The Lost Abingdon Square Music-Stand - Eighth Avenue and Bleecker Streets

This bandstand replaced the Victorian version in 1914.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The 1811 Commissioners' Plan extended Eighth Avenue northward through Greenwich Village, creating a trapezoidal plot of ground between it and Bank, Hudson and Troy (later West 12th) Streets.  On March 4, 1812, the Common Council declared the otherwise useless space a park.  Because it sat within the former 300-acre estate of Sir Peter Warren, whose eldest daughter had married the Earl of Abingdon, it was named Abingdon Square.  By the 1850s, both sides of the park were filling with upscale residences.

Music-stands, or bandstands, were erected throughout the city in the 19th century.  On July 28, 1894, American Art Journal remarked, "New York City spends about $25,000 a year for free music for the people...This money is used to pay for the park concerts which are given during the summer.

One of the stands was erected just south of Abingdon Square, at the southeast corner of Eighth Avenue and Bleecker Street, "a very elaborate and substantial bandstand and speakers' pagoda combined," as recalled by The New York Times decades later.  In addition to free summer concerts, the bandstand could be used by political or religious groups.  The article explained, "it was popularly supposed that it would be a sort of tribune for the discontented, somewhat after the fashion of the Hyde Park meetings in London."

The American Art Journal reported in July 1894, that "eight to ten thousand people at a concert," at Abington Square was "not an unusual thing, and an audience of four to five thousand is quite common."  Concert goers were prepared to be on their feet for some time.  "In Abingdon Square, where there are seats for nobody, the whole square becomes a solid mass of humanity on concert nights."  In the summer of 1894, there were 12 concerts--held on Wednesday evenings.  Each cost the city $140 to stage (about $5,275 by 2025 terms).

On August 29, 1895, the New-York Tribune headlined an article, "Abingdon Square's Night of Song," and reported:

One of the biggest and best-natured crowds that ever thronged through the numerous and winding thoroughfares leading to this historic spot jostled each other over curb and cobblestones, until they reached the centre of attraction, and finally became wedged in as tightly as sardines in a box, only there were more of them.

After the "Star-Spangled Banner" that night, the band turned to popular songs like "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard," "You Don't Find a Girl Like My Girl," and Willie and I."  When Kittie Rampone, the 13-year-old daughter of the bandleader, sang "My Dad's the Engineer," the "big crowd could restrain themselves no longer, and at a signal from the fair singer, they let their voices loose on 'Daddie' and sang it with a will," said the article.

Kittie Rampone's appearance was not unusual for the Abingdon Square crowd.  For several years, as The Art Journal had mentioned a year earlier, "A pleasant feature of these Abingdon Square concerts is the singing of the children from the neighboring public schools."  On September 5, 1895, The New York Times reported on the last concert for the summer season.

The square was "in gala dress last night," said the article, which said the locals "turned out in full force to do honor to the event."  The bandstand was illuminated by calcium lights and the crowd was so dense that "it was with much difficulty that the police succeeded in keeping open a passage for the surface cars."

Among the groups that obtained permission to use the "speakers' pagoda" function of the stand in 1898 was the gospel meetings of the English revivalist minister, the Rev. Reginald Radcliffe.  On October 13, 1898 the New York Observer reported that his "twilight services" at the Abingdon Square bandstand "will be continued as long as the weather will permit."  In the previous week's service, said the article, "a choir of seventy-five voices" had aided "in the praise services."

Gospel and revivalist meetings became a mainstay here.  In an article in The Interior on August 17, 1905, Rev. Rice V. Hunter remarked, "The city has erected a bandstand [at Abington Square], which it has placed at the disposal of the evangelistic committee."  In late July that year, he said, "This stand was filled with a strong choir and thousands of people were gathered about it."

In 1909, the Abingdon Square bandstand's calcium lights were replaced with electric lighting.  The glowing lightbulbs illuminated the evening concerts and the religious and political gatherings.  On November 4, 1912, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported, "The Election Eve rally will be held from the bandstand in Abingdon Square, a famous forum for political debates."

At the time of the article however, the Victorian bandstand was about to be replaced.  In December 1912, the Board of Aldermen reported a "change in the Street Plan at the junction of 8th Avenue, Bleecker Street and Bank Street."  The plans mentioned that the area "is now partially occupied by a bandstand used for public concerts."  The following year, the city asked for bids "for the erection and completion of a public comfort station and band stand in Abingdon Square."

The new bandstand was officially opened on June 15, 1914.  Park Commissioner Cabot Ward accepted a new American flag to be flown above it.  The New-York Tribune reported, "When the flag was unfurled the New York Letter Carriers' Band played 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' and more than 10,000 school children, some of them with voices hoarse from an afternoon at the ball game, cheered madly."

Unlike the previous bandstand--which was most likely a wooden pavilion adorned with Victorian fretwork--the new octagonal structure was of stone.  The Doric columned bandstand portion sat above a public comfort station.  Like its predecessor, it was illuminated with electric lights.

Electric lights outlined the columns of the new structure and large ceiling fixtures hung within the bandstand portion.  (The comfort stations were also well lighted.)  The Edison Monthly, August 1914 (copyright expired)

The advent of radio, however, doomed summer concerts.  On September 4, 1921, The New York Times reported, "The stand is practically deserted except that upon fair days many children use it for such games as hide-and-seek and 'I Spy.'"  By mid-century, the bandstand portion was demolished, leaving only the comfort station base.

The bandstand was decapitated around mid-century.  It and the warehouse behind it were demolished in 1959.  from the collection of the New York City Parks Photo Archive.

The Abingdon Square bandstand survived until 1959, when the city demolished it to create the Bleecker Street Playground.