West 42nd Street, Long Acre Square

Street Scene on Broadway and West Forty-second Street, 1898. Photo by Byron Company, Museum of the City of New York. Photograph shows buildings and billboards on the north side of West 42nd Street, looking from Broadway to Seventh Avenue. The block in the foreground is the site on which Times Building was erected in 1904. Before that, Pabst Hotel was erected in 1899 and demolished in the early 1903.

We can see that the tradition of Times Square with its large billboards began in the late 19th century. The old Victoria Theatre was erected in 1899, on the corner of West 42nd Street and 7th Avenue. Continue below...

A billboard was announcing the play The Moth and the Flame , Kelcey - Shannon Co. in the Lyceum Theatre., where it premiered on April 11, 1898. It was performed by the Herbert Kelcey—Effie Shannon Theatre Company with Shannon in the role of Marion Wolton and Kelcey as Fletcher.