#237 Columbus Circle: A Century of Controversy

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2017

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Columbus Circle, a center of media and shopping at the entrance to Central Park, has a history that, well, runs against the grain. Counter-clockwise, if you will. When the park was completed in the mid 19th century, a 'Grand Circle' was planned for a busy thoroughfare of horse-drawn carriages. A monument to the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus was placed at its center in 1892, bought and paid for by New York's new Italian community. But the circle had awkwardly adjusted to modern development, and architecture which has graced its perimeter had been uniquely scorned -- from the 'confusing' Maine Monument to Robert Moses' New York Coliseum, a dated convention center which eliminated a street from the city's grid. Join us for a look at this unusual section of New York City, a place of both music history and real estate headaches. And what should the city do about that Columbus statute, embroiled in a modern controversy? STARRING: William Phelps Enos, Donald Trump, Sophie Tucker and a man with the extraordinary name of Teunis Somerindyke. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys Episode 237 Columbus Circle, a century of controversy.
0:06.5	Hey, it's The Bowry Boys.
0:08.1	Hey.
0:09.1	Support for The Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
0:12.8	Join us for as little as a dollar a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
0:21.8	Hi there, welcome to The Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:24.4	And this is Tom Myers.
0:26.0	Tom, we have done many a show on squares of New York City, on triangles, rectangles, maybe even an oval or two.
0:35.0	But we have never done a show about a circle until now.
0:38.7	Well, that doesn't sell the listener on stayin' tune. I don't know what does.
0:42.7	But it is true. We've never really tackled a circle.
0:46.2	And today we're going to take a stroll around the history of the city's most prominent, grandest circle of them all.
0:54.7	A circle that I would say is underappreciated by most New Yorkers.
0:59.8	Underappreciated, but partially because it's sort of a dysfunctional place or has been for much of its history.
1:06.1	And that will be the story that we tackle today, just sort of this strange dynamics that have made up Columbus Circle and have sort of plagued it in a way.
1:16.3	I mean, because Greg, when you think of Columbus Circle, what do you even think of?
1:20.6	Well, it's the nexus of three big neighborhoods, Midtown, Hell's Kitchen, and the Upper West Side, not to mention the entrance to Central Park.
1:28.3	And it has a huge subway station underneath it.
1:31.3	And if we take a quick trip back through time, we'll see that it was also, you know, it served as part of the theater district.
1:38.3	It was home to many of the city's top restaurants and attractions.
1:42.3	And for three decades in the 20th century, it was also home to one of Robert Moses' crowning achievements.
1:49.9	The New York Coliseum, which was an exhibition hall that drew millions of visitors to New York every year.
	...

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