  Known early on as Long Acre (also spelled Longacre) Square, it
had an unsavory reputation as the centre of illicit activity in
the 1890s, though earlier in the 19th century it had been both a
commercial and a residential area. The square was renamed in
1904 for The New York Times, which  still transmits news on a
band of electric lights mounted across its facade. The square
and the area around it, with legitimate theatres, movie houses,
amusement centres, and a vast subway station beneath, is one of
the world’s major entertainment districts. It is a tradition for
crowds to gather there on New Year’s Eve to welcome the new year
opened its new offices in the Times Tower on the square (though
it would outgrow them by 1913). Almost immediately the square
became the place where New Yorkers gathered to celebrate the
arrival of the new year. In 1907 the Times began lowering a huge
glass ball down its flagpole at midnight on New Year’s Eve to
mark the occasion. Throughout the years, ever more sophisticated
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