The Vauxhall Gardens

The original Vauxhall Gardens was located in a smaller site on Greenwich Street near the Hudson River between what later became Warren and Chambers streets in the fashionable Sixth Ward; Public School 234 stands at the site today. Ratzer's map shows its square garden plot, conventionally divided in four by walks.

Fraunces operated Vaux-Hall through Summer 1773; in October, he auctioned its contents and sold the property. His notice mentioned two large gardens, a house with four rooms per floor and twelve fireplaces, and a dining hall that was 56 feet long and 26 feet wide, with a kitchen below.? The Vauxhall offered light summer concerts? and featured an outdoor wax museum. For the summer 1768 season, it hosted an exhibit on the life of Scipio Africanus that included a grove with a reconstruction of the military leader at his tent.

By this point, the gardens had two namesake competitors, one of which was primarily popular for its ice cream. As New York City expanded, streets of rowhouses with rear gardens swallowed the site. In 1798, owner Joseph Delacroix moved his operations to Broome Street between Broadway and the Bowery.

In 1805, it moved, this time to Lafayette Street, stretching from 4th to 8th streets in what were then the northern reaches of the city,? the area that later became Astor Place, 4th Street, Broadway, and the Bowery.? Its theater's boxes faced the garden and blocked the stage from the street.