Monthly Archives: July 2011

Farther up, the old Post Road passed Legget’s Black Horse Tavern on its west side, this was the advance post of the British, September 15, 1776, the day before the battle of Harlem. It stood at the seventh milestone (Ninety-sixth … Continue reading →

From Clarence Cook’s Description of the Central Park, a limited-edition book published in 1869. Engraving by the painter Albert Fitch Bellows. A very rare depiction of the region soon after the Meer was built. “…the visitor observes with pleasure that … Continue reading →

View from Fort Fish at McGowan’s Pass looking towards Haerlem, as artist J. J. Holland inscribes it. You can see Nutter’s Battery in the distance on the left and Fort Clinton on the right, as well as about a dozen … Continue reading →

Yet another fantasia on McGowan’s Pass, as conjured up at the time of Central Park’s opening. As usual, we are supposed to be looking at a pastoral scene of about 1814-1816. By 1858 Fort Fish (top of the photo) was … Continue reading →

Another fine John Joseph Holland watercolor from the latter half of 1814, retrieved from the “emuseum” link at the New-York Historical Society. What is unusual about this image is that it looks east over the Harlem Creek leading to the … Continue reading →

We noted earlier how the McGowan’s Pass gatehouse radically changes shape as we go from one illustration to another. Stranger still is how the McGown house up on the hill seems to be re-imagined in each depiction. This lovely view … Continue reading →

Occasionally one comes across mention of “Koch’s New Mount St. Vincent’s Hotel,” a quasi-rural roadhouse that opened in the vicinity of Hamilton Heights around 1883 or 1884, after the old Mount St. Vincent’s Hotel in Central Park burned down (in … Continue reading →