial to lines of supply and communication between Canada and Louisiana. French dominance largely depended on the continued favorable relations between the government of New France and the Native American tribes living in the region, primarily the Miamis (Twightwees), the Wyandots (Hurons), and the Shawnees. English traders from Pennsylvania were able to supply cheaper goods in larger quantities than the French traders could, attracting a greater share of the fur trade and influencing many Ohio tribes to shift their alliance to the English.

In 1739 the Huron leader Orontony relocated his community from Detroit to Junundat and became openly hostile towards the French. In 1747 a combined force of Huron and Miami Indians attacked French outposts including Fort St. Philippe (Fort Miami), which was destroyed. The French forced the Wyandots to abandon Junundat in that year, but they were then faced with the growing influence of the newly-founded Miami community of Pickawillany, under the leadership of Memeskia, a Piankeshaw war chief. Memeskia had gained influence over many in the Miami tribe by encouraging a stronger trade relationship with the English rather than the French. The Miami elder Cold Foot had maintained loyalty to the French for many years, but English goods were cheaper and more readily available than those of the French, leading many tribes to settle closer to English trading posts.

In late 1747 Memeskia led a group of Miami Indians about 100 miles (160 km) to the southeast from their community at Kekionga on the Maumee River, to settle Pickawillany on the west bank of the Great Miami River, opposite the mouth of what was later named Loramie Creek. The village was at the convergence of several trading trails in western Ohio, giving it unusual influence over trade in the region. In addition, it was the southern terminus of three key portages (overland carrying places between rivers) that provided access between the Ohio/Great Miami River systems and Lake Erie and other points to the north and west. Traveling by water from the east and the headwaters of the Ohio River toward the western Great Lakes, it would have been almost a necessity to pass through Pickawillany to get from one region to the other. Pickawillany was near enough to the Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Illinois, and other tribes for trade, and accessible to the English traders of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Its location was a threat to the French, as it was easily accessible by many tribes allied to the French, and brought English traders far into territory the French considered theirs. However, it was also deep in Ohio Country, too far from English colonial territory to expect military assistance if attacked.

William Trent states that

> the Miamis had a village on the west side of the Great Miami river, at the mouth of what afterward became known as Loramies creek. That point was visited by the coureurs des bois at an early day, and had become a place of note long previous to the alliance of the Miamis with the English. From the latter it received the name of "Tawixtwi town", until the building of a stockade, when it was called Pickawillany, although in some accounts we find the name "Picktown" applied to it.

In July 1748, fifty-five representatives of the Six Nations, Delawares, Shawnees, Nanticokes, and Twightwees met at the courthouse in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and signed a peace treaty with the Pennsylvania Provincial Council. This treaty guaranteed commercial access to tribes across the Ohio Valley as far west as the Wabash River, an unprecedented diplomatic achievement for the English. The Indian leaders promised to try to persuade other Ohio communities to leave the French and join a pro-English alliance.

## Visit by Céloron de Blainville, 1749

In response to these new English alliances, the Governor of New France, Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois decided to send a military force down the Ohio River to persuade and intimidate the main Native American communities to remain loyal to France. In mid-1749 Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, leading a force of eight officers, six cadets, an armorer, 20 soldiers, 180 Canadians, 30 Iroquois and 25 Abenakis, moved down the Ohio River on a flotilla of 23 large boats and birch-bark canoes, on his "lead plate expedition," burying lead plates at six locations where major tributaries entered the Ohio. The plates were inscribed to claim the area for France. Céloron also sought out English traders and warned them to leave this territory which belonged to France.

After visiting Kittanning, Logstown and Lower Shawneetown and receiving a cool response, Céloron's party traveled up the Great Miami River (which Bonnecamps referred to as the "rocky river", Rivière a la Roche) to Pickawillany, arriving there on 13 September. Céloron immediately found two "English soldiers" living in Pickawillany and sent them away. Of the Miami living in Pickawillany, Father Bonnecamps remarks, "This band is not numerous; it consists at most of 40 or 50 men."

Céloron's party spent a week camped outside the town. He wanted to persuade Memeskia to lead his people back to Kekionga, and some of the Miamis said they "had not much objection". At one point he proposed that the Miamis accompany his party north to Detroit, emphasizing that the English could not be trusted. Céloron dispensed the last of his trade goods to the Miamis, with promises of much more if the Miamis would declare loyalty to the French and return to Kekionga. Memeskia promised to return the following spring, "for the season is too far advanced." After this, Memeskia refused to meet with him again, and instead Céloron met with other Miami leaders who then sent messages to Memeskia.

On 20 September, Céloron gave up, burned his canoes and set off with his party overland to Detroit. On the way, he stopped at Kekionga and met with Chief Cold Foot, telling him that Memeskia had made a vague promise to return to the French. Cold Foot told Céloron that "La Demoiselle is a liar. It is the source of all my grief to be the only one who loves you, and to see all the nations of the south let loose against the French." Céloron later remarked, speaking in general about his journey, that "the nations of these localities are very badly disposed towards the French, and are entirely devoted to the English."

## Fort and trading post, 1749-1750

In November 1749, George Croghan, an Irish trader and Pennsylvania Indian agent, established a trading post alongside the village. According to a letter from Governor Robert Dinwiddie, when the French learned that Croghan had established a trading post at Pickawillany, they offered a price for Croghan's capture or for his scalp:

> Two Prisoners who had been taken by the French, and had made their Escape from the French Officer at Lake Erie ... brought News that the French offered a large sum of Money to any person who would bring them the said Croghan and Andrew Montour the Interpreter alive, or if dead their scalps.

In late 1750, the Pennsylvania Provincial Council sent gifts to the people of Pickawillany and requested permission to build a "strong house", a fortified enclosure designed to withstand attack, but technically not a fortress, as the pacifist Philadelphia Quakers felt that they could not ethically finance any military structures. Nonetheless, this building was referred to by everyone else as "Fort Pickawillany." William Trent describes the fort's construction in 1750:

> Having obtained permission from the Indians, the English, in the fall of 1750, began the erection of a stockade, as a place of protection, in case of sudden attack, both for their persons and property. When the main building was completed, it was surrounded with a high wall of split logs, having three gateways. Within the inclosure the traders dug a well, which furnished an abundant supply of fresh water during the fall, winter, and spring, but failed in summer. At this time Pickawillany contained four hundred Indian families, and was the residence of the principal chief of the Miami Confederacy.

With the security of a stockade fort, traders began building storehouses to contain their trade goods and to store the skins and furs they received in trade from the Indians. Trent describes these storehouses as

> ordinary log cabins, the trading being carried on below, while an "upper storey" or "loft" was used as a place to store away skins and combustible material ... The articles of traffic on the part of the whites were firearms, gunpowder, lead, ball, knives, rings, rum, medals, hatchets, flints, blades, cooking utensils, shirts and other articles of wearing apparel, tobacco pipes, paint, etc .... Some of the traders would run regular "caravans" of fifteen or twenty horses, making several trips during the year.

The presence of a fort and a trading post attracted many English traders to the village seeking a new source of skins and furs. Hunters from many nearby communities began visiting Pickawillany regularly to trade, and the accumulation of European trade goods gave Memeskia increased influence over neighboring tribes, as he could strengthen alliances through gift-giving, a standard Native American practice. The French became increasingly concerned that the Miamis were considering "a general revolt against the French in pursuance of their plan of making themselves masters of all the upcountry."

## Visit by John Patten, 1750

In November 1750 John Patten, a Pennsylvania trader, stopped at Pickawillany on his way to trade with Native communities on the St. Marys River. While trading with the Indians, Patten was invited to Fort St. Philippe, where he was arrested and his goods confiscated. He was later taken to Quebec and examined by Governor La Jonquiere and his Council at Château Vaudreuil in Montreal on 19 June 1751. Patten stated that at Pickawillany he "found upwards of fifty Traders, including servants, lodging in cabins belonging to the Miamis Indians; that the name of their chief was La Demoiselle; that those cabins were in a fort." Patten was then sent to France, and in 1752 was released through the help of friends, whereupon he returned to Pennsylvania.

In his deposition to the Pennsylvania Assembly on 17 October 1752, Patten referred to Pickawillany as "the Twightwee Town, which lies near the head of that Western branch of the Ohio called by the English, Miamis River." He reported that "this Miami Town was computed to have about 200 fighting men, all of the Twightwee Nation, settled therein, and are some of those who left the French seven or eight years ago [from 1752], in order to trade with the English."

## Visit by Christopher Gist, 1751

Christopher Gist visited the town in February 1751, and reported:

> This Town is situate on the NW Side of the Big Miamee River and about 100 M from the mouth thereof; it consists of about 400 Families and daily increasing it is one of the strongest Towns upon this part of the Continent ... The Land on the Great Miamee River is very rich level and well timbered, some of the finest Meadows that can be .... The Grass here grows to a great Height in the clear fields, of which there are a great number, & the Bottoms are full of white Clover, wild Rye and Blue Grass.

While he was there, four Ottawa Indians sent as emissaries by the French arrived, and a council was held with Memeskia. The Ottawas presented gifts and requested that Memeskia reconsider his alliance with the English. Croghan and Gist were present at the council, at which both the French and English flags were displayed. After hearing the French message, the speaker of the Miamis replied,

> Brothers of the Ottaways, You are always differing with the French Yourselves, and yet you listen to what They say, but we will let you know by these four Strings of Wampum that We will not hear anything they Say to Us, nor do anything they Bid Us .... As You threaten Us with War in the Spring We tell You that if You are angry we are ready to receive You, and resolve to die here before We will go to You.

The next day the French flag was removed and the Ottawas were sent home. Gist and Croghan finalized a treaty of friendship with Memeskia: "We had Drawn Articles of Peace and Alliance between the English and the Wawaughtanneys and Pyankashees; the Indentures were signed and selad [sealed] and delivered on both sides." Leaders of Pickawillany were invited to attend a conference at Logstown in May 1751, where Croghan distributed gifts and further cemented the relationship between the English and the Ohio Valley Indian communities.

On 1 March, as Gist was preparing to leave Pickawillany, the speaker of the Miamis sent a message to Governor Dinwiddie, which began: "Brothers our Hearts are glad that you have taken notice of Us, and surely Brothers we hope that you will Order a Smith to settle here to mend our Guns and Hatchets." By mid-1752 a gunsmith (Thomas Burney) and a blacksmith were working at Pickawillany, employed by Croghan. Burney had previously established a forge at the Wyandot community of Muskingum, where Gist had met him in December 1750.

## French plans to attack Pickawillany

`Céloron de Blainville's failed attempt to persuade Memeskia to return to French loyalty led to the French decision to attack the village, as a punishment and a warning to other Native communities defecting to the English. Soon after Céloron's return, reports of French military movements began to alarm English colonial authorities. In July 1751, reports reached New York governor George Clinton that a French force of "twelve Hundred French & Two Hundred of Orondacks passed by Oswego about a fortnight ago with a design to cut off (as I understand) some of the Nations of Indians to the Westward, who are Strongly attached to the British Interest, also to Stop the Philadelphians building at, or near Ohio." Benjamin Stoddert reported to Sir William Johnson that "two hundred Orondack Indians under the command of Monsieur Belletre and Chevalier Longville ... design against a village of the Twightwees where the English are building a trading-house." Two escaped English prisoners, Morris Turner and Ralph Kilgore, reported to Governor Dinwiddie "that in the Spring an army of five hundred Frenchmen would march to Ohio, and either bring back the Shawnees and Owendats (Wyandots) or kill them." In fact, French troops and Ottawa warriors under the command of Céloron de Blainville assembled at Detroit, but the Indians complained that the force did not have sufficient strength to attack Pickawillany and refused to proceed.`

In late 1751, François-Marie Picoté de Belestre led a raiding party of seventeen warriors to Pickawillany, but found the town nearly deserted, as most of the population was away hunting. They captured two English traders and killed a Miami man and a woman. In response, Memeskia had three captured French soldiers killed, cut off the ears of a fourth prisoner, and sent him back to Canada as a warning to the Governor of New France.

The Governor General of New France, Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel de la Jonquière, immediately began preparing another attack on Pickawillany, but plans were incomplete when he died on 17 March 1752. His successor, Charles III Le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil, worked unsuccessfully to put together a force of French troops and Indian warriors to attack the town again. The French were unable to persuade Ottawa leaders to launch an attack on Pickawillany, even though spies reported on the numbers of fighting men and defenses of the town: "They are 140 men, the others eighty, and have but two English among them without cannon or artillery."

On 23 May 1752, Lieutenant John Mills wrote to Pennsylvania Governor James Hamilton to inform him "By some foreign Indians, just arrived, I am told that ... [Monsieur St. Orr, a French officer] is gone back to Canada to conduct an Army back, to be employed against them [the Twightwees]." Hamilton was skeptical, but in any case did not have the power to send assistance to the Miami Indians at Pickawillany without the approval of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council, and no action was taken.

## Raid on Pickawillany, 1752

In the winter of 1751–1752, Charles Michel de Langlade, a 23-year-old Métis coureur de bois seeking to advance his military career, began assembling a war party of French-allied Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe warriors, traveling as far as Saginaw Bay to enlist the support of Ottawa there. Langlade knew that the Governor of New France had been trying to implement a plan to attack and destroy the village, but that he had been unable to recruit Indian warriors. Langlade was well-connected to the Ottawa (his maternal grandfather was Nissowaquet, an Ottawa war chief), and spoke the Odawa dialect fluently. He was able to persuade Ottawa warriors to attack Pickawillany by characterizing the raid as a gesture of friendship towards Onontio, the French governor. Langlade's plan to attack Pickawillany was carried out without the knowledge of the Canadian government. At the time of the raid he was only a cadet in the colonial regulars, and held no official rank.

On 7 June, Langlade and a force of 272 Ottawa reached Detroit, where about 30 of the Indians deserted, having heard that there was a smallpox epidemic among the Miamis. The Miamis later alleged that thirty French soldiers accompanied the Indians but did not take part in the raid.

Early on the morning of 21 June 1752, Langlade arrived at the village with 240 Indians and one other unidentified Frenchman. They lay in wait until most of the village's population was outside the fort or working in the cornfields. Launching their attack at about 9 a.m., the warriors killed 13 Miami men and captured four women. About twenty men and boys, including five English traders, took refuge in the fort, but three traders locked themselves in a cabin, and although they had guns and ammunition, were too frightened to open fire, and were eventually captured. The attackers negotiated terms of surrender with those inside the fort, presenting wampum belts as a token of good faith and promising that if they gave up the traders, the attackers would return the four captured Miami women, take the traders and leave. As they were heavily outnumbered and had no water, the fort's well having gone dry, the Miamis decided to hand over three of the five English traders, one of whom (a blacksmith) was badly injured from a gunshot wound to his abdomen. The Ottawas killed this man, cut out his heart and ate it in front of the Miami men, to atone for the death of Ottawa warriors killed in the attack. Among Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples, the hearts of the victims were often devoured to add the power of the deceased to whoever consumed them. Two other traders, gunsmith Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, "whom the Indians hid," escaped with the help of the Miamis, fled "during the night" and made their way to Lower Shawneetown.

Langlade's men then seized the Miami chief Memeskia, and he was killed, boiled and eaten "within a hundred yards of the fort" in front of his Miami men. This act represented a symbolic re-incorporation of Memeskia into the French alliance. One source reports that they killed two more of the English traders. Afterward the Ottawa released the Miami women, as well as Memeskia's wife and son, burned the English stockade and the trading post and left for Detroit with the captured Englishmen and £3000 worth of trade goods (more than \$300,000 worth in today's dollars).

The trader William Ives passed by the town the next night and reported later to William Trent that "the white men's houses were all on fire, and that he heard no noise in the Fort," although there was one gunshot and someone calling out. Trent met Thomas Burney and Andrew McBrey at Lower Shawneetown on 6 July and questioned them about the raid. At Lower Shawneetown on 29 July, Trent met "the young Pianguisha king, Musheguanockque, or the Turtle, two more men, Old Britain's wife and son, with about a dozen women and their children." Trent refers to Memeskia's son as Ellonagoa Pyangeacha.

### Contemporary accounts of the raid

Various contemporary sources report widely differing numbers of casualties and prisoners, in addition to other details. Thomas Burney is the principal source for the English accounts; William Trent based his statements on what he learned when he spoke to Burney and Andrew McBrey in Lower Shawneetown (it is not known how much McBrey contributed to the narrative). Newspaper articles published in late 1752 are based on statements by Burney or Trent, as are letters from Governor Dinwiddie and other Pennsylvania leaders. A brief statement made by five English traders who were captured (some accounts list only four) was made in a deposition on 2 February 1753.

French accounts are probably based heavily on Langlade's reports, together with some information from Indians who accompanied him. Langlade sent his journal, in which he described the raid, to the Marquis Duquesne, however it has been lost. Interestingly, Langlade's memoir, published in 1876 and based on recollections of Langlade's grandson, does not mention the raid.

### English accounts

William Trent, in his journal, makes no mention of Langlade, but instead states that the attack was led by a "Monsieur St. Orr, afterward distinguished in the French and Indian war." St. Orr had been selected to lead the raid but was unable to persuade the Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians to accompany him.

Thomas Burney, one of the two English survivors, reported on the raid to Captain Robert Callender in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on 29 August, who in turn wrote to Governor Dinwiddie with the following statement:

> Last night, Thomas Burney, who lately resided at the Twightwees' town in Allegheny, came here and gives the following account of the unhappy affair that was lately transacted there: On the twenty-first day of June last, early in the morning, two Frenchmen and about two hundred and forty Indians came to the Twightwees' town, and in a hostile manner attacked the people there residing. In the skirmish there was one white man and fourteen Indians killed, and five white men taken prisoners.

Burney later presented a letter to Governor Dinwiddie, supposedly from the Miamis but probably written by Burney himself, describing the raid:

> The French and French Indians ... engaged our Fort at a time when all our Warriors and briskest Men were out a hunting. They had two hundred and forty fighting Men, appeared suddenly, and took us on Surprize, when they had sent us Wampum and a fine French Coat in Token of Peace and good Will, just to deceive and draw our People out, and then fall on us, as a more weak and defenceless Part; being only twenty Men able to bear Arms, and nine of them were our Brothers, the English, who helped us much. But their Stores and Houses being on the outside of our Fort, our enemies plundered them, and took six of our Brothers', the English's, Goods, and, to our great Loss, their Powder and Lead; and killed one of them English, & scalped him. They kill'd our great Pianckosha King, whom we called Old Britain, for his great Love to his Brothers, the English ... There were but two French men appear'd among the Indians in Time of Battle, altho' we understand there were thirty men within two Miles of us, all the Time of Action, who were ready to receive their share of the Plunder.

The four existing newspaper articles (all from November, 1752) focus heavily on the "acts of barbarity" of the murder of captives, the mutilation of corpses, and the cannibalizing of an English trader and of Chief Memeskia. In one article, William Trent reported that the fingers of the dead British trader were cut off and kept by Langlade's warriors. The papers emphasize that counterattacks were in preparation by the Native American tribes allied with the English. The New York Gazette says that the "Six Nations have not yet declared war, but have called in all their warriors, and are making preparations." Mobilization of European troops would have been controversial and was not being contemplated. Newspapers reported that the Six Nations and allied Indians in the Ohio Country had taken a "solemn oath to eat every Frenchman they can lay their hands on, and not to leave a man, woman, or child of the Tawaw [Ottawa] Nation alive."

The five English traders captured at Pickawillany made the following statement in Philadelphia on 2 February 1753:

> They were trading ... with the Five Indian Nations on the River Ohio ... when they were met, on the 22nd of June 1752, by a party of 170 Canada-French and some Indians, having a French officer at their head named Langlade who took these Declarants Prisoners. There were two other men of Philadelphia in Company with these Declarants, vizt. Andrew Browne and Alexander MacDonald, both whom the Indians of the French party kill'd by the Officer's order and cut off their Scalps. The French party seiz'd all the goods belonging to these Declarants ... Besides which the French kill'd 30 horses belonging to all five of them ... And these Declarants themselves were carried Prisoners to ... Quebec ... and were there thrown into a dark dungeon with only straw to lay upon.

### French accounts

A letter from The Baron de Longueuil on 18 August 1752, reports:

> A party of about 210 savages of Missilimakinac attacked the Fort of La Demoiselle, who is dead; and they destroyed about 26; and the others asked for pardon ... I will add, My Lord, that among the number of savages who are reported to be killed there, were six English Traders, whose magazines were destroyed by our savages.

On 2 September 1752, Commandant Jean-Jacques de Macarty-Mactigue wrote to Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial, describing the raid:

> After the Ottawa attacked the Great Miami Village, the ... Ottawa, having captured four Miami women, proposed to give them up in exchange for the English. This the Miami did, giving up seven English, one of whom was wounded. These the Ottawa killed and pillaged. The Miami promised not to return and attack the Chippewa, saying, "I do not know how our father will act. We have lost many people and he is the cause. We do not say that we will not return.

François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery wrote about the raid to Vaudreuil on 3 October 1752:

> Toward the end of May, the Chippewa and Ottawa of Mackinac, to the number of two hundred men, attacked the Miami of Great Miami River. This blow was not of great account as they killed only five or six men. But what was better was their killing of three English and taking six prisoners after seizing their merchandise. Of the six, the Miami gave up four to them after the action, to get back four of their women who had been taken. One of these English was eaten by the Chippewa who had lost men ... But I would not venture to certify this last news, which I heard only from the Indians.

## Aftermath

Memeskia's wife and son were released by Langlade, and went to Lower Shawneetown, where Trent saw them on 29 July. The Pennsylvania Council later sent them gifts in condolence of the death of Memeskia. Langlade garnered significant fame and praise following the raid, and in 1755 was promoted to ensign and given a full military pension. He participated in (by his own account) 99 different military engagements during his lengthy career. Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville wrote of Langlade: "He is acknowledged here to be very brave, to have much influence on the minds of the Indians, and to be very zealous when ordered to do anything."

A month after the raid, William Trent visited the abandoned town, accompanied by Thomas Burney and 20 Indians, arriving on 20 July. They found French flags flying over the deserted fort, which they replaced with British flags, and Trent recovered a few trade goods that had been abandoned by the attackers. Following the attack, the Miami and English abandoned the site. The village of Pickawillany was relocated about two miles to the southwest. The city of Piqua, Ohio developed later near the Miami's second site of this village.

The five English traders who were captured (Joseph Stevens, George Henry, John Evans, James Devoy, and Owen Nicholson) later stated that Langlade took them "to Quebec, and from thence sent them to La Rochelle, in Old France, where they were released by the English ambassador, and by him sent to London, from whence they got a passage to this place." Andrew McBryer, the second English survivor of the raid, was reported by one source to have been captured by French soldiers and Indians in late 1752. A second source says he was captured at Christopher Gist's settlement near Winchester, Virginia in 1754. In 1756 George Croghan, facing bankruptcy after the destruction of his trading posts at Pickawillany in 1752 and Lower Shawneetown in 1754, made an account of his losses, stating that at Pickawillany he lost goods amounting to 331 pounds and 15 shillings, which were "in the hands of Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryar."

By June 1753, Thomas Burney was operating a blacksmith's forge at Logstown. On 28 March 1754, he enlisted as a private in George Washington's regiment in the Virginia Militia and was employed briefly as a messenger. He served under Captain Andrew Lewis at the Battle of Fort Necessity in July 1754 and in November he applied for an officer's commission, which was denied. In a letter of 13 November 1754, from Governor Robert Dinwiddie to Maryland Governor Horatio Sharpe, Dinwiddie mentions that "The bearer hereof, Thos. Burney, lived some years among the Twightees [Miami], as a blacksmith." Burney was killed at the Battle of the Monongahela on 9 July 1755.

## Later history

The remains of Pickawillany may have been the site of a 1763 battle during the French and Indian War, described by Black Hoof to Colonel John Johnston:

> In the French War ... a bloody battle was fought on the present farm of Colonel Johnston at Upper Piqua ... The Miamis, Wyandots, Ottawas and other northern tribes adhered to the French, made a stand here and fortified, the Canadian traders and French assisting. The Delawares, Shawanese, Munseys, part of the Senecas residing in Pennsylvania, Cherokees, Catawbas, etc., adhering to the English interest with the English traders, attacked the French and Indians. The siege continued for more than a week; the fort stood out and could not be taken. Many were slain, the assailants suffering most severely. The besieged lost a number, and all their exposed property was burnt and destroyed. The Shawnese chief, Black Hoof, one of the besiegers, informed Colonel Johnston that the ground around was strewn with bullets, so that basketfuls could have been gathered. Soon after this contest the Miamis and their allies left this part of the country ... and never returned.

A few years later, the French commander of the fort at Vincennes, Indiana, sent traders to establish a trading post on the site of Pickawillany. At the same time, the French made efforts to establish an alliance with the Miami Indians living in nearby Piqua, "lavishing upon them a very large amount of money and a great variety of costly presents." The post did not profit much, however, until 1769, when Pierre-Louis de Lorimier established a store there. Eventually a small community grew up around the store, known as "Loramie's Station". A branch of the Great Miami River on which the community stood was known as Loramie Creek. During the Illinois Campaign, in 1782, George Rogers Clark destroyed Loramie's Station as well as Piqua and several other Miami communities.

General Anthony Wayne built a small fort at the site of Pickawillany in the fall of 1794, but it was abandoned a year later after the signing of the Treaty of Greenville. Settlers moving west after the American Revolutionary War arrived in the area in 1798 and established a town called Washington. The name was changed to Piqua in 1823.

In August 1795, Chief Little Turtle (Michikinikwa), at Greeneville, Ohio, reportedly said, "You discovered on the Great Miami traces of an old fort. It was not a French fort, brother, it was a fort built by me." Historians believe this is an error in translation, and that he said "a fort built by Mishikinakwa (The Turtle)," the name of an early Miami leader (also written Musheguanockque) known to have been at Pickawillany, who escaped to Lower Shawneetown after the raid.

## Archeological investigations

Between 2002 and 2011, extensive work was done on a 37.5 acres (152,000 m<sup>2</sup>) tract purchased by the State of Ohio in 1999, to be included in the Piqua Historical Area State Memorial and overseen by the Ohio Historical Society. The site has been actively farmed since the mid-19th century and no visible traces of Pickawillany remain.

Using remote sensing, magnetometer, electrical resistance and ground penetrating radar surveys, over 1500 artifacts have been recovered, including musket balls, lead scrap, small brass ornamental items called tinkler cones, brass arrow points, gunflints, and iron tools. Remote sensing data has located several sub-surface anomalies that may represent parts of building foundations, buried cellars and a well. The ongoing project is intended to identify the locations of important structures and activity areas.

Between 2009 and 2011 work centered on a number of large anomalies located within about 25 metres (82 ft) from one another that were identified during previous magnetometer surveys. These are all within an area where the data suggests that the English traders were active. Artifacts recovered in 2009 included a brass finger ring set with a faceted green glass stone, French style gunflints, brass arrow points (including a very rare stemmed type), a brass and iron hook about 40 inches (100 cm) long, a stone tobacco pipe, a number of glass and ceramic beads, and two butt plates from French muskets dated to between 1699 and 1745.

Of particular interest was the discovery of a blacksmith's hammer in 2011. Thomas Burney, one of the two English survivors of the raid, was a gunsmith, and the English trader whose heart was eaten by Ojibwe Indians was a blacksmith. Other ironmongery found at the site may have come from a trash pit near the blacksmith's shop.

Three iron axes stamped with the letter "B" have been found in the Upper Piqua area or in the vicinity of the Pickawillany site, turned up during farming activities over the years. The "B" stamp is unique to that local area since no other sources have been found which mention this particular mark. The fact that Thomas Burney practiced blacksmithing in the area and the unique presence of the stamp would suggest that Burney himself manufactured these axes.

## See also

- Charles Michel de Langlade
- Memeskia
- Miami people
- William Trent

Former Native American populated places in the United States


Bryant Park

Bryant Park is a 9.6-acre (39,000 m2) public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Privately managed, it is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The eastern half of Bryant Park is occupied by the Main Branch of the New York Public Library. The western half, which contains a lawn, shaded walkways, and amenities such as a carousel, is located entirely over an underground structure that houses the library's stacks. The park hosts several events, including a seasonal "Winter Village" with an ice rink and shops during the winter.

The first park at the site was opened in 1847 and was called Reservoir Square due to its proximity to the Croton Distributing Reservoir. Reservoir Square contained the New York Crystal Palace, which hosted the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in 1853 and burned down in 1858. The square was renamed in 1884 for abolitionist and journalist William Cullen Bryant. The reservoir was demolished in 1900 and the New York Public Library's main branch was built on the site, opening in 1911. Bryant Park was rebuilt in 1933–1934 to a plan by Lusby Simpson. After a period of decline, it was restored in 1988–1992 by architecture firms Hanna/Olin Ltd. and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, during which the park was rebuilt and the library's stacks were built underneath. Further improvements were made in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Though it is owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Bryant Park is managed by the private not-for-profit organization Bryant Park Corporation, which was founded in 1980 and led the restoration of Bryant Park. The park is cited as a model for the success of public-private partnerships. The park is both a National Register of Historic Places listing and a New York City designated landmark.

## History

### Early history

In 1686, when the area was still a wilderness, New York's colonial governor, Thomas Dongan, designated the area now known as Bryant Park as a public space. George Washington's troops crossed the area while retreating from the Battle of Long Island in 1776. The road upon which Washington's troops retreated traversed the park site diagonally. The city acquired the land in 1822. Beginning in 1823, Bryant Park was designated a potter's field (a graveyard for the poor) and remained so until 1840, when thousands of bodies were moved to Wards Island.

The first park at this site opened in 1847, though that park was never legally named. It was called "Reservoir Square" after the Croton Distributing Reservoir, which was erected on the eastern side of the park site due to its elevated location. In 1853, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations with the New York Crystal Palace, featuring thousands of exhibitors, took place in the park. The Crystal Palace, also known as the Great Exhibition Hall, burned down in 1858. The Latting Observatory was also constructed in the park as part of the 1853 Exhibition, and was also burned down in 1856. The square was used for military drills during the American Civil War, and was the site of some of the New York City draft riots of July 1863, when the Colored Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street was burned down.

Reservoir Square was renovated in 1870–1871, during which the modern-day park had been laid out. Several additional structures were planned for Reservoir Square, but never built. These included an 1870 plan for new armory for the 7th New York Militia, an 1880 plan for an opera house, another plan in 1881 for a New York Historical Society building, an 1893 plan for relocating the New York City Hall building, and a 1903 plan for a general post office.

### Late 19th and early 20th centuries

#### Renaming and library construction

In 1884, Reservoir Square was renamed Bryant Park, to honor the New York Evening Post editor and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant. Around the same time as the park's renaming, in 1883, plans emerged to build a library in Bryant Park, atop the site of the reservoir. The library would be funded by Samuel J. Tilden. This was opposed somewhat by property owners, who wanted to extend the park eastward onto the reservoir site. Nevertheless, by the 1890s, the reservoir was slated for demolition. When the New York Public Library was founded in 1895, its founders wanted an imposing main branch building. The trustees of the libraries chose to build the branch at the eastern end of Bryant Park, along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, because it was centrally located between the Astor and Lenox Libraries, the library's direct predecessors. The architects of the building, Carrère and Hastings, also planned to convert the western border along Sixth Avenue into a pedestrian arcade with a flower market, while the central portion of Bryant Park would have housed sculptures and statues. However, these plans were cancelled as a result of opposition.The reservoir was torn down by 1900, and construction started on the library. In conjunction with the library's construction, several improvements were made to the park, such as terrace gardens, public facilities, and kiosks, as well as a raised terrace adjoining the library on the eastern portion of the park. Since Bryant Park itself was located several feet above the surrounding streets, an iron fence, hedge, and embankment wall were built on the north, west, and south borders to separate the park from the bordering sidewalks. Benches were also installed along the retaining walls. Bryant Park's interior was split into three lawns, divided by a pair of west–east gravel paths that aligned roughly with the sidewalks of 41st Street on the west end of the park. Four stone stairways were built: one each from Sixth Avenue's intersections with 40th and 42nd Streets, and one each from 40th and 42nd Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. In addition, 42nd Street was widened in 1910, necessitating the relocation of the fence on Bryant Park's northern border and the removal of plants there. The NYPL's Main Branch was opened on May 23, 1911.

#### Infrastructure and further improvements

Due to its central location in Midtown Manhattan, several transit lines and infrastructure projects were also built around Bryant Park. The first of these was the Sixth Avenue Elevated railway, which opened in 1878. The city's first subway line, now part of the 42nd Street Shuttle, was opened in 1904 by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and ran directly under 42nd Street. In the 1910s, the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now PATH) also planned to extend their Uptown Hudson Tubes from Herald Square to Grand Central Terminal, with intermediate stations near Bryant Park's northeast and southwest corners, though this plan was never realized.

The Catskill Aqueduct water tunnel was built under Bryant Park in the early 1910s. Once the work was complete, the affected sections of Bryant Park were restored. During World War I, Bryant Park was frequently used for patriotic rallies, and a "war garden" and a "recreation building" for Allied soldiers was erected in the park. After the end of the war in 1920, an experimental garden was placed in the park and the recreation building was destroyed. During construction of the IRT Flushing Line in the 1920s, the northern segment of Bryant Park was partly closed for four years while the subway line was constructed directly underneath. The subway tunnel ran 35 feet (11 m) below ground level with a station at the eastern edge of the park, at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. During construction, workers took precautions to avoid interrupting the flow of traffic above ground and interfering with preexisting tunnels. The Fifth Avenue station opened in 1926, while the tunnel under Bryant Park to Times Square opened the following year. In January 1927, after the section of the Flushing Line under Bryant Park was complete, plans were announced for a restoration of the park's northern section.

### 1930s restoration

By the 1930s, Bryant Park was suffering from neglect and was considered disreputable, as the Sixth Avenue elevated literally overshadowed the park. Over a period of 10 years, about 100 separate plans for Bryant Park's renovation were proposed, but never enacted. In an attempt to revitalize the park, the George Washington Bicentennial Planning Committee and Sears filed plans for a replica of lower Manhattan's Federal Hall in early 1932. During the construction of the replica, part of the park was fenced off. The Dr. Marion Sims and Washington Irving statues were removed; the statues were later found under the Williamsburg Bridge. The replica was opened to the public in May 1932, charging an admission fee for entry. That November, Manhattan parks commissioner Walter R. Herrick formally notified Sears that the replica had to be torn down, because he did not approve of its proposed conversion into a Great Depression relief center. By the next year, the Bicentennial Committee's funds had been exhausted. The replica was torn down in mid-1933.

In an attempt to engage unemployed architects, the Architects' Emergency Committee held a competition for the redesign of Bryant Park in 1933. The winning design was submitted by Lusby Simpson, of Queens. However, due to a lack of funding, the winning design was not implemented immediately. In February 1934, under the leadership of newly appointed parks commissioner Robert Moses, work was started on Simpson's plan. The renovated park featured a great lawn, as well as hedges and later an iron fence that separated the park from the surrounding city streets. Two entrances each were added from 40th and 42nd Streets. As part of the project, 270 trees were placed around the park. Moses also placed the park's statues along 40th and 42nd Streets so as to block sight lines from these streets. To save money, the project hired workers from the Civil Works Administration, an unemployment relief program. The renovation was complete by late 1934, and after a short postponement, the park reopened that September 15.

Parts of the park were closed in the late 1930s due to transit changes on Sixth Avenue; the elevated was torn down in 1938, and the construction of the underground Sixth Avenue subway line occurred around the same time. The Sixth Avenue subway opened in 1940. A New Yorker article remarked in 1936 that during the prior 14 years, "Bryant Park has been closed to the public [...] for half that time."

### Mid-20th century

Public events in Bryant Park were held through the mid-20th century. For instance, in 1944 during World War II, an aircraft demonstration was held in the park. Outdoor summer concerts in Bryant Park were started in 1948 by Philip Lieson Miller, a musicologist at the New York Public Library. These concerts took place from 12 to 2 p.m. on weekdays from July through September. On October 15, 1969, forty thousand people attended a rally in Bryant Park as part of the nationwide Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. Another large event, the Big Apple Circus, was proposed to be held in Bryant Park in 1978, but parks commissioner Gordon Davis denied the circus permission to host a show there, since it would have closed off Bryant Park to the public.

Plans to build parking garages under Bryant Park also surfaced in the mid-20th century, as a means of relieving parking shortages in Midtown Manhattan. The first such plan was made in 1946 when the city conducted a survey to determine the feasibility of such a garage. Parks commissioner Moses opposed the plan. A parking garage was proposed again in 1958, with plans for 1,200 spaces, though Moses also opposed this proposal. This proposal was backed by the Avenue of the Americas Association. However, though Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. supported the proposal, the New York City Planning Commission voted against it in November 1961.

By the 1960s, Bryant Park had entered a state of deterioration, due to a lack of maintenance and its location in a business district with few nighttime activities. In an attempt to deter crime, new lighting was installed in Bryant Park in 1962. Nevertheless, in 1966, parks commissioner Thomas Hoving called a meeting to restore the park, noting its degraded condition. By the 1970s, Bryant Park had been taken over by drug dealers and the homeless, and was considered a no-go area by ordinary citizens and visitors. The condition of the park was so bad that in 1973, parks commissioner Richard M. Clurman threatened to "close Bryant Park and clear it of everybody—until we can get together and make it a place that New Yorkers want it to be." After a man was murdered at the park in 1976, the New York Times noted that gambling and drinking were commonplace at the park. In an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, Jerome Gartner, a coordinator for the Bryant Park Steering Committee, stated that the mugging of a Union Carbide executive in Bryant Park had been quoted as a reason for the company's moving out of New York City.

An initial attempt at cleanup was commenced by the Bryant Park Community Fund in the mid-1970s. Free concerts were added in the hope that it would keep out criminals. The initiative was largely unsuccessful, though, and its funding was nearly depleted by 1977. Another initiative, the Bryant Park Steering Committee, was created in 1977 as a partnership between local businesses and the City University of New York. More New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers were added, and District Attorney Robert Morgenthau agreed to process arrests in Bryant Park more quickly. By 1978, public perception of Bryant Park's safety was slightly better than in previous years, though drug dealers still frequented the park after office workers had gone back to work following their lunch breaks. Furthermore, NYPD officers initially declined to arrest drug users who were nonviolent. Starting in 1979, a coordinated program of amenities, including book and flower markets, landscape improvements, and entertainment activities, was initiated by a parks advocacy group called the Parks Council. Though the Parks Council's activities became popular, drug use and small crimes were still common within the park through the early 1980s. After a group of undercover NYPD officers were stationed in the park starting in 1980, they had made 400 drug-related arrests within six months.

### Late 20th century to present

#### Formation of corporations

The Bryant Park Restoration Corporation was founded in 1980 by Dan Biederman, along with Andrew Heiskell, chairman of Time Inc. and the New York Public Library. The BPRC immediately brought significant changes to remake the park into a place that people wanted to visit, and instituted a rigorous program to clean the park, remove graffiti, and repair physical damage. The BPRC also created a private security staff to confront unlawful behavior. In addition, the BPRC started an outdoor concert series in the summers. By 1982, arrests had decreased significantly compared to two years prior.

Another agency—the Bryant Park Management Corporation, composed of several nearby businesses—was tasked with maintaining the park, spending \$525,000 per year to do so. NYC Parks spent an additional \$250,000 a year on maintenance, the same amount as when the city had sole control over the park's management. In 1983, HBO's president, Frank Biondi, gave Heiskell a \$100,000 check just before the company moved into new headquarters at 1100 Avenue of the Americas, adjacent to the park. At the time, that was the largest donation toward Bryant Park by a private corporation.

#### Renovation

In 1983, in an attempt to draw crowds to the park and raise money for continued maintenance, the BPRC proposed leasing Bryant Park from the city, renovating it, and building a café in the park. The \$18 million renovation was to be executed by an alliance between the BPRC, NYPL, and NYC Parks. Restaurateur Warner LeRoy was to operate the eatery, and he planned to build an 80-foot-tall (24 m), 10,500-square-foot (980 m2) glass café on the park's east side adjacent to the library. In addition, the park would include four smaller food kiosks, a reflecting pool and water fountain, and a dedicated security team.

In 1984, the state passed legislation to allow the BPRC to lease space for such an eatery. The City Planning Commission also approved the structure the following year. However, the proposed café was met with opposition from the public, as it would obscure the library's rear facade. Several park advocates who opposed it argued that the proposed eatery would turn over part of a public park to a private entity. LeRoy withdrew from the project in 1986 due to this opposition, saying that he feared that the constant reviews of the plan would bring the proposed structure to "mediocrity".

The renovation was approved by the City Art Commission in January 1987, though the restaurant plan had not yet been approved. Following LeRoy's withdrawal from the proposed Bryant Park café, the BPRC created a new plan with multiple smaller restaurant spaces. The spaces would be composed of two smaller pavilions, each 20 feet (6.1 m) tall with an area of 5,250 square feet (488 m2), flanking the Bryant memorial next to the library. In September 1987, the plans went to another vote before the City Art Commission, with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission taking an advisory role. The redesigned restaurant spaces were also approved by the City Art Commission that December, though the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission registered no official position on the matter. A concessionaire for one of the spaces was found in 1988, and the same year, the city turned over duties of Bryant Park's land to BPRC. Subsequently, the park redesign was drafted by Hanna/Olin Ltd. and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates; the design preserved many elements of Simpson's design in the 1930s.

The park was closed for renovations on July 11, 1988. The four-year project to rebuild Bryant Park entailed new entrances, repairs to paths and lighting, and a redesign of the park's garden by Lynden Miller. Biederman worked with William H. Whyte, a sociologist whose influence led them to implement two decisions. One was the placement of 2,000 movable chairs in the park. The other was to lower the park itself, because Bryant Park had been elevated from the street and isolated by tall hedges prior to the 1988 redesign. The 1988 renovation lowered the park to nearly street level and tore out the hedges, though much of the park was still slightly elevated. The park's restrooms, which had been closed for 35 years, were renovated, as well. The BPRC also found that several of the sculptures would need to be repaired, and called on William Cullen Bryant's descendants and other entities to provide funding for the restoration of these sculptures. Landscape architect Laurie Olin of Hanna/Olin recalls that the design process focused on "the different abilities of people [who] use these spaces...as well as making spaces that people are comfortable being with each other in." The restoration cost \$8.9 million, which included \$5.7 million of city funding and \$3.2 million of private funding.

The renovation took place at the same time as the NYPL's expansion of the main branch's stacks underneath Bryant Park. The project was originally estimated to cost \$21.6 million and was to be the largest expansion project in the main branch's history; it entailed building 84 miles (135 km) of stacks, which could hold 3.2 million books. Construction on the stacks started after the park was closed. The park was excavated and the Great Lawn was rebuilt above it. Once the underground facilities were completed, Bryant Park was completely rebuilt, with 2.5 to 6 feet (0.76 to 1.83 m) of earth between the park surface and the storage facility's ceiling.

#### Reopening and critical acclaim

Bryant Park was initially supposed to reopen in late 1990 or early 1991. The reopening date was pushed back due to delays caused by the construction of the library's stacks. In June 1991, the city and BPRC reached an agreement to reopen the western section of Bryant Park on summer weekdays. The park was soft reopened on April 21, 1992, with the official reopening set for nearly a month later.

The new design received widespread acclaim. Deemed "a triumph for many" by New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger, the renovation was lauded not only for its architectural excellence, but also for adhering to Whyte's vision. According to Goldberger, Biederman "understood that the problem of Bryant Park was its perception as an enclosure cut off from the city; he knew that, paradoxically, people feel safer when not cut off from the city, and that they feel safer in the kind of public space they think they have some control over." The renovation was lauded as "The Best Example of Urban Renewal" by New York magazine, and was described by Time as a "small miracle". Many awards followed, including a Design Merit Award from Landscape Architecture Magazine, and the 1996 Award for Excellence from the Urban Land Institute (ULI). The park has been extolled for its relative calmness and cleanness. Even through the 21st century, Bryant Park remains a model of civic renewal that mayors of other cities, such as Jorge Elorza of Providence, Rhode Island, sometimes hold up as a model to emulate.

Bryant Park was described in the media as an example of New York City's 1990s revival. A New York Times article in 1995 referred to the park as the "Town Square of Midtown" and an "office oasis" frequented by midtown office workers. Further improvements included the installation of two newsstands in 1992, one each at Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Open-air concerts in the summers, which drew thousands of people, were commenced. To lessen infestations of pigeons eating the plants, the BPC started scattering corn kernels that contained the drug azacosterol, which resulted in many pigeons becoming infertile without any other side effects. Meanwhile, financing for a restaurant in Bryant Park next to the library was finally secured in 1993. The restaurant opened in 1995.

#### Subsequent developments

With security largely under the purview of the BPC, corporate control of the park has meant that Bryant Park received passive-recreation amenities, while excluding active sports that might cater to a broader urban public. The BPC added a custom-built carousel in 2002 and revived the tradition of an open-air library, the Reading Room, in 2003. In July 2002, the park launched a public wireless network, making the park the first in New York City to formally offer free Wi-Fi access to visitors. The Wi-Fi system was subsequently upgraded in 2008. Furthermore, the Pond, a free-admission ice skating rink, opened in the park in 2005. The park's public restrooms were renovated in 2006 and in 2017.

The dramatic rise in real estate values in the area around Bryant Park, as well as new construction in adjacent areas, was a consequence of the park's improvements. By 1993, the surrounding region had become a highly desirable office area, and formerly vacant office space around the park was being filled quickly. By the first decade of the 21st century, nearby buildings and businesses were also using names that referred to the park. This was shown by the then-new Bank of America Tower skyscraper at the park's northeast corner using the address "One Bryant Park", as well as the growing trend of Bryant Park vanity addresses, including 3, 4, 5, and 7 Bryant Park. National Public Radio, located just south of the park, also named a now-defunct talk show the "Bryant Park Project" upon the show's 2007 launch. Such enthusiasm to use the Bryant Park name would have been nonexistent in the 1980s, when the area was described as "the Wild West".

New real-estate developments were also built in the park's vicinity starting in the 21st century, which together added over 13,000 new workers to the area immediately surrounding Bryant Park. These included the Bank of America Tower; an expansion to 1095 Avenue of the Americas immediately to the south; Eleven Times Square a block west of Bryant Park; and 505 Fifth Avenue at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Several hotels were also built, including a conversion of 485 Fifth Avenue at 41st Street, a Residence Inn by Marriott at Sixth Avenue and 39th Street. By the early 2010s, investors were purchasing buildings around Bryant Park south of 42nd Street as part of a small real estate boom. Rents per square foot in buildings south of 42nd Street had historically been lower than rents in buildings north of 42nd Street. Conversely, 1095 Avenue of the Americas and 452 Fifth Avenue were able to attract comparatively high rental rates despite both being south of 42nd Street. Later in the decade, the area around Bryant Park started growing into a residential neighborhood, with the construction of new developments in the area. Within a two-block radius of the park, or roughly 500 feet (150 m), units routinely sold for millions of dollars.

## Description

Bryant Park is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Street, and covers 9.6 acres (3.9 ha). Although technically the main branch of the New York Public Library is located within the park, in design it forms the eastern boundary of the park's green space, making Sixth Avenue the park's primary entrance. Bryant Park is used mostly as a passive recreation space, and lacks active sports facilities. Bryant Park is several steps above the surrounding streets, enclosed by a retaining wall. Granite stairs at several locations provide access from the surrounding sidewalks. The surrounding area contains numerous structures, including the Bank of America Tower and 1095 Avenue of the Americas to the northwest; the Bryant Park Studios, American Radiator Building, Engineers' Club Building, and 452 Fifth Avenue to the south; 461 Fifth Avenue and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library to the southeast; and 500 Fifth Avenue, the Aeolian Building, and the W.R. Grace Building to the north.

One of the park's largest features is a large lawn located slightly below the level of the surrounding walkways. Besides serving as a "lunchroom" for office workers, the lawn serves as the seating area for some of the park's major events, such as Bryant Park Movie Nights, Broadway in Bryant Park, and Square Dance. The lawn's season runs from February until October, when it is closed to make way for Bank of America Winter Village.

Numerous walkways surround the central lawn. The northern and southern sides are each flanked by two flagstone walkways. Each of these walkways is bordered by London plane trees (Platanus acerifolia), which contribute to the park's European feel. In addition, numerous statues are scattered throughout the park. A raised terrace on the eastern side of the lawn, which dates to the construction of the library's main branch, is paved with gray flagstones and red brick. Its centerpiece is the William Cullen Bryant Memorial, which is raised on a pedestal of its own.

A restroom structure is located at the northern border of the park along 42nd Street. A carousel, installed in 2002, is located at the park's southern border. The park is served by the New York City Subway's at 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station, entrances to which are located on the northern and western borders of the park, as well as MTA Regional Bus Operations' routes.

### Art and monuments

#### Sculptures

Notable sculptures in the park include or have included:

- Statue of William E. Dodge (1885), a standing figure located on a pedestal at the park's northern border
- Statue of J. Marion Sims (1894), removed in the 1930s
- Washington Irving (1894), removed in the 1930s
- William Cullen Bryant Memorial (1911), a standing figure located on a canopied pedestal at the park's eastern border
- Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain (1913), located at the park's western border; the fountain collects about \$3,000 to \$4,000 in coins each year, from dozens of countries
- Bust of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1932), a bust located at the park's southern border
- Statue of José Bonifácio de Andrada (1954, dedicated 1955), a standing figure located on a pedestal at the park's southwestern corner
- Statue of Gertrude Stein (1992), a sitting figure located at the park's southeastern corner
- Statue of Benito Juárez (2002), a standing figure located on a pedestal at the park's northwestern corner

#### Other memorials

The northwest corner of Bryant Park, at Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street, contains the Heiskell Plaza, a stairway and entrance plaza paved with flagstones. It was placed in 1993 in honor of Andrew Heiskell, a cofounder of the BPC.

The southwest corner of Bryant Park, at Sixth Avenue and 40th Street, is known as Nikola Tesla Corner. Tesla, an inventor, lived in the nearby New Yorker Hotel in his later years, and would feed pigeons in the park. The placement of the sign was due to the efforts of the Croatian Club of New York in cooperation with New York City officials, and Ljubo Vujovic of the Tesla Memorial Society of New York.

### Carousel

Bryant Park contains a carousel called Le Carrousel Magique, located in the southern section of the park. The carousel was designed by Marvin Sylvor, created by the Fabricon Carousel Company, and installed in 2002. The company was selected after a carousel installation in Bryant Park was approved in 1997. The carousel has a diameter of 22 feet (6.7 m), weighs 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg), and contains 14 animal casts, of which 12 are capable of moving vertically. In keeping with the French theme of the park, it plays French music. It underwent a restoration in 2009. The carousel also has a ticket booth, measuring 7 feet (2.1 m) tall and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide, which was constructed in 1928 and was relocated from Paragon Park in Hull, Massachusetts.

### Restrooms

Bryant Park contains a Beaux-Arts granite restroom structure on the northern border, along 42nd Street. There are two facilities, one for men and women, both of which are 315 square feet (29.3 m2). These were built in 1911 along with the NYPL Main Branch, but due to the park's landmark status, they cannot be expanded. The exterior of each building contains a frieze with garland motifs. After being closed in the mid-1960s, they were restored by Kupiec & Koutsomitis and reopened in 1992. The restrooms have been described as being among the city's best. A subsequent renovation in 2006 solidified their status as, in the words of then-New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, "the gold standard for park comfort stations." The restrooms were renovated again in 2017. Following the 2017 renovation, the restrooms contained rotating artworks selected from a collection of 225 works, as well as fresh flowers, classical music, attendants, and automatic toilets and faucets.

### Reading room

The original Reading Room was founded in August 1935 to entertain unemployed workers during the Great Depression. Started as an initiative by the New York Public Library, the Reading Room provided the jobless with a place to interact and share ideas without having to pay money or show identification. Despite this, the library was well-used, being used by 50,000 people by its first anniversary. Theft was low, with only 34 publications being lost in the library's first year. By its third year, 400 books and 1,000 magazines were in circulation and were being perused by 70,000 people per year. Books from the NYPL, and donations of magazines and trade publications from publishers, contributed to the success of the open-air library. The tradition of Reading Rooms halted in 1944 due to a staff shortage during World War II.

The Reading Room tradition was revived in 2003 with HSBC as its first sponsor. Oxford University Press, Scholastic Corporation, Mitchell's NY, Condé Nast Publications, Time Inc., Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., and Rodale, Inc. were among the companies who donated books and publications. In addition to the complimentary reading materials, in 2004 programming was added to Reading Room's content. The Reading Room features readings and book sales by contemporary writers and poets, plus book-related special events such as book clubs, writers workshops and storytelling for kids.

### Bank of America Winter Village

Modeled on Europe's Christkindlmarkt, in 2002 Bryant Park introduced the Holiday Shops in an effort to liven up the park space during the winter. Initially slow to gain traction, the Holiday Shops became a fixture of the Manhattan holiday scene in 2005 by expanding into an all-encompassing seasonal destination with the addition of New York's only free-admission ice skating rink. The Shops also include a Norway Spruce tree, as well as a standalone dining and event space.

Sponsored by Bank of America, Winter Village can be set up within two weeks. It has transformed the park into a year-round destination. In September 2016, Bryant Park Corporation announced market makers Urbanspace as the new operator for the Holiday Shops, which grew from 80 boutiques in 2002 to over 170 in 2018. In 2018, Urbanspace also took over management of the rinkside eatery, rebranding it as The Lodge.

## Private operation

The Bryant Park Corporation (BPC), formerly the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (BPRC), manages the park. BPC also oversees the Bryant Park Management Corporation (BPMC), which was created to manage the Bryant Park business improvement district.

Although Bryant Park is a public park, BPC accepts no public funds. It was initially supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, but now receives funding through tax assessments on surrounding property within the business improvement district, fees from concessionaires, and revenues generated by public events. To acquire accurate data about park usage, BPC counts the number of patrons in Bryant Park twice per day, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.

The number of events at the park grew significantly after its reopening, causing some consternation by people who feared that the park would be dominated by private entities, thus would be inaccessible to the public. As a result, BPC makes most events free and open to the public. One exception was the New York Fashion Week shows that formerly took over the park for two weeks in the winter and late summer each year. BPC cofounder Dan Biederman often publicly expressed his frustration that the fashion shows were not under BPC's control. "They pay us a million dollars. It's a million dollars I would happily do without," he told the Los Angeles Times. BPC was particularly frustrated that the fashion shows dominated the park during two crucial times: in late summer, when the weather is perfect for park visitors; and in early February, necessitating the early closure of the park's popular free-admission ice-skating rink.

## Programming

Numerous events are hosted on the lawn at Bryant Park. Bryant Park Movie Nights, begun in the early 1990s, take place on Monday evenings during the summer. Various free musical performances are sponsored by corporations during months with warm weather, including Broadway in Bryant Park, sponsored by iHeartMedia and featuring performers from current Broadway musicals, integrated with content provided by event sponsors.

The park has various activity areas open all day long, including board games, chess and backgammon, a putting green and Kubb area, an Art Cart, ping pong tables, and Petanque courts. The parks also offer free classes in juggling, yoga, tai chi, and knitting. In the 40th Street plaza of the park, there is a station called Bryant Park Games where visitors can borrow an array of games, including Chinese chess and quoits. In addition, chess and table tennis can also be played at Bryant Park.

Food and drink are served at four park-operated concessionary kiosks. There are two additional kiosks on Fifth Avenue, bringing the total of concessionaires near Bryant Park to six.

### Former programming

Formerly, Bryant Park hosted New York Fashion Week (NYFW) shows, which took over the park for two weeks in the winter and late summer each year. NYFW, which moved to Bryant Park in 1993, was forced to set fees for its shows after Manhattan Community Board 5 disapproved of a free fashion show on the grounds that three-fourths of profits would go to BPC and only one-fourth to NYC Parks. Dan Biederman of the BPC had called the profits from NYFW "a million dollars I would happily do without," and lamented the fact that NYFW took over the park at two high-traffic periods: late summer and late winter. NYFW moved from Bryant Park in 2010 after disagreements with the BPC.

## Landmark designations

Bryant Park and the New York Public Library Main Branch were jointly listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1966. Its listing on the NRHP is distinct from the "New York Public Library" on the same day, which covered just the main branch building. In addition, in 1974, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the park as an official scenic landmark.

Public park in Manhattan, New York

National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan

New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan

New York State Register of Historic Places in New York County

Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City