Trade and banking energized New York in the early 1800s, drawing new businesses and people. Growth fueled prosperity. And prosperity fueled more growth. Railroads were a vital part of this dynamic cycle—both a response to and catalyst for the city’s expansion. This story originally appeared in the Grand by Design virtual exhibition here.

New York's Doughnut Hut of the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army's connection to donut making originated in 1917 when a troop of 250 American volunteers traveled to the front lines in France during World War I. Stationed to provide spiritual and emotional support for the fighters, the volunteers, primarily women, wanted to give the soldiers a taste of home by serving them home-baked goods. However, they found it difficult to procure the ingredients necessary to bake pastries or cakes and so opted for a simple dessert that wouldn't even require an oven: donuts! Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance began coordinating an effort to provide this taste of home to the soldiers in the trenches. They were quickly able to produce around 2,500 to 9,000 donuts daily, using a cutter fastened out of a condensed milk can and a camphor ice tube. This heroic effort has been credited for donuts' popularity in the states today. During the Great Depression, the Salvation Army used the donut in yet another campaign to boost morale. National Donut Day, celebrated on June 4th, was invented in Chicago in 1938 to fundraise for aid efforts provided by the Salvation Army.

Statue of the Marquis de Lafayette, Union Square, March 20, 1936. S. Klein, a discount department store, the Union Square Savings Bank and the tower of the Consolidated Edison Building are visible in the background. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s bronze sculpture, a gift from prominent French residents, was installed in Union Square on September 6, 1876. Bartholdi is best known for another iconic, French-funded civic sculpture: the Statue of Liberty.

Marquis de Lafayette Statue, ca. 1917 Located at a prominent site of protest and political gathering, this statue, designed by Henry Kirke Brown, with assistance by John Quincy Adams Ward and Richard Upjohn, depicts this founding father as an equestrian hero. Celebrating the General's arrival in New York on November 25, 1783, the day the British troops evacuated the city after a seven-year occupation, the monument was unveiled on July 4, 1856. It remains one of the earliest examples of bronze statues cast in the United States and a unique record of nineteenth-century American foundry techniques. After over a century of vandalism, corrosion, and missing elements, such as a sword that once fit into the scabbard, MAS's Adopt-A-Monument program facilitated restoration efforts in 1989 with a grant from the Glick Organization.

Union Square Park, 1902. In 1815, the former potter's field at the intersection of Bowery and Bloomingdale Road (Broadway) was designated Union Place, a public commons. Official establishment as a park came in 1833, and re-designed in 1839 to adopt the spirit of the public spaces dotting the London city map. Development in the surrounding neighborhood accelerated during the middle decades of the 19th century, as Manhattan's fashionable residential and commercial districts shifted uptown. In 1872, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the celebrated landscape architects behind Central Park and Prospect Park, were enlisted to redesign Union Square. The Olmsted and Vaux design is still evident in today's park, with its emphasis on space for public assembly and greenery.

Prohibition began in 1920 with the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. For the next thirteen years, the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol in the United States was illegal. The Prohibition Movement originated with organizations like the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League in the second half of the 19th century. Belonging to the Progressive Movement, these temperance organizations sought not only to address the effects of society's problems, but to eliminate the root cause of crime and poverty by prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol. While these ideas might seem noble, they involved a darker side. These organizations were rooted in Protestant ideas of the Social Gospel and exhibited prejudice towards the growing number of immigrants and Catholics in America's cities. Many supporters of Prohibition viewed the newly arriving immigrants' enjoyment of beer and whiskey as the reason for the rising poverty and crime rates in many American cities, especially New York. Prohibitionists' intentions of eliminating crime and poverty not only failed, they backfired! Prohibition actually led to an increase in crime and illegal activity, as many began to profit from the illegal importing, production, and selling of alcohol. While the experiment with Prohibition ultimately ended with the passage of the 21st Amendment, it transformed American society and culture. NYS Social Scope and Sequence Standards: 8.4 & 11.7 For Teachers: Prohibition Lesson Plan

Union Square is known today as a site of public gathering and for expressions of discontent. This is built upon Union Square’s rich, multi-layered history as a public space in Manhattan. The name of the park comes from its location within the downtown area, placed between, or at the “union,” of the then-Bloomingdale Road and Bowery Road, which is now Fourth Avenue and Broadway. Only thirty years after it was designated a public space by the State Legislature in 1831, despite its fencing and narrow sidewalks, Union Square evolved into a space where mass demonstrations, rallies, and protests took place.

George Washington Statue, ca. 1975. This equestrian memorial to America's first president is the oldest sculpture in the collection cared for by the NYC Parks Department. In 1851 a group of citizens approached two artists regarding a desired Washington sculptor. Horatio Greenough was well-known for a previous marble sculpture he created of the president, but passed away before a design could be planned. The resulting bronze monument was created by Henry Kirke Brown, who had already sculpted DeWitt Clinton for Green-Wood Cemetery. Kirke choose to recreate a scene from Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783, when Washington reclaimed the city from the British. He spent more than 18 months modeling the horse and its rider. Placed on a simple pedestal designed by Richard Upjohn, the statue was dedicated June 5, 1856 before a crowd of thousands. Originally located in a fenced traffic island in the middle of the intersection at the southeast corner of Union Square (see the next image below), the statue was moved to a more central location in the south plaza of the park during a redesign and reconstruction in the late 1920s.