Back in 1907, metalworker Jacob Starr made the first glowing ball to be lowered from One Times Square at midnight on December 31st. Just five feet in diameter, it didn’t look like more than a chandelier at Grand Central Terminal. Made from iron, wood and 100 lightbulbs that were only a dim 25 watts (I don’t even know if they sell wattages that low anymore!), the 700 lb ball was lowered from a flagpole on the roof. Starr was really a New Year’s Eve star, as he got to lower the ball himself, as did a member of the company he founded, Artkraft Strauss, for most of the 1900s.

Before the ball drop, celebrators would go to Times Square area lobster palaces that popped up all over the area. But just like the overpriced Planet Hollywood, Olive Garden and Carmine’s in the tourist-heavy Times Square, members of New York Society wouldn’t be caught dead there.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!