History of the Times Square Ball

Blogger: Amber Lemus

7th Times Square Ball
Photo Credit: Jtalvy, CC0, CC

 The dropping of the ball in Times Square has become a New Years icon. This year will make new history for the Times Square Ball, because it will drop twice. The second time in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. 

Since we have new history being made with the ball drop, I thought it would be fun to explore the origins of the celebration that has become so well-known across the globe as a symbol of New York City and the USA.

The New Years celebration in Times Square had begun in 1904 as a way to celebrate and promote the newly finished headquarters of the New York Times newspaper building. The festivities were a hit, but after a few years of fireworks celebrations, the owner of the New York Times, Adolph Ochs, decided he wanted something bigger. It was the idea of the company's chief electrician to build a "time ball" after seeing one used elsewhere. In 1907, Ochs commissioned the Artkraft Strauss company to construct the ball. A young Russian immigrant by the name of Jacob Starr, built the ball out of iron and wood, then adorned it with one hundred 25-watt bulbs. The finished ball was five feet in diameter and weighed a whopping seven hundred pounds. It thrilled the spectators at the 1907-1908 New Years festivities in Times Square. 

Since then, the ball has been lowered every year, except for 1942 and 1943 due to WWII blackouts.

The Millennial Ball (2000)
Photo by: Hunter Kahn (Public Domain) 

In total, there have been nine versions of the ball:

• The original, built in 1907. 
  
  
• A version made entirely of wrought iron with replaced the original in 1920. 
  
  
• A lighter version made of aluminum replaced the four-hundred pound wrought iron ball in 1950. This version weighed only one-hundred-fifty pounds and remained until the 1980's.
   
• In the 80's, the "I Love New York" advertising campaign had launched, so a new ball with red lights and a green stem to look like an apple was installed and remained from 1981-1988.   
  
  
• After 1988, a more traditional ball with the white lights returned. 
  
  
• In 1995, technological updates were made to the ball to include an aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes and computer controls. 
  
  
• The birth of a new century in 1999-2000 demanded a new ball. It was completely redesigned, this time a crystal ball with the very latest lighting technology combined with traditional materials. 
  
  
• 2007 brought the 100 year anniversary of the New York Times ball drop, so again, updates were made to the ball. The incandescent bulbs were replaced with LED, which gave the ball color capabilities and increased brightness. This one is known as the Centennial Ball. 
  
  
• The owners of One Times Square were inspired by the beauty of the Centennial Ball to create a permanent one that was visible year-round. This new, permanent version is known as the Big Ball and is made of crystal triangles and over thirty-two-thousand LEDs. It weighs nearly six tons.

The most recent Times Square Ball
Photo By Alex Lozupone - Own work, CC

However, on New Year's Eve, a NEW version of the ball will be revealed, celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States. If the celebration's reputation continues, it will be a spectacle to be seen. 

The notoriety of the ball drop has inspired many kinds of "drops" around the world. Sometimes balls, like in Times Square, and other times cultural objects such as the Bermuda onion. To read more about this, you can check out the Wikipedia page here. 

Have you ever been to the Ball Drop in NYC? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. 

*******

Two-time winner of the Christian Indie Award, Amber Lemus writes enthralling non-fiction for children and adults alike. She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior, so her writing is centered around faith, family and history.

She lives at the foot of the Rocky Mountains with her prince charming and two boys. Between enjoying life as a boy mom, and spinning stories out of soap bubbles, Amber loves to connect with readers and hang out on Goodreads with other bookish peoples.

Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at www.AmberLemus.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!

The Story Behind Times Square

 __By Tiffany Amber Stockton__

In December, A Charlie Brown Christmas received the spotlight focus. To kick off the new year, let's look a little deeper into a location in the "city that never sleeps."

THE TIMES SQUARE STORY

So, did you tune in at all to the Rockin' Eve show on New Year's Eve, broadcast from the world famous Times Square? That infamous ball drop is heralded not only here in the United States, but in many other countries around the world, and even though more than half the globe rings in the new year before New York City, there's an unofficial mark when it happens in the Eastern time zone.

For the most-visited tourist site in the U.S., New York City's Times Square actually had rather humble beginnings. Did you know countryside once surrounded the entire area? Or that American Revolution-era statesman John Morin Scott used most of it for farming?

The area now known as Times Square fell into the hands of real estate mogul John Jacob Astor in the 1800s. By the second half of the 19th century, that area had become the center of the city’s horse carriage manufacturing industry and home to William H. Vanderbilt’s American Horse Exchange. City authorities named it Long Acre Square, a reference to London’s historic carriage and coach-making district.

This name remained until 1904, when The New York Times moved its headquarters to a lavish new skyscraper called Times Tower. That same year, Mayor George B. McClellan signed a resolution that renamed the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue (and 42nd and 43rd streets) from Long Acre Square to Times Square. The newspaper's new home set its address as One Times Square. In no time at all, the square established prominence as one of the most important places in New York City at the beginning of the 20th century. Construction of theaters, restaurants, and luxury and first-class hotels added to that distinction.

The Times Square ball first dropped in 1904, thanks to Jacob Starr, a Ukrainian immigrant and metalworker, and the former New York Times publisher, Adolph Ochs. This year of 2024 marks 120 years. For more on that history, read the post I wrote 10 years ago.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Does your New Year's Eve tradition involve watching the famous ball drop? If not, what do you do to ring in the new year?

* Have you ever been to Times Square? What was the purpose of your visit?

* If you've never been to New York City, would you want to visit? And if so, what would you want to do there? If not, why?

** This note is for our email readers. Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Come back on the 9th of each month for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

For those interested in my life as an author and everyday gal, what I'm currently reading, historical tidbits, recommended reads, and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my monthly newsletter. The January edition was just sent out. Receive a FREE e-book of Magic of the Swan just for subscribing.

---

BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help improve their lives in a variety of ways.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children, one dog, and three cats in southeastern Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

19th Century Christian and Jewish Fellowships

by Kathleen L. Maher

So much of the Bible owes to Hebrew tradition and writings that it seems odd that Christians and Jews have not had the most celebrated history together of playing nice in the faith playground. Antisemitism and persecution have soured what should have been a brotherhood of many shared beliefs. One does not have to revisit the inquisition to recall man's inhumanity to man in the name of religion.

But there has also been some inspiring moments in history when Jews and Christians have found common ground united on shared faith, and this post will highlight a few of them specifically in the 19th Century.

The London Society for promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews was an effort of the Anglican Church in the early 19th Century to share Jesus as the Messiah to Jewish people groups through friendly outreach. One of the ways the society, founded in 1809, built inroads to bridge the faiths was through translating the New Testament into Hebrew. Reverend Fry, a Jewish man who converted, established a Jewish Chapel where he would preach to his brothers. Reverend Fry also started a school where young Jewish boys could attend for free prior to the age of apprenticeship. And for Jews who accepted Jesus as Messiah who were shunned and outcast from their people, Reverend Fry established a print shop where they would find employment and fellowship with one another. Adults were taught English. A cotton factory also offered employment to indigent, outcast converts. A library of Hebrew and Jewish works was assembled. Apologists for the Christian faith were encouraged to show how The Old Testament reveals Jesus as Messiah and teach Christians the Hebrew roots of Christianity.

This publication went out from the society to New England, and a short excerpt describes their mission statement in a nutshell.

CONCISE ACCOUNT

OF THE

LONDON SOCIETY

FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY

AMONGST THE JEWS

“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead.”—

ROMANS xi. 15.

BOSTON

PRINTED BY JOHN ELIOT.

1816

"...The London Society is founded on a principle, in which the Established Church and Christians of various denominations of Dissenters can cordially unite. It is their plan to limit themselves to the simple object of convincing their Jewish brethren, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Saviour of the world; leaving them, when thus instructed, to search the scriptures, and judge for themselves..."

William Wilberforce

In the Jews Chapel, Benei Abraham (The Children of Abraham) which was a group of 50 or so converted Hebrews, would meet. Gentile Christians would pray alongside them for the House of Israel, and to minister to those too long persecuted by misguided religious zeal.
In the words of Rev J. W. Cunningham, Vicar of Harrow, who gave notable sermons for the London society, “We have much lost time to redeem,—many past injuries to cancel,—many and countless obligations to this afflicted people to repay."

Other prominent members of the London Society included William Wilberforce, renowned for his work to end slavery and the slave trade in England, and Dr. Albert Gerstmann and Melville Bergheim who established a medical mission in Jerusalem in 1836. One of the many admirable goals of the society was to fulfill prophecy by helping the Jewish people to return to Eretz Israel, their promised land. Christ Church, Jerusalem completed in 1849, the oldest Protestant Church in the Holy Land, is partly due to the work of the society.

Later in the century, the first Hebrew Christian fellowship in America was heralded by The New York Times. October 12, 1885:

ONLY ONE IN AMERICA

A HEBREW-CHRISTIAN CHURCH DEDICATED YESTERDAY.

AN EPOCH IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGION IN THIS COUNTRY—HOW THE CHURCH CAME INTO EXISTENCE.

"On the northerly side of St. Mark's-place, a few doors from Third-avenue, is a three-story and basement brick structure. Across the front of the building, above the line of the first story windows, extends a black board sign, on which. beneath certain Hebraic characters, are the words: “Hebrew-Christian Church.” The surmounting inscription translated reads: “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations....”

The congregation had its start even before the official church building dedication years earlier in Manhattan's lower East Side under Rev. Jacob Freshman, the son of a Hebrew rabbi converted to Christianity, Rev. Charles Freshman. Services at the St. Mark's-place church were offered in different languages at different times of the day or week, with ministers from various denominations.

Other societies and fellowships included:

• The American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews (ASMCJ) 1820-1867
• The "Jewish Converts' Society" 1823-1826
• Brotherhood of Jewish Proselytes  had a short-lived existence in 1844
• The American Baptist Association for Evangelizing the Jews also 1844

In my novella "Something Old, Something New" set to release October 2019 in Barbour's upcoming Lessons on Love collection, My heroine Gilda Jacobs is a young Jewish schoolteacher who must partner with a Christian educator to meet the specifications of the school council for Biblical instruction. My hero Joshua Blake is a revivalist with a calling to reconcile a diverse population to Christ. He finds himself in a crossfire when Dutch Reform New York religion clashes with Hebrew tradition and modern evangelism.

With my family background of Irish settlers from the mid 19th Century who came to New York City and the downstate region, I have enjoyed exploring some of the early subcultures in one of the most historically diverse places on the planet. The first Jews to arrive in the United states came to what would become New York City in 1654. They were fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, and arrived in New Amsterdam to begin a new life. By 1840 when my story is set in Westchester County, NY, there were 15,000 Jewish people in the united States. 

Leopold Hoffman Cohn

Rabbi Leopold Cohn established a ministry in Brooklyn, in the Brownsville section, to Jews in the late 1800's. A convert to Christianity, his outreach focused on the influx of immigrants in the latter part of the century, with schooling and various services as they settled in the New World to escape the pogroms throughout Europe. His ministry was called The Brownsville Mission to the Jews, officially established in 1894, and later renamed American Board of Missions to the Jews, which was the largest outreach in the America to Jewish believers in the 1930's and 1940's. The name would change again in 1984 to Chosen People Ministries. 

_____________________________________________________

Kathleen L. Maher has had an infatuation with books and fictional heroes ever since her preschool crush, Peter Rabbit. Her published works include "Love Brick by Brick," a historical romance in BARBOUR's 2018 Victorian Christmas Brides novella collection, featuring her hometown of Elmira, New York. The Abolitionist's Daughter, Book 1 in Sons of the Shenandoah Series released August 2018, won the 2012 ACFW Genesis Award historical category. Book 2 in Sons of the Shenandoah Series releases March 2019, and "Something Old, Something New" releases in Barbour's Lessons on Love collection in Fall 2019. 

Kathleen shares an old farmhouse in upstate New York with her husband, children, and a small zoo of rescued animals.
Follow Kathleen
on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KLMaherAuthor/
on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mahereenie
and on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/kathleenlmaher

History of Times Square Ball Dropping

By Tiffany Amber Stockton


BOOK GIVEAWAY POST!

So, is anyone else still reeling with the realization that 2013 is completely gone now? Time seems to pass more quickly these days, but so many still speak of not having enough time to accomplish what they want to get done. Modern conveniences have "supposedly" made our lives easier, but if you ask me, they've only complicated our worlds more and distracted us from our goals.

But not all modern inventions are bad. Sometimes, they can enhance existing items and make for more enjoyable experiences. Like the celebrations every New Year's Eve in Times Square, New York. As the years have passed from the first celebration held at that spot, modern inventions have only added to the rousing festivities.

NEW YEAR'S EVE in TIMES SQUARE

The first Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration was in 1904, in honor of the new headquarters for The New York Times. The newspaper wanted a way to announce their arrival into what was formerly known as Longacre Square, and The New York Times owner Adolph Ochs thought New Year’s Eve was the perfect time for a party.

Roughly 200,000 attendees showed up to One Times Square for the all-day street festival, which ended with fireworks set off from the base of the tower. 1904 also brought the city’s first subway line, but that's a topic for another post. :)

The Times Square Ball dropped for the first time in 1907, when fireworks alone just weren’t cutting it anymore. Adolph Ochs wanted a bigger spectacle, so he put the newspaper’s chief electrician Walter Painer and designer Artkraft Strauss on the job. Drawing inspiration from the time-balls traditionally used in the maritime world, they designed a 700-pound ball, measuring five feet in diameter, fashioned out of iron and wood, and covered in 100 25-watt light bulbs.

On New Year’s Eve, the ball was hoisted up the rooftop flagpole by six men, and when it fell to the roof, it triggered the lighting of a neon sign indicating the new year had begun and the start of a fireworks show. The tradition continued like this for another thirteen years until 1920.

Counting the first ball in 1907 and our present one, there have been six different iterations of the Times Square Ball. In 1920, the original ball retired and made way for the new, lighter design: 400 pounds, made entirely of iron, and maintaining that 5-foot diameter.

In 1955, it got even slimmer: 150 pounds of aluminum, controlled by just one push of a button.

In 1996, this ball was updated with the addition of a computerized lighting system consisting of 180 halogen bulbs and 144 strobe lights, plus over 12,000 rhinestones.

For the millennium celebration, the Times Square team brought in Waterford Crystal to help design the fourth ball — then technically a “geodesic sphere.” It measured six feet in diameter, weighed 1,070 pounds, and incorporated over 600 halogen bulbs, 504 crystal triangles, 96 strobe lights, and spinning mirrors.

The ball went "green" in 2008, marking the Times Square Ball Centennial with a fifth design: 6-foot diameter; 1,212 pounds; lit by 9,567 energy-efficient LED lamps with computerized color patterns; and made up of the same Waterford crystal panels. The lights were said to use the same amount of energy as about ten toasters.

The ball we see today is the sixth, made in 2009, and absolutely massive. With a 12-foot diameter; a weight of 11,875 pounds; 32,256 LED lamps; and 2,688 crystal panels, the kaleidoscopic sphere is twice as large as its predecessor. Beginning this year, the panels will be designed based on different themes of gifts — 2014 being “Gift of Imagination” — with new additions made every year.

From 1981 to 1988, the ball was decorated to look like an apple. The “big apple” was outfitted with red bulbs and a green stem as part of the “I Love New York” campaign.

There have only been two years in which the ball didn’t drop: 1942 and 1943, during the wartime “dimout” of New York City. Crowds still gathered at Times Square and shared a moment of silence followed by chimes.

The New York Times moved out of the building right at the end of the first world war, not even ten years after constructing it, leaving it vacant and falling into disrepair. A New Yorker Talk of the Town story in 1961 claimed that it had housed a speakeasy and, during World War II, space for the F.B.I. to practice shooting and trap German spies.

It was briefly marketed as a tourist destination by onetime owner Allied Chemical.The building was wallpapered in advertisements when the Lehman Brothers bought it in 1995, and — empty but for the first three floors, which are occupied by Walgreens, and the upper floors used by One Times Square Production Management Team — it has functioned as a 25-story billboard ever since. It seems to be doing just fine, too. Filings from 2012 show that the billboards brought in over $23 million annually, which is 85% of the building’s total revenue.

The coldest ball drop was in 1917, with a midnight temperature reaching down to 1 °F and wind chill of -18 °F. According to the National Weather Service, the average midnight temperature in New York City between 1907 and 2011 was 33.7 °F. The lucky attendees of 1965 and 1972 experienced the record high: 58 °F.

About one million people stand outside and celebrate. Over a billion watch the broadcast from around the world. One ton (2,200 pounds) of confetti is dropped on the crowd at midnight.One ton (2,200 pounds) of confetti is dropped on the crowd at midnight. Throughout the year, people are invited to write their New Year’s wishes on pieces of confetti, which are then mixed in with the bunch.

You can celebrate at Times Square without being all cold and claustrophobic outside, but it’ll cost you. A lot. Though you can get into most of the New Year’s Eve parties in and around Times Square for anywhere from $75 to $225, a few of the all-inclusive events can run much, much higher. A seat in the Direct Ball Drop View section of the Marriott Marquis Broadway Lounge will cost you $3,500; while a table for two in The R Lounge goes for $8,500. And, of course, there’s always Applebee’s, which is offering a buffet, open bar, and live DJ for a whopping $375 a person.

The Times Square Ball has inspired many varied drops around the country, from the peach drop in Atlanta, to the Hershey Kiss drop in Hershey, to the Snooki drop in Seaside Heights. In 2011, the Jersey Shore star was dropped inside a clear ball in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. MTV’s original plan was to drop the Snooki Ball in Times Square, but the request — “too late and too impractical,” according to Times Square NYE producers — was denied.

When it’s all over, the city is left with almost 50 tons of trash, which takes about two days to clean. In 2013, sanitation workers swept up party hats, confetti, balloons, and debris for 48 hours, beginning just moments after the ball dropped. The project took 151 workers, 24 supervisors, two superintendents, and two deputy chiefs.

* * * * *

QUESTION for BOOK GIVEAWAY

Instead of asking a question with a single or multiple choice answer, I'm going to ask you to make a personal choice.

Go back to the article and select one fact you find unique or fascinating. What about that fact makes you want to know more or makes it stand out to you? Leave your answer with your email address (name [at] domainname [dot] com) to be entered in the drawing this month for an autographed copy of your choice of 1 of 3 books from my available titles:

Good luck! I'll draw a winner on January 15th, my father's birthday. :)

---

BIO
Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood. Today, she is an award-winning author, speaker, and brand partner with Nerium International, who lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, in Colorado. They have one girl and one boy, and an Aussie/retriever mix named Roxie. She has sold fourteen books so far and is represented by Sandra Bishop of MacGregor Literary Agency. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.