Old Times Square, New York City

The old Times Square, New York City, and its billboards. Intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue at night, view north from Times Building, 1937. Source: New York State Archives, Education Department Division of Visual Instruction.

The Hotel Astor, on the left, between West 44th Street and W 45th Street, was built in 1904, the same year Times Building was erected and the first Subway line opened. It was demolished in 1967 to make way for the Minskoff Building.

Hotel Claridge, formerly Hotel Rector, is on the right. It opened in 1910, at the southeast corner of Broadway and 44th Street. Criterion Theatre, on the right, opened on September 16, 1936. The former Criterion Theatre was built in 1895 as the Lyric Theatre, renamed the Criterion Theatre in 1914.

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