A city block, bounded by four streets. The other use is also familiar, as in the cases of Madison Square, New York, and Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia.
1784. Nine or ten lamps will abundantly lighten every square [in Baltimore].—Maryland Journal, Oct. 19.
1796. You had mortgaged to him squares 545 and 546 of your [Washington] property. On one of these squares I erected two houses.—The Aurora, Phila., Oct. 19.
1796. Citizens of New York, you have been witnesses to the sudden destruction of a rich square in the center of the city, by the devouring element of fire.—Gazette of the U.S., Phila., Dec. 14.
1800. The President, on Friday forenoon, walked several squares through the city.—The Aurora, Phila., June 23.
1804. The adjacent houses, and in fact the whole square, were considered in the most imminent danger.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 3.
1809. Fire destroyed upwards of a square of the best part of [Richmond].—The Repertory, Boston, April 7: from the Alexandria Gazette.
1823. Sam gained considerably, and when he had got about two squares he took up an alley.—Mass. Spy, July 2.
1825. A whole square would burst into a blaze, at once. By squares in the city of New York, are meant blocks.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ iii. 137.
1828. The whole of that well-built square, lying between Market and Dock Streets, and between Front Street and the river (in Wilmington, N.C.) is destroyed.—Richmond Enquirer, Feb. 2, p. 4/2.
1830. The “milky way” marked the gutter current for more than a square.—Mass. Spy, March 10.
1835. The “squares” [in New-Orleans] are lessened in breadth at the extremity nearest the river, and occasionally form pentagons and parallelograms, with oblique sides, if I may so express it.—Ingraham, ‘The South-West,’ i. 91.
1836. Before he can get to the distance of five squares, he is totally off soundings, and lost in the fog.—Phila. Public Ledger, July 25.
1837. Not a word was said while they walked several squares.—J. C. Neal, ‘Charcoal Sketches,’ p. 149.
1838. The boy led off in fine style, nor was he overtaken until he had run four or five squares.—Balt. Comml. Transcript, Feb. 16, p. 2/4.
1848. After bumpin along for ’bout half a square, I found myself in the street.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Major Jones’s Sketches of Travel,’ p. 127 (Phila.).
1853. The best amusement of the succeeding day was, to see a dirty-faced little urchin of some four years, run with a long strip of paper, reaching two squares.—Knick. Mag., xlii. 633 (Dec.).
1859. It was an immense distance down to Trinity Church, which he obstinately refused to desert for Trinity Chapel, only five squares off.—Id., liii. 471–2 (May).
1859. He is in the city, and not only that, but only three squares from the Capitol.—Mr. Taylor of Louisiana, House of Repr., Dec. 20: Cong. Globe, p. 190.
