The Belvedere Castle was designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould and was originally used as a lookout. The Belvedere Tower was the home for the New York Meteorological Observatory, founded by Dr. Daniel Draper in 1868. It is now used by the United States Weather Bureau. 

on Vista Rock next to Shakespeare's garden in Central Park

Belvedere Tower

Ross Lewis, NYC artist, discusses his temporary piece that was once located at Belvedere Castle in Central Park.

 The Croton Fountain was placed in the center of City Hall Park to celebrate the Croton Aqueduct, New York City&rsquo;s first dependable supply of pure water. The aqueduct drew water from the Croton Dam more than 40 miles (64 km) north of the city and was considered one of the great engineering feats of the 19th century. 

In 1871 the Croton Fountain was replaced by a new fountain designed by Jacob Wrey Mould, co-designer of Central Park&rsquo;s Bethesda Fountain, which became the centerpiece of the smaller park.The pool and column on the City Hall Park Fountain are made of granite, while the candelabra is made of cast bronze.

Square pool with candelabrum at each corner; central column consisting of circular basin with umbrella above, surmounted by fixture

The aqueduct drew water from the Croton Dam more than 40 miles (64 km) north of the city and was considered one of the great engineering feats of the 19th century.

City Hall Park

City Hall Park Fountain

 Designed and constructed over a thirty-year period (1865-1895) by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the masterminds behind Central Park, Prospect Park has blossomed into a premiere destination for Brooklyn visitors and residents alike. Widely known for its intricate manmade watercourse (wetlands) and its trees, the bulk of Brooklyn's remaining indigenous forest, the park is a highly functional green space. Contained within its 585 acres are a zoo, the first urban-area Audubon Center in the nation, an ice rink, a band shell, a carousel, and dozens of athletic and recreational facilities.  

Prospect Park

Morningside Park is a 30-acre public park in Upper Manhattan. The area near Morningside Park was originally known as Muscota by the Lenape Native Americans in the Delaware languages. A park in this location was first proposed by the Central Park commissioners in 1867, and the city commissioned Central Park's designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux to produce a design for the park in 1873.

Morningside Park

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe talks about the history of Morningside Park, Harlem's southernmost historic park, and some of its notable design features and amenities. The park was designed by the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and took years to complete; Benepe charts the difficult construction of this New York City landmark and how it has evolved over the years, including the controversial 1968 Columbia University plan to build a gymnasium on the park's edge.

 The Bank of New York was founded in 1784. Its first offices were in the old Walton family mansion on Pearl Street, in the current Financial District. 

The bank moved to a site on Hanover Square in 1787. Nine years later, the bank's board was looking for "better facilities and a more desirable location", and voted to move to the corner of Wall and William Streets at a cost of 10,000 New York pounds. The new structure was constructed "with the necessary vaults for the business of the bank", and it opened on April 23, 1798. Several years later, 7 feet (2.1 m) were trimmed off the William Street side of the building when that street was widened, and the bank received compensation of $35,000 (equivalent to $605,000 in 2020).

 In subsequent years, other banks began moving to residential buildings on Wall Street, and by the 1820s, financial institutions made up the vast majority of tenants. In the mid-19th century, many Wall Street banks destroyed their former structures to erect new Greek Revival and Italianate buildings. Among these were the Bank of New York, which in 1856 approved a plan for a four-story structure to plans by Vaux and Withers. The structure was completed in 1858. The brownstone and brick building measured 126 feet (38 m) on William Street and 38 feet (12 m) on Wall Street. The interior banking room, with a ceiling 26 feet (7.9 m) high, was located at the building's rear (north) end on the 1st and 2nd stories. Two additional stories were built in 1880, including a mansard roof on the top story. 

 A 513-foot-tall (156 m) skyscraper designed in the neo-Georgian style, with adaptations from the Colonial Revival style. The facade is arranged so that the lowest stories are clad with granite and the upper stories are faced with limestone. A large-scale program of ornamentation was used on the facade, inspired by formal Georgian models. Due to the narrow street grid of the Financial District, the surrounding skyscrapers obstruct the view of the building from many angles; as a result, most of the ornamentation is at the base, where the banking room is. All ornamentation and windows are on the western and southern elevations. The eastern and northern elevations are completely windowless with stucco walls. 

The current structure is the third to be erected on the same plot, as the Bank of New York had previously erected buildings on the site in 1797 and 1858. Founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1784, the Bank of New York was New York City's first bank. The original structure was demolished in 1854 and replaced with a new one designed by Calvert Vaux. That too met the wrecking ball; the current building is the design of Benjamin Wistar Morris who created a restrained Renaissance style building. There are 8 murals painted by J. Monroe Hewlett illustrating scenes of the development of business and commerce at the turn of the century.Built in Neo-Georgian and Colonial Revival styles.

The eastern and northern elevations are completely windowless with stucco walls.  

48 Wall Street

New York State Legislature passed the act establishing the Park. &nbsp;

The design by Olmsted and Vaux included internal roads for open-air driving and a grassy stretch - aptly called Sheep Meadow - where sheep grazed until 1934.

Central Park is the fifth largest park in the city, covering 843 acres and the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually. This massive green space at the center of Manhattan spans 51 city blocks from north to south and three avenues from east to west.

The entire area bounded by 60th and 110th Streets and Central Park West and Fifth Avenue

Central Park

Trinity Cemetery is the only remaining active cemetery in Manhattan. Site of the graves of John James Audubon, Alfred Tennyson Dickens, John Jacob Astor, and other eminent past citizens of New York City. Two bronze tablets mark the spot where some of the fiercest fighting of the Revolutionary War occurred during the Battle of Washington Heights. Each Christmas, several hundred New Yorkers participate in a candlelight ceremony at the grave of Clement Clarke Moore, son of one of Trinity's past rectors and author of the beloved poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas."


Trinity Cemetery and Mausoleum

A description of Trinity Cemetery and its history.

This impressive museum was built in the Romanesque Revival style with pink granite, a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and marble floors.

The Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History houses the Museum’s new graduate program in comparative biology, the first museum program in the United States to grant PhDs. Occupying the top floor of the historic 1891 museum building designed by Josiah Cleveland Cady, the School includes a student lounge, a 25-person teaching lab, administrative offices, and a 50-person lecture hall. The project provides a home base for graduate students now scattered throughout the complex as well as a new identity for the program within the restored historic fabric of the building. The School is located along the “Golden Corridor of Science,” the monumentally scaled hallway that stretches more than 600 feet of the Museum’s upper floor. The heart of the complex is a double-height student lounge, ringed with a mezzanine with individual study carrels. A glazed wall opens the lounge to the corridor.

The original Hayden Planetarium, built in 1935, at the American Museum of Natural History was the fourth planetarium in the US. Designed by Trowbridge and Livingston, it sported an Art Deco concrete copper-covered dome, reflecting confidence in scientific progress. Inside, the planetarium housed state-of-the-art instruments, including the Zeiss II projector financed by Charles Hayden. The dome's interior was acoustically remarkable. The structure also featured an array of murals and an auditorium that projected past and future skies. The shows, blending science and optimism, aimed to soothe Depression-era fears. In WWII, the planetarium also assisted in training military personnel.&nbsp;

The Rose Center for Earth and Space redefines the identity of this venerable cultural and academic institution for the 21st century while respecting the historic architecture of the designated landmark. Along with the Arthur Ross Terrace, the Weston Pavilion and the renovated Theodore Roosevelt Park, The Rose Center completes the Museum’s north side. The iconic sphere, housed within a glass cube, contains the state-of-the art Hayden Planetarium and “Big Bang” theater, whose program describes the origins of the universe. The building itself is designed as a learning tool, as a visible expression of the science it contains. Its extraordinary curtain wall, structural system and lighting, its use of materials and color, its open planning and single, striking volumetric expression all reveal to the visitor an iconic example of building technology and science that makes this new building a worthy complement to the existing museum and an effective expression of the institution’s scientific and educational mission.

The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, the latest expansion of New York's historic American Museum of Natural History, responds to the urgent need for better science understanding and access to education. Created from within, the design enhances the Museum's functionality and visitor experience throughout the campus. The project establishes a new, accessible entrance and a strong east-west axis, creating over thirty connections between ten buildings and replacing former dead ends with continuous circulation. The Gilder Center introduces new exhibitions, education, collections, and research spaces, unveiling previously behind-the-scenes functions to the public and revealing the Museum's diverse collections and ongoing scientific research. Inspired by natural processes, the architecture mirrors a porous geological structure shaped by wind and water, with a central five-story atrium welcoming visitors. The atrium is supported by structural walls and arches that carry the building's load. Constructed with shotcrete, a technique used for infrastructure, the building boasts a seamless, visually unified interior that extends outward, harmonizing with the park and neighborhood. The atrium promotes energy efficiency by channeling light and air, and passive cooling is achieved through stone cladding, shaded windows, and vegetation. The Gilder Center, with its advanced environmental strategies and commitment to the natural world, exemplifies the Museum's mission.

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Transparency Collection, 4 x 5

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. The new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, designed by Studio Gang and set in Theodore Roosevelt Park, connects 10 buildings across the Museum’s four-block campus, establishing continuous pathways to enhance visitor circulation.

Interior - early illustration -1877. New York City. The Presidential Visit - President Hayes participating in the opening ceremonies of the Museum of Natural History, Manhattan Square, Eighth Avenue and Seventy-Ninth to Eighty-First Street, on Saturday, December 22nd

Verso: The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial at the American Museum of Natural History was erected by the people of the State of New York as a tribute to a famous son who served as its Governor and later as the 26th President of the United States - a man who was renowned, also, for his interest in natural history and conservation. The architecture of the Memorial is in the classic style, the facade of which is set off by four iconic columns 54 feet high. Surmounting these columns are statues of Boone, Audubon, Clark, and Lewis, pioneers in the early exploration of our country. A bronze equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt by James Earle Fraser stands in front of the entrance. Giant Post Card. The American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Series Code: 77746-B. Publisher: Dexter Press, Inc.

Verso: Mr. and Mrs. J Meade, Oak Island, Babylon, Long Island Dear Mr. and Mrs. Meade: We sent you a bag of stale bread for your chickens. Keep in a dry place. We are all well and hope you are the same. Louise

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Transparency Collection, 35mm

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Negative Collection, 8 x 10

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Negative Collection, 4 x 5

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Transparency Collection

AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Negative Collection, 5 x 7

Drawing of Hayden Planetarium interior, by Hugh Ferris of Trowbridge and Livingston, Architects, New York, May, 1934

American Museum of Natural History

Todd Shlieman talks about the Rose Center for Earth and Space- a new paradigm for planetaria based on transparency, openness and connectedness. The architect shares his excitement about being able to provide a vessel and an inspiration for learning about the universe through the design of his building.  


A gorgeous promenade lined with American elm trees. The lower end of the Mall is known informally as Literary Walk or Poets’ Walk, as four of the five statues memorialize poets and writers: William Shakespeare (1870), Robert Burns (ca. 1880), Sir Walter Scott (1871), and Fitz-Greene Halleck (1876); the fifth represents Christopher Columbus (1892).In 2020, this stretch of the Mall became the site of the first new monument added to the Park in over 50 years, the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument.

The Mall & Literary Walk

at the foot of the path that leads from E Drive at 72nd

 An English-American architect and landscape designer, best known as the co-designer, along with his prot&eacute;g&eacute; and junior partner Frederick Law Olmsted, of what would become New York City's Central Park.

Calvert Vaux

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HISTORIC MAPS