Category Archives: Uncategorized

There were a number of stereoscopic views of this area manufactured in the 1860s and 70s. This is pretty much how things looked when Frederick Law Olmsted and his family lived here, 1859-1862, while Olmsted was directing the construction of … Continue reading →

On the Bridle Path in Central Park, by East Drive near 102nd Street, there is a sudden rise in elevation. No more than a few feet in height, and no more than a few yards in length. It seems to … Continue reading →

John Joseph Holland was an English-born architect and watercolorist who settled in New York and drew most of the first-hand depictions we have of the Fort Clinton and McGowan’s Pass area in the early 1800s. This is his watercolor of … Continue reading →

Another curious image from Valentine’s Manual, 1863 issue, displaying that almanac’s continuing interest with McGowan’s Pass. The sledge may have been drawn from life, but the setting is just an imaginative reconstruction. You can imagine how the illustrator’s mind worked: … Continue reading →

A drawing c. 1855 from Valentine’s Manual, supposedly an 1814 view of Fort Fish and Nutter’s Battery (Nutting Battery?).  There is also Fort Clinton, the teepee-like rock in the left distance. And finally the McGowan house at the top of … Continue reading →

Patrick H. McCann, who held the lease for the rebuilt Mount St. Vincent’s Hotel, 1885-1890, did not get his lease renewed in 1890. When called to testify before the investigating committee of State Sen. Jay Fassett, he explained why. Mayor … Continue reading →

(Snippets from the New York Times, 27 January 1886) The Mount St. Vincent is two stories high, and heated throughout by steam and lighted by Edison’s incandescent light… The building, which is owned by the city, was completed by the … Continue reading →

It’s the Civil War era, and Mount St. Vincent’s is a military hospital in Central Park! Note the American flag flying there on the left, atop one of the rambling frame wings that Elizabeth Boyle and the Sisters of Charity … Continue reading →

View, Looking North, Near Museum is the frontispiece of a privately published 1869 volume entitled A Description of the New York Central Park, by one Clarence Cook, and published by F. J. Huntington of 459 Broome Street. The Museum is … Continue reading →

“A map of part of New-York Island showing a plan of Fort Washington, now call’d Ft. Kniphausen with the rebels lines on the south part, from which they were driven on the 16th of November 1776 by the troupes under … Continue reading →