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Jacob Wrey Mould (1825-1886) was a bit of a beast. George Templeton Strong, who admired him, called him “ugly and uncouth.” A leading architectural magazine labeled him “brilliant, accomplished, ingenious, erratic.” (The Builder, quoted by Christopher Gray in New York Times “Streetscapes”, 5/13/2010). But the beast could create beauty. As associate architect for Central Park for a quarter century, he produced colorful, exquisitely detailed designs ranging from bird cages and water fountains to whole buildings. This post shows some of my favorites.

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Among the Park’s earliest structures was Mould’s shelter for musicians. An early guidebook said the Music Pavilion, with its star-studded ceiling and bands of bright colors, was “too beautiful to be left outdoors.” Apparently the Board of Commissioners thought so, too. An illustration in Brenwall’s Central Park: Original Designs for New York’s Greatest Treasure shows the specs for a shelter that was set around it in the winter months.

Mould’s fountain at Cherry Hill – created as an elegant watering trough for horses – is strikingly similar to its much bigger brother at City Hall.

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The work most often associated with Mould is the architectural centerpiece of the park: Bethesda Terrace. On the overall design of the Terrace, Mould collaborated with Calvert Vaux. But the fantastically detailed reliefs are very much Mould’s own style. So are the brilliant colors of the tiles under the esplanade, which hark back to Mould’s early training with Owen Jones.

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Mould also collaborated with Vaux on the stables, which today house the Central Park Police Precinct.

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In the 1870s Mould worked with Vaux on the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. The decorative details on their original staircases are probably Mould’s work.

Under Boss Tweed, Mould had a brief but glorious stint as chief architect for Central Park. Next to the Arsenal, he designed a colorful wooden building to house some of the menagerie animals.

To replace the other half of Belvedere Castle – deemed too expensive for even Boss Tweed’s budgets – Mould built a brightly colored wooden pavilion. (On the restoration of that pavilion, see this post.)

For ladies waiting for the trolley, Mould created charming cast-iron shelters. This one was at the southwest corner of Central Park until it was displaced by the Maine Monument.

Most memorable of Mould’s solo buildings is the Sheepfold, boldly striped and vividly tiled, which most of us know by its later name: Tavern on the Green.

And finally, the most eccentric bridge in Central Park – unfortunately no longer with us. Vaux and Mould’s Gapstow Bridge been replaced by a much more durable but far less interesting version.

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• If you like Mould’s work, you’ll love Cynthia Brenwall’s Central Park: Original Designs for New York’s Greatest Treasure. Using archival material, she illustrates the early designs for the Park and sorts out who was responsible for what. The hardcover edition, published by Abrams, has gorgeous illustrations but type so small it tires my eyes. The Kindle version is easier to read, but the illustrations can unfortunately not be zoomed very much – perhaps a limitation of Kindle books rather than one set by Abrams, but regrettable nevertheless. HT Peter Frishmuth for letting me know about this and lending me his copy!
• Mould is buried in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. His tombstone is singularly inappropriate for a man with such a vivid sense of design. He deserves something like his gonfalieres on Bethesda Terrace! Photos below copyright © 2019 Dianne L. Durante

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• For more on Central Park in the 1850s-1870s, see my book Central Park: The Early Years.
• For early images of Central Park, see the pages on this site for through 1860, 1861-1865, and 1866-1870.
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