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Lost Central Park – north end
Conservatory in Central Park, 1902. Image: Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of Central Park, 1902.

Lost Central Park – north end

If you’ve read any of my books on Alexander Hamilton, you know I’m a fanatic about primary sources. So when I started to research Central Park, one of my first steps was to look at all the photos and all the contemporary reports that I could find. You can see the resulting essays on this site via the Central Park tag, especially the pages on early images of the Park.

This post and last week’s include images of buildings, sculptures, and landscape features in the south and north ends of Central Park that I did not write essays on, because they’ve long since disappeared.

The Lake

Although Olmsted preferred a minimal number of buildings in the Park, boating on the Lake became so popular that in 1873, a boathouse was finally constructed. It was designed by Calvert Vaux, the Park’s consulting architect.

Vaux’s Boathouse in Central Park, 1872. From the annual report of the Board of Commissioners, 1872-1873.
Calvert Vaux’s Boathouse with rowers on the Lake, 1896. Photo: New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Vaux’s Boathouse in Central Park, 1913.
Gondoliers in Vaux’s boathouse, Central Park. Photo: Library of Congress

Vaux’s Boathouse was replaced in 1924 by a single-story, wooden structure.

Lake in Central Park, with later Boathouse, 1924 or later. Photo: Library of Congress

Now on this site is the Loeb Boathouse, which opened in 1953.

In the Ramble

When the Ramble opened, visitors were allowed to explore a cave near the Rustic Arch.

Rustic Arch in the Ramble, with cave to the left, 1862. Image: New York Public Library Digital Collections.
View of the cave from the outside. Photo: New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Cave. Image: Louis Prang, chromolithographed cards of Central Park, 1864. Photos courtesy WIlliam Reese Company
Interior of the cave, 1869. Image: Clarence Cook, in A Description of the New York Central Park, 1869.
View from the cave toward the Ramble, 1869. Interior of the cave, 1869. Image: Clarence Cook, in A Description of the New York Central Park, 1869.

The cave has been closed to the public for many years.

At East 105th Street

A conservatory for plants was originally planned just north of 72nd Street. That’s why the small pond where remote-control sailboats zip around is called “Conservatory Water”. The conservatory was not actually built until 1898, however, and it was placed far to the north.

Map of the north end of Central Park, from a 1905 publication. Image: Internet Archive.
Conservatory in Central Park, 1902. Image: Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of Central Park, 1902.
Interior of the Conservatory, 1908. Photo: New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Within a few decades the Conservatory fell into disrepair. Robert Moses had it torn down in 1934. It was replaced with the Conservatory Gardens, which include a memorial to Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Near 106th Street

In 1847, the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul established the Academy of Mount Saint Vincent, a school for women, in northern Manhattan, near McGown’s Pass. When the city began acquiring land for Central Park, the Sisters moved to Riverdale. One of the only pre-Park buildings on the site of Central Park that was not demolished was Mount Saint Vincent.

Mount St. Vincent. Image: New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Mount St. Vincent. Image: New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Olmsted and his family lived at Mount St. Vincent for several years while he was overseeing the construction of the Park. During the Civil War, wounded soldiers were housed there. A few years later, the basement was converted into an art gallery. Auld Lang Syne was eventually taken there (see last week’s post__), along with many sculptures by Thomas Crawford (1814-1857), a Neoclassical sculptor who trained with Bertel Thorvaldsen.

Statuary hall in Mount St. Vincent. Image: New York Public Library Digital Collections.

In 1881 a fire destroyed Mount St. Vincent, most of its contents, and all its outbuildings. If you hike up the hill northwest of the Conservatory Gardens, you can still find some of the foundation blocks.

Mount Saint Vincent after the 1881 fire.

Within a few years, McGown’s Tavern was constructed near the site of Mount St. Vincent – one of the few restaurants in the Park.

McGowan’s Pass Tavern in 1908. Photo: Museum of the City of New York.

After the Tavern fell into disrepair, its furnishings were auctioned off in 1915, and the building was razed in 1917.

More

  • Three pages on this site include extensive photos and sketches of Central Park’s early years, in chronological order: through 1860, 1861-1865, and 1866-1870.
  • Central Park: The Early Years covers Central Park from the 1850s to 1870s. Details here, or order on Amazon here.
  • Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my free Sunday Recommendations list and rewards for recurring support: details here.