Initially arising as a cultural center of theaters, music halls, and boutique hotels, Times Square fell into disrepair during the Great Depression. Adult theaters and sex shops then took over while the neighborhood became an open market for prostitution and drugs. By , Times Square was one of the most dangerous areas of the city, with over 2, crimes committed every year in a one-block radius. We look at this Times Square of yesteryear, where chaos and seediness reigned supreme:.
For more of Times Square, watch this gripping minute video, "Doin' Time In Times Square," dubbed "the home video from hell," shot by director and artist Charlie Ahearn from his Times Square apartment in the s:.
Enjoy this look at the seedier incarnations of Times Square? Then check out these s New York photos and some staggering images of the New York City subway in the s. By Alec. Before Times Square was a global attraction, it was home to sex shops and drug dealers, earning a reputation as the sketchiest part of New York City.
Like this gallery? Share it: Share Tweet Email. Twenty-five-cent peep shows were the first adult stores to arrive in Times Square beginning in Enormously profitable, they opened the door for adult movie theaters, strip clubs, and sex stores.
National Archives and Records Administration. As Times Square took on a new feel, the businesses of the previous generation fled. Maggie Hopp. The sex trade arrived shortly after adult stores. With its proximity to highways and subways and thus an unhindered flow of people , prostitution flourished without interference from law enforcement. In the photograph above, a prostitute rests on the hood of a police car in A group of prostitutes walk through the side streets of Broadway and Times Square in New York in the summer of A man looks at the offerings of a peep show store adjacent to a "sensitive meeting place" with "lovely girls.
