The Lost "Purity" Statue - Times Square

The statue sat in the skinny island between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, between 44th and 45th Streets.  photo from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

With no fanfare a tower of wooden beams surrounding a massive sculpture appeared in Times Square in the fall of 1909.  The New York Times cleared up the mystery on October 5 when it reported "For the last ten days thousands of persons traveling up and down Times Square have been wondering what might be the meaning of the strange high scaffolding at the upper end of the square between Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Street, and the heroic-sized, snow-white figure growing up within it.  Two days ago the figure began to put on the face of a woman, whereupon the interest of Broadway concerning it grew more intense than ever."

For more than a week tourists and businessmen had questioned the workers, nearby shopkeepers, and policemen.  But no one had answers.   The Times, however, had ferreted out the explanation.  "There will shine out in the heart of the city's twenty-four-hour centre a snow-white lady of some fifty feet and eighty tons--plaster, it is true, but full of moral and meaning--to stand as the emblem of the city's purity and beauty, defending herself against the mud-throwers and slanderers that so often assail her."

So stated, the purpose of the allegory of "Purity" sounded noble.  It would be a few days before less honorable forces behind it would come to light.

The arcane Association for New York had applied for and received a permit to erect "The Defeat of Slander" or "The Defence of New York."  The permit gave the group permission to erect and maintain "a statue at its own expense until Dec. 1, 1909."  The cost was later placed at $5,000, or about $140,000 today.

William Harmon Black, formerly Commissioner of Accounts for the Tammany Administration, was the president of the association.  He told The Times reporter that the goal of the newly-organized group was "to challenge indiscriminate abuse and criticism of New York City, to set forth her advantages as a place of residence for the citizen, as a point of production and distribution for the manufacturer, and as a mart for the merchant."  That, too, sounded innocent and, in fact, commendable.

The group had commissioned Italian-born sculptor Leo Lentelli to design the monument.  Black described it saying "The figure will be fifty feet high, built of fifty barrels, or eight tons of plaster, at a cost of several thousand dollars...It will represent a tall and snow-white woman of majestic figure and mien, somewhat angry and even disgusted at the slander and unjust fault-finding she has been subject to."

The figure of Purity would hold a shield on her left arm bearing the inscription "Our City."  Dark blotches on the shield represented the mud slung by New York's detractors.  At night it would be lit by searchlights installed on the nearby Acme Building, and behind her diadem were hidden soft blue electric lights.  Black insisted that there was nothing political about the figure.  "It would simply stand as an artistic, silent exhortation to civic pride and confidence."

Three days later The Thrice-A-Week World reported on the unveiling.  Its reporter, too, interviewed Black and now the first hints emerged that Tammany Hall was behind the project.  Again Black insisted that "The statue is a protect against mud slingers," but was more specific in the mud being slung.  The "reckless statements" which offended the Association of New York had to do with the cost of city bonds, the city's take from Custom House and Post Office receipts, and such.  "The trouble is, New Yorkers have not realized how good a city they have been living in," he complained.

A workman rests at the base, with the rubble of the scaffolding yet to be removed prior to the official unveiling. Harper's Weekly Advertiser, October 23, 1909 (copyright expired)

The unveiling was well-timed.  In its October 1909 issue The Literary Digest pointed out "The colossal statue...variously known as 'Purity' and the 'Defeat of Slander' was erected in Longacre Square, New York City, at the beginning of the present municipal campaign.  It is regarded as Tammany's protest against criticism of city government."

On the southern side of the base was inscribed "Defeat of Slander" and "Erected by the Association for New York."  On the northern face was "Dedicated to New York--The Greatest and Best of Cities--Our Home."  The eastern side read "That man who defames an individual injures but one.  That man who defames New York injures four and a half million people."  

Newspapers were quick to join in exposing the political ploy.  On October 15 The East Hampton Star, calling the figure "this plaster amazon," suggested its purpose was "political and that the Tiger [i.e. Tammany Hall] is seeking in this way to discourage criticism of its own misdeeds.  Well, Tammany is not New York.  It is only a disease.  To confuse the two is like confusing a case of smallpox with its victim...To connect the name of Tammany with purity is a joke."

The Sun waxed sarcastic.  When Black (who, incidentally, was the only person permitted to give official comment) called the statue "a concrete object lesson," the newspaper noted "The fact that the lesson was to be administered during the month preceding election day didn't have the slightest possible significance or any relation whatever with any party."

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

The Tacoma Times thought the artifice was laughable.  Its October 16 article entitled "You Mustn't Slander New York Any More," began "We folks out here in the west must stop talking about New York.  If we don't, the 'Big White Lady' will get us."  The reporter felt that if the published purpose of the statue was true it had a formidable job ahead.  "'Broadway and 42d st. is the mouth of hell,' said a visiting clergyman, several weeks ago.  So the 'Big White Lady,' with her raised arm, stands in an important situation."

Harper's Weekly took a conciliatory stance, but clearly pointed out "the citizens of the metropolis are in doubt as to the exact significance of the statue."

The Sun was not so diplomatic.  "The men who have erected the statue labelled the 'Defeat of Slander,' need to be reminded that the real defamers of New York are not the muckrakers who are the truth speakers, but the muckmakers who defile and pollute our city...It is not the slanderers and the defamers who have made the name of Tammany Hall a byword and a hissing throughout the civilized world, but the leadership and the following alike in Tammany Hall for nearly a century."  The article summed up the issue saying "These men dream of robbing and betraying our city and are wrathful because we will not desist crying 'Stop thief!'"

The statue's purpose as a Tammany Hall propaganda device had been exposed nationwide and continued to draw anger, parody and criticism.  On October 19 The Evening Post wrote "If Praxiteles and Phidias could visit New York now they would get some fresh ideas on statue-cutting.  For Sculpture is being made the handmaiden of Politics."

The reporter managed to interview Leo Lentelli--a feat few had managed to accomplish.  He rather apologized for the quality of his work saying "Of course, if I had more time to do it I could have made a better-finished job of it, but as it stands I think it expresses pretty well the note that it was intended to strike."  Pressed on what that note was, he admitted with a smile, "Oh yes, it is, I suppose, really only a political matter, and it does well enough for that."

"Purity," as it turned out, failed in her mission.  Tammany candidates lost the election.  Just six weeks after its unveiling, workmen began smashing the statue.  On November 20, 1909 The New York Times entitled its article "Miss Purity Displaced / Back to the Dust Pile for Her, Election Being Over."  The story continued, "The first workman was presently joined by a second, who climbed on the shoulders of Miss Virtue and began to hammer away at her left arm, which held the shield with which she fended off the mud supposed to have been thrown against the city in the ante-election period."  

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

The article described the process in detail, reporting, for instance, "When the huge head had fallen in pieces to the street below it made a very small pile of white bits."  The newspaper summed up the failed political ploy in its closing paragraph.

Miss Purity has not stayed her full time at the head of Times Square.  She had permission to remain there until early in December, but after the election she seemed to think that her work had been done.  Tammany's defeat--for she was a Tammany daughter--must have made her sorrowful, and maybe she didn't care whether she lived her full span out or not.

Anyhow, she goes back to the dust pile to-day.

The Tammany Central Assoc. Clubhouse -- 207 East 32nd Street

In the 1870s, the high-stooped, brownstone house at 207 East 32^nd Street, between Second and Third Avenues, was home to the Smith family.  William Wickham Smith was a tutor and his daughter, Julia M. Smith, taught in the Primary Department of Grammar School No. 14.

In 1888, the house was purchased by the Tammany Central Association.  The group was incorporated that year by Richard Crocker, James P. Keating, and others (including three magistrates, Judge Pryor Surrogate Ransom and Justice Fitzsimons).  Tammany Hall was a powerful political machine and no conflict of interest was raised when the School Commissioner’s headquarters for charitable work operated from the 32^nd Street house in 1894.

At the time, Richard Crocker’s power and influence had burgeoned.  Following the death of John Kelly, Crocker held nearly uncontested control over Tammany Hall.  On September 21, 1895, a “convention” was held at 207 East 32^nd Street to elect a delegate to the Democratic State Convention.  Not unexpectedly, Crocker was elected.  The New York Times said, “his election was followed by a scene of uproarious enthusiasm.”

Richard Crocker -- from the collection of the Library of Congress

By the turn of the century, the old house was no longer suitable for the Tammany Central Association.  On June 15, 1901, the Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide reported that 28-year-old architect Robert T. Lyons had been hired to design a new clubhouse on the site. 

The $40,000 structure was completed in 1902.  Lyons had produced a four-story brick and stone Beaux Arts-style confection that pretended to be a French townhouse.  A rusticated limestone base sat a few steps above the sidewalk and the stone stoop was flanked by two cast iron lampposts.  A stone balcony stretched the width of the second floor, matched by another at the fourth floor.  Two elaborate dormers ornamented the mansard roof.

Architectural Record December 1902 (copyright expired)

On the top floor was the apartment of Edward J. Sweeney and his wife, Mary Frances.  Well-known to many New Yorkers, Sweeney had been the club’s superintendent since 1894.  Born on the Upper East Side in 1866, his father was a celebrated bare-knuckle boxer, known in the ring as “Charley” Holmes.  Edward Sweeney had also taken to the ring, becoming a star featherweight boxer.  He trained other fighters, including John L Sullivan.  In 1884, Edward Sweeney and his father had opened the highly-popular Sweeney’s Hand-Ball and Racquet Courts on East 35^th Street.

By the time the doors of the new building were opened, Richard Crocker’s star had faded.  The failure of his mayoral candidate, Edward M. Shepard, to be elected in 1901 was the last straw in disappointments to the party and Crocker resigned from Tammany leadership.

Thomas Murphy became the “executive member” of the Tammany Central Association.  But social groups, religious leaders and newspapers, indignant over the graft and corruption enjoyed by Richard Crocker and his cronies, demanded change.  The dramatic collapse of Tammany power was evidenced in W. Bourke Cockran’s address in the 32^nd Street clubhouse on February 1, 1904.  

Cockran, ironically, attributed to the Republicans the same offenses that brought down the Tammany machine.  He said in part, “Now again we are threatened by the results of Republican ascendancy, panic overhangs the land, corruption exists in the Government, the people are levied upon for the party, and blight threatens through a Government organized for plunder.”  He lamented that the Republicans had tarnished the nation in the eyes of the world.  “We have fallen from the position of being the greatest Nation of the earth…We have reached the point where the country is regarded as an international hoodlum.”

On February 9, 1909, Edward J. Sweeney died in his apartment on the top floor at the age of 43.  His funeral was held in the clubhouse on February 16.

The passing of Edward J. Sweeney was almost symbolic of the passing of the old days of the Tammany Central Association.  Infighting was such that when an election was held here for the leadership of the district on July 30 that year, threats were made and security was tight.

The New York Times called it a “stormy meeting” and noted “every man’s credentials were carefully scrutinized before he was allowed to enter the room.”  William A. Larney, Secretary of the Fire Department, was not listed as a nominee and the irate politician not only refused to vote, but addressed the assemblage with threats.

Some of you know that I have been jobbed and robbed in this district.  The leader of Tammany Hall, Charles F. Murphy, and the executive member of this district promised me half of the representation of this district.  But did I get it? No!...I tell you that whoever you elect here will have a fight on his hands.  I will go out and beat him myself.

The Tammany Central Association would not be in its clubhouse for much longer.  On July 1, 1901, the Record & Guide reported, “The old 18^th District Tammany clubhouse at 207 East 32d street, in which Crocker got his first start in politics, will cease to exist as a political headquarters after this week.”  The organization had leased the building to the Yorkville Municipal Court at an annual rental of $4,000.

Within the month, the Tammany Central Association purchased the old four-story house just down the block at 265 East 32^nd Street, which The Sun said it “will alter extensively.” 

The former clubhouse would be leased as a courthouse until 1939.  During that time, cases both mundane and sensational were heard.  In 1923, Charles B. Manville, the 90-year-old founder of Johns-Manville, Inc., defended himself here against Dr. Alonzo Eugene Austin’s $21,000 suit.

The bizarre case began when Manville visited a spiritualist, Beulah Thompson, after he heard that she had given “profitable stock tips” from her crystal ball to Charles M. Schwab and other moguls.  Manville testified that Thompson, whom The New York Times described as “a blonde, slender woman in the thirties,” performed a séance in “a cabinet” in her home, during which his dead wife’s voice was heard calling him “C. B.,” her pet name for him.  He further testified that when he asked the medium about a copper investment in which he was interested, she replied, “go deeper, go deeper.”

And so he did.  And he convinced Dr. Austin to give him $21,000 to invest in the mining company.  Now the elderly executive had the embarrassing task of publicly discussing his reliance on spiritualism.  Beulah Thompson, incidentally, testified that she gave Manville no stock tips at all, and that he came to her to cure his insomnia.

Another sensational case occurred in December 1934, when two New York City Nazi groups battled it out.  Dr. Hubert Schnuch was president of the League of Friends of New Germany and had founded the Deutscher Beobachter, a newspaper called the “mouthpiece of Nazidom in America.”   But Anton Haegele, who signed the lease on the newspaper’s headquarters at 305 East 46^th Street as an “agent” of the firm, then tried to take control and force Schnuch out.

On December 21, 1934, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported, “All hope for an amicable settlement between the two warring Nazi factions vanished yesterday, with members of both camps nursing wounds and bruises received in a free-for-all on the preceding evening, while their leaders turned to the courts for satisfaction.”

In 1939, the City announced that the Municipal Court would not renew its lease with the Tammany Central Association because it was moving “to more modern quarters.”  The building was sold at auction in May the following year.

As late as the 1960s the block resembled its 1902 appearance.  photo by Edmund V. Gillon from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In 1952, the old clubhouse was converted to offices.  It was home to a “testing laboratory and office” in the cellar, and to Slocum Fuller, consulting engineers, on the upper floors.  That firm moved out in 1965. 

Here, on the second floor, New York magazine was founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968.  Milton Glaser remains in the building in the form of W.B.M.G., Inc. (the initials of Walter Bernard and Martin Glaser), and Milton Glaser, Inc.

Although the stoop with its cast iron lampposts has been removed, the old Tammany Central Association clubhouse is otherwise little changed.  What has changed is the block on which it sits.  The French townhouse--the last remnant of a much different era on East 32nd Street--is glaringly out of place next to a modern apartment building and a playground.

photographs by the author

The 1929 Tammany Hall -- No. 100 East 17th Street

photo by Alice Lum

At the end of the 19^th century, Tammany Hall was nothing like the benevolent organization organized in Philadelphia in the 18^th century.  By the time a New York branch was formed, The Society of St. Tammany, or Columbia Order, had spread throughout New England.

It was not until the Presidential campaign of 1800 that Tammany involved itself in politics, actively supporting the Jefferson-Burr ticket.  A year later, the first New York Tammany Hall was erected on Frankfort and Nassau Streets.  It was replaced when the organization moved northward and opened the new hall on July 4, 1868 at 137-149 East 14^th Street.

By the turn of the century, Tammany Hall was immensely powerful and often corrupt.  It controlled the Democratic Party in New York County and often raised the wrath of reformers and religious leaders alike.

In the 1920s Governor Al Smith joined in an attempt to reform Tammany Hall.  Nightlife-loving Mayor Jimmy Walker’s open defiance of Prohibition offended the governor.  The battle between the two politicians shook the foundations of Tammany.  According to Mary M. Stolberg in her Fighting Organized Crime,  “By 1929 the split between Smith and Walker had further weakened Tammany Hall.”

One of Walker’s counter moves was to abandon the old Tammany Hall—a symbol of graft and corruption.  Three blocks to the north, opposite the northeast corner of Union Square, sat the Westmoreland Apartments, constructed as a hotel in 1877.  The old structure was razed in 1928 to make way for a new patriotic-themed hall Tammany Hall.

Wide World Photos published a view of the anticipated structure in August 1928 entitled "The New Home of the Society of Tammany" (copyright expired)

Architects Thompson, Holmes & Converse, in conjunction with Charles B. Meyers, reached back to the organization’s early Federalist roots.  The Union Square elevation was meant to invoke the original Federal Hall where George Washington had taken the Oath of Office.  Typical neo-Georgian and neo-Federal elements distinguished the design and reflected Colonial America.  The bricks were custom-made in Virginia and a 1929 advertisement by the Old Virginia Brick Company in Salem, Virginia, stressed the patriotic theme:

How fitting, therefore, that in this building should be used bricks made in the Virginia Jefferson so proudly served.  Likewise in the same size, and made in the same kind of cherry and maple moulds as those of his beloved Monticello, 30 years in its building, and where Jefferson lived for a full half century.

High on the 17th Street side a carved plaque sits against the custom-made Flemish bond brickwork -- photo by Alice Lum

Not everything would look back to the Jeffersonian period.  Inside, the black marble floor, the wrought iron railings and curved staircase were rescued from the old 14^th Street Hall.  The interiors were furnished with reproduction Empire period furniture, white enameled paneling and mahogany woodwork.

The official opening of the new building, which cost $350,000 to erect, was held on July 4, 1929.  Interestingly, the new Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt shared the spotlight as chief speaker with Alfred E. Smith.  Both Roosevelt and Smith were Democrats, but both shared their ardent disdain of Tammany Hall. 

In 1929 Manufacturers Trust Company took space at street level.  Note the clever adaptation of fan lights into the square openings.  photo from the collection of the New York Public Library

The year following the new building’s completion, Governor Roosevelt instigated an investigation into the scandals and alleged corruption.  The heretofore highly popular Mayor Walker was forced to resign in dishonor and Samuel Seabury, who headed the magistrates’ courts, suddenly resigned due to “ill-health.”

Things only got worse for Tammany Hall when Roosevelt became President in 1932.  And in 1933 the new mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, joined forces with the President to take apart the Tammany organization. 

In 1939 the Federal Writers’ Project’s New York City Guide remarked, “When the organization wins at the polls, club leaders and district workers swarm to the Hall for a rousing election night celebration, but such joyful gatherings have been infrequent in recent years.”

A terra cotta medallion depicts a "Liberty Cap."  -- photo by Alice Lum

By 1943, the diluted organization could no longer afford to pay the mortgage on Tammany Hall.  That summer it sold the building to Local 91 of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.  The Union made interior alterations to accommodate its needs.  Offices were created and the auditorium stage was enlarged.  It was officially opened with a concert and dedication ceremony on December 18, 1943.  Ironically, both Jimmy Walker and Fiorello LaGuardia were there.  Sharing space did not mean that the pair had reconciled, however.

LaGuardia told reporters, “This building was built under the Walker Administration and put out of business—or on the bum—by the LaGuardia Administration.”  He added, “You know, I wouldn’t change the name of the building…I would keep it as a permanent monument to the change that came for the City of New York when a mighty, ruthless organization lost the building to an organization of the people.”

In 1947 Local 91 honored Franklin Delano Roosevelt by renaming the 1000-seat auditorium the Roosevelt Auditorium.  For years, its was offered to other unions and organizations for meetings and rallies.  On March 16, 1983 cabdrivers voted on a strike here; on December 30, 1981 cemetery workers authorized their strike against 70 cemeteries; and on October 29, 1964 firemen turned down the $900 pay increase which had been accepted by the NYPD.  That same month 250 delegates of the Teamsters Union ignored the pressure from Jimmy Hoffa and voted to endorse John F. Kennedy for President.

By 1962 the auditorium was also being used by the “Roosevelt Yiddish Theater.”  Here Max Perlman produced plays like Don’t Worry, Brother, and A Honeymoon in Israel. 

In 1984 the Roudabout Theater signed a long-term lease for the auditorium with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.  The theater group was at the time at No. 333 West 23^rd Street.  It commissioned architect Robert Asscione to refurbish the interior structure.

“The auditorium will be renovated for the Roundabout company into a 499-seat facility with no seat more than 40 feet from the stage,” reported William G. Blair of The New York Times on July 1, 1984.

The $850,000 in renovations were completed  early in 1985 and the opening was held on February 1.  In attendance were E. G. Marshall, Jim Dale, Kate Burton and Tovah Feldshuh among others.  On February 13 the first production was staged, Playboy of the Western World.  Over the near few years significant performances and productions included A Man for All Seasons starting Philip Bosco and Charles Keating; Dorothy Laudon in The Matchmaker; Room Service, directed by Alan Arkin and starring Mark Hamill, and a revival of Raisin in the Sun which was aired by PBS in 1986.

Following the Roundabout, the auditorium was leased somewhat briefly to Raymond L. Gaspard.  His Union Square Theater staged eight productions.  Then in 1994 the New York Film Academy leased space here.  The film and acting school had been founded two years earlier by producer Jerry Sherlock.   Its graduates have included comedians Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans, Jr., actress and figure skater Sasha Cohen, and Glee actor Chord Overstreet.

 

Above the entrance "The Society of Tammany" is carved into the stonework.  photo by Alice Lum

In 2001, after nearly 60 years of ownership, Local 91 sold the building to Liberty Theatres, Inc.  In 2013 it was designated a New York City Landmark.  Although retail spaces have been carved out of the rusticated limestone base, above street level the handsome Federal design survives.  It is the last relic of a political organization that tried hard, and unsuccessfully, to disguise its gang-like activities behind a patriotic veil.

UPDATE:  A four-year renovation by BKSK Architects completed in 2020 included the addition of a glass dome.