Feeding birds by the fountain in Bryant Park, ca. 1930s.

Bryant Park was laid out as a potter's field in 1823. The area became a public park in 1847, when it was named Reservoir Square after the adjacent reservoir. The Crystal Palace exhibition hall occupied the site from 1853 until it burned to the ground in 1858. In 1884, the park was given its present name in honor of William Cullen Bryant, the poet and newspaper editor who was also an advocate of public parks. After the main branch of the New York Public Library rose on the former site of the reservoir in 1899, Bryant Park was redesigned, and in the early years of this century became an active meeting place. During the Depression, it served as a warm-weather "dormitory" for the indigent, and in the 1970s, became a refuge for the homeless and an open market for drug dealers. Subsequent restoration and the opening of upscale restaurants have restored to its early state.