Greeley Square Park

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Happy Birthday, Mr. Greeley

Photo by Malcolm Pinckney

On February 3, the great-great-great grandsons of publisher and social activist Horace Greeley joined in a celebration to mark the 200th anniversary of their famed ancestor’s birth.

Festivities included an official rededication of the Greeley statue, located at the southern end of Greeley Square Park at Sixth Ave. & 32nd St., led by Commissioner Benepe and Dan Biederman, President of the 34th Street Partnership. The Theatre Repertory Company, from Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY, presented “A Toast to Horace Greeley,” a short tribute by Greeley’s friends and collaborators including Edgar Allen Poe, Margaret Fuller, and Abraham Lincoln, among others. The school’s Madrigal Choir opened the program with The Star Spangled Banner and sang Happy Birthday to Greeley.

For the occasion, the Horace Greeley statue sported a custom-made white top hat.

Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, was born in Amherst, New Hampshire on February 3, 1811. The son of a farmer, Horace entered the publishing profession in 1826, at age 15, working as a printer’s apprentice in East Poultney, Vermont. He then moved to New York in 1831, where he worked for a variety of publications, before founding the New-Yorker, a political and literary weekly paper in 1834, and in 1849, the Log Cabin, a weekly paper established to promote the election of Benjamin Harrison to the Presidency.

In 1841, he began the New York Tribune, which quickly became known for its honest journalism and wide range of contributors. The Tribune published writings by several nationally acclaimed thinkers and writers, including Frederick Law Olmstead, Mark Twain, Margaret Fuller, and Abraham Lincoln.

In 1872, he was the Liberal candidate for President of the United States. He lost the election to Ulysses S. Grant, and died shortly after at age 61.

P.E.P. BLOTTER

On February 5, while patrolling Orchard Beach, PEP Officers Darlene Lewis and her partner Peter Chinsky observed a vehicle enter the parking lot the wrong way and also observed what they believed to be individuals engaged in driver training inside the parking lot. Such practice is prohibited and is clearly indicated by posted signs throughout the area.

The officers approached the vehicle and spoke to the operator. Upon asking for identification they learned that the operator did not possess a driver’s license or permit. They obtained other forms of ID from both the operator and the passenger and ran a warrant check. At this point it was determined that the male teaching the female in the car had a suspended driver’s license since 2005. They also learned that the vehicle was uninsured.

The male was arrested and taken to the 45th precinct where he was charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle and Operation of an Uninsured Vehicle. He was additionally issued a criminal court summons for his failure to comply with the posted signs at the beach parking lot. The female operator was summonsed for operating a motor vehicle without a permit.The vehicle was taken to the 45th Precinct where it was vouched.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“The darkest hour of any man’s life is when he sits down
to plan how to get money without earning it.”

Horace Greeley
(1811 – 1872)