As Evans headed for a landing, twenty yards from the place where the building's revolving front doors sat wrapped in blackness, Spider-Man saw that the entire surrounding block had been evacuated; crowds of heavily-dressed onlookers, hoping to see some action, were jostling each other behind police sawhorses at both opposing intersections.

By the time that the theater and its surrounding block was torn down in 1917, based on the 1910 plans of Frederick Law Olmsted, to make room for the War Memorial Plaza and Building.

In the gloaming, decrepit houses and weedy lots dotted some surrounding blocks, on the edges of which were new double-garage brick homes - signs of encroaching gentrification, an unwanted side effect of Mr. Lowe's work.

He called it a significant find for the study of the Phoenician era in Beirut, particularly before 100 BCE, saying ""We need to preserve this site and its surrounding block, which would require the construction firm to carry out the appropriate modifications to its project.

"There are over 100 such narrow lots in the surrounding few blocks," he said.

Furthermore, a number of alleys connect to the immediate surrounding blocks: On the northern side, Trångsund and Källargränd stretch to Storkyrkobrinken and Slottsbacken on either side of the Stock Exchange Building.

Although its land area is extensive, in local vernacular terms, the Guildford "area" centers roughly around the Guildford Town Centre Mall and its surrounding blocks.

Other adjectives that cling to Times Square and its surrounding blocks like sidewalk chewing gum include: crowded, touristy, Disneyfied, overpriced and maddening.

Mordecai descendants owned the mansion property until 1967, when the house and its surrounding block were put on the market.