There is a reason for the sudden bend in Broadway at Tenth Street, close by Grace Church. The Bowery Lane, which is now Fourth Avenue, curved in passing through what is now Union Square until, at the line of the present Seventeenth Street it turned and took a direct course north and was from thereon called the Bloomingdale Road. This road to Bloomingdale was opened long before Broadway, and it was in order to let the latter connect as directly as possible with the straight road north that the direction of Broadway was changed about 1806 by the Tenth Street bend and a junction effected with the other road at the Seventeenth Street line.
At Thirteenth Street and Fourth Avenue there was constructed in 1834 a tank which was intended to furnish water for extinguishing fires. It had a capacity of 230,000 gallons, and was one hundred feet above tide water. Water was forced into it by a 12-horse power engine from a well and conducting galleries at the present Tenth Street and Sixth Avenue, on the site of the Jefferson Market Prison.
Wallack's Theatre
In 1861 James W. Wallack moved from Wallack's Lyceum at Broome Street, and occupied the new Wallack's, now the Star Theatre, at Thirteenth Street and Broadway. His last appearance was when he made a little speech at the close of the season of 1862. He died in 1864.
Union Square
Union Square was provided for in the City Plan, under the name of Union Place. The Commissioners decided that the Place was necessary, as an opening for fresh air would be needed when the city should be built up. Furthermore, the union of so many roads intersecting at that point required space for convenience; and if the roads were continued without interruption the land would be divided into such small portions as to be valueless for building purposes.
The fountain in the square was operated for the first time in 1842, on the occasion of the great Croton Water celebration.
The bronze equestrian statue of Washington was erected in the square close by where the citizens had received the Commander of the Army when he entered the city on Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783. The statue is the work of Henry K. Brown. The dedication occurred on July 4, 1856, and was an imposing ceremony. Rev. George W. Bethune delivered an oration, and there was a military parade.
Academy of Music