Verdi Square is a park on a trapezoidal traffic island on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Named for Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, the park is bounded by 72nd Street on the south, 73rd Street on the north, Broadway on the west, and Amsterdam Avenue on the east. Verdi Square's irregular shape arises from Broadway's diagonal path relative to the Manhattan street grid. The western half of the park is built on the former northbound lanes of Broadway, which were closed permanently in 2003 during a renovation of the New York City Subway's adjacent 72nd Street station. Verdi Square is designated as a New York City scenic landmark and is maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
The eastern half of Verdi Square contains the Verdi Monument, sculpted in 1906 by . The monument contains a dark-granite pedestal with four statues of characters from Verdi's operas; a statue of Verdi stands atop the pedestal. Surrounding the monument is the original park, a triangular site with plantings. The western half of the park contains a head house that serves as an entrance to the 72nd Street station. Designed by Richard Dattner & Partners and Gruzen Samton, the head house contains artwork that references Verdi's opera Rigoletto. Each September, the park hosts a series of free concerts called Verdi Square Festival of the Arts.
The portion of Broadway around modern-day Verdi Square opened in 1703 and was added to the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which created Manhattan's street grid, in the late 19th century. The city government acquired the site of Verdi Square in 1887. The site was originally the northern part of Sherman Square, under which the subway station was built in 1904. The Verdi Monument was installed in 1906 following a fundraising effort led by newspaper founder Carlo Barsotti, and the site around the monument was named for Verdi in 1921. The park was for several years beginning in the early 1970s (and is still, sometimes) referred to as "Needle Park", after the 1970 film The Panic in Needle Park, referring to the selling and use of heroin in that film (even though the site where that film was set, and much of it was shot, was Sherman Square, a similarly shaped but characterless grassy street divider a few blocks south on Broadway). The Verdi monument was restored in the late 1980s, and the park was significantly expanded in the early 2000s.
Site
Verdi Square is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and covers . It occupies a trapezoidal site bounded by 72nd Street on the south, 73rd Street on the north, Broadway on the west, and Amsterdam Avenue on the east. Much of the park is built on the former northbound lane of Broadway. One block to the south is Sherman Square. On the north side, the park faces the Apple Bank Building at 2112 Broadway, designed by York and Sawyer. To the northwest is the Ansonia apartment complex, while to the southeast is another apartment building, the Dorilton. Two apartment buildings are on the east side of the square: the Severn and the Van Dyck, designed by Mulliken and Moller.
Originally, Verdi Square was a triangle. The park's shape arises from Broadway's diagonal alignment relative to the Manhattan street grid. Further south, the angled course of Broadway creates convergences with other avenues at Columbus Circle and at Times, Herald, Madison, and Union Squares.Spann, Edward K. "grid plan" in Verdi Square is the northernmost location at which Broadway intersects an avenue diagonally, as Broadway straightens out to the north. The Museum of the City of New York described Verdi Square as one of several bowtie-shaped intersections "where the bustle of New York is brought out in all of its glory".
Monument and plantings The eastern section of Verdi Square contains the Giuseppe Verdi Monument, a monument to the opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, erected in 1906 and sculpted by . The monument measures tall and up to across. The pedestal is made of dark granite steps, topped by a cylinder, and measures tall. Statues of four characters from Verdi's operas are on the pedestal: Aida, Otello, Leonora of La forza del destino, and Falstaff. These statues respectively face north, east, south, and west. The character statues are made of white Carrara marble, with large marble lyres placed between them. The western side of the pedestal contains an etching with Civiletti's name. A time capsule was embedded in the Verdi monument's base. The main statue of Verdi, placed atop the pedestal, is also made of white Carrara marble.
Surrounding the monument is a triangular green space surrounded by shrubs, walkways, and trees. Prior to Verdi Square's expansion, those were the only greenery in the park. In the landscaping devised by Lynden Miller in 2004, flowers around the statue bloom in the spring and summer months. In 2019, chairs and tables were installed around the monument. A garden known as the Woodland was planted around the Verdi Monument; it contains native species such as Lindera benzoin, Asclepias tuberosa, and Magnolia virginiana. A raised garden called the Meadow faces Broadway.
Subway entrance and plaza
The 72nd Street station, served by the New York City Subway's , lies under the square. The western section of Verdi Square contains a head house, built on Broadway's former northbound lanes. The head house is one of two entrances for the 72nd Street station; the other, built within Sherman Square on the south side of 72nd Street in 1904, is one of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line's three remaining original head houses. Verdi Square's head house was designed by Richard Dattner & Partners and Gruzen Samton. Its overall design was inspired by the Crystal Palace in London. The artwork inside is a mosaic pattern, signifying the notation for an excerpt from Verdi's Rigoletto. Elevators and stairs from the head house lead down to the station's platforms.
Next to the entrance is a plaza containing granite urns with raised plantings. The urns are made of cast iron and are near the northern end of the park. The urns were inspired by bronze planters, designed by Stanford White, near one entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The Verdi Square planters do not have cobra-shaped handles, unlike the Prospect Park planters. Additionally, the design of the planters was modified to fit Verdi Square's surroundings.
There is a concession stand next to the plaza, which was built in 2002 as a newsstand. NYC Parks considered removing the newsstand in 2015, on the grounds that there was also a newsstand in the subway entrance. The concession stand was leased by a Le Pain Quotidien bakery in 2016. Though the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene cited the stand for unsanitary conditions the next year, the concession remains in operation .
Near the 72nd Street end of the plaza is a bronze lamppost, one of two that originally flanked the Firemen's Memorial on Riverside Drive. Installed at Verdi Square in 2004, the pole dates to between 1913 and 1935 and was removed from its original location in the 1970s, when it was vandalized. The pole contains a bronze coating with cloven hooves at the base and rams' heads at its pinnacle. Verdi Square also contains Odalisca, a sculpture by Spanish artist Manolo Valdés. The sculpture alludes to the artwork of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.
History The portion of Broadway around modern-day Verdi Square opened in 1703 as Bloomingdale Road, which extended from Lower Manhattan in the south to modern-day Morningside Heights in the north. The road originally only measured wide. In the 1760s, a neighborhood known as Harsenville was developed around Bloomingdale Road between modern-day 68th and 81st Streets, after farmer Jacob Harsen moved there with his family. The neighborhood contained several countryside villas, which overlooked the Hudson River to the south. Many French people settled in the area in the aftermath of the French Revolution in the 1790s, including Louis Philippe I, who later became the king of France.
Bloomingdale Road was initially excluded from the Manhattan street grid, which was laid out as part of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. Because the Upper West Side was largely undeveloped until the late 19th century, Bloomingdale Road remained in use. Bloomingdale Road was widened to in 1849 and was renamed Broadway. In 1867, city planner Andrew Haswell Green convinced the state legislature to give his Central Park Commission the power to make changes in the grid north of 59th Street. Green laid out a street through the West Side along the path of Bloomingdale Road. Work began in 1867, and the road between 59th and 155th Streets was widened the next year, becoming an avenue with landscaped medians. The road was called "Western Boulevard" or "The Boulevard" and measured wide; it was paved in 1874. Residential developments in the area increased in the late 1870s, and the Harsenville neighborhood was consequently razed by the 1880s.
Creation and early years What is now Verdi Square was acquired by the government of New York City in 1887. The site was then considered part of Sherman Square, which in turn was named after U. S. Army general William Tecumseh Sherman. In 1899, the Boulevard was renamed Broadway. By then, planning for the city's first subway line was underway; the line was planned to run under Broadway on the Upper West Side. A plan was formally adopted in 1897, and all legal conflicts concerning the route alignment were resolved near the end of 1899. August Belmont Jr., incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway. Work on the IRT's West Side Line (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) from 60th Street to 82nd Street had begun in August 1900. The tunnel was built directly under Broadway using a cut and cover method of construction, requiring the avenue's pavement to be ripped up. The 72nd Street station opened on October 27, 1904, though its initial entrance was south of 72nd Street.
Meanwhile, Carlo Barsotti, the founder of Italian-language daily newspaper Il Progresso Italo-Americano, had started raising funds for a monument to Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi after the latter died in 1901. Though the monument had received $4,000 worth of subscriptions by early 1903, a site had yet to be selected. Ultimately, the Verdi Monument's backers decided to install it in the northern section of Sherman Square. Pasquale Civiletti sculpted the monument in his studio in Italy, and it was shipped to the U.S. at the end of August 1906. The monument's cornerstone was laid on September 20, 1906, and the monument was dedicated on October 12, 1906, coinciding with Columbus Day. Thousands of people were present at the dedication, including representatives of the Spanish, French, German, Russian, and Argentine governments. Contemporary newspapers variously reported the cost of the monument as $20,000 or $30,000. At the time of the dedication, Barsotti still owed some money on the monument. As a result, a fundraiser for the monument was hosted during a luncheon in Barsotti's and Civiletti's honor in June 1907.