"The street outside the George Gould house at 67th Street & 5th Avenue. Horse-drawn carriages are lined up outside the house for the wedding of Anna Gould to Count Boni de Castellane, 1895."

One of three sculptures commemorating Latin American leaders, the Simon Bolivar monument celebrates the military general who helped liberate Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Panama from Spanish rule. This statue is the third iteration commissioned by the Venezuelan government in a worldwide competition. It was dedicated on April 19, 1921.

This arsenal at 64th Street was already outmoded as a military facility when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Built by Martin Euclid Thompson, it had been an auxiliary headquarters for the Seventh "Silk Stocking" Regiment since 1848. Although it was vacated by them in 1857 when the city claimed the building for its new Central Park, the arsenal continued as a military storage center in the early years of the war. It subsequently became a museum (precursor to the American Museum of Natural History), a weather bureau, and an art gallery. It also served as a makeshift zoo until 1870, when the Central Park Menagerie was given more permanent grounds behind the Arsenal. Today it serves as the headquarters for the Parks Department.

Lotos Club (1947) Built as a private residence, this house shows the most ornate phase of the Beaux Arts style as expressed by many of our architects. The desire to make an elaborate display of details, modified for the sake of originality, often led us up a blind alley.

The Delacorte Clock, ca. 1971. Named after philanthropist George T. Delacorte, the Delacorte Clock is located near the Children's Zoo and Wildlife Center in Central Park. Since it was unveiled in 1965, the clock has chimed seasonal songs and nursery rhymes on the hour and half hour everyday from 8:00 am – 6:00 pm. Its design, inspired by the musical clocks Delacorte observed during his European travels, features a tower and rotating band of animal sculptures by Andrea Spadini.

Elephant Enclosure at the Central Park Zoo, date unknown (post 1934). The Central Park Zoo began as a small menagerie in 1860 when citizens and circuses started donating animals to the city. It was the first zoo in New York State and, when officially chartered in 1864, was the second publicly owned zoo in the United States (after the Philadelphia Zoo). In 1934 the zoo entered a new era when Robert Moses, the city's master planner, built a new zoo. The grouping of new brick and limestone, neo-Georgian buildings were constructed around the new seal lion display. The featured animals included seals, lions, tigers, elephants, and gorillas. This photograph was taken after the new zoo was opened to the public. The zoo was then closed in 1983 and underwent a multi-year, multi-million dollar renovation and expansion under the supervision of the Wildlife Conservation Society, reopening in 1988.

Astor Mansion, Fifth Avenue; 1897. Where you now see Temple Emanu-El, Mrs. Astor's French chateau once stood, with a ballroom large enough for 1200 guests. Mrs. Astor— the only name she went by—was the gatekeeper of Gilded Age society. And a ticket to her annual ball told you whether you had made it in. Through blood and marriage, Mrs. Astor hailed from the city's oldest and wealthiest stock. Caroline Webster Schermerhorn was born to one of New York's first Dutch families, who made their fortune in shipping. Her husband, William Backhouse Astor, was the grandson of the country's first millionaire, John Jacob Astor, a fur trader who had the foresight to buy up Manhattan real estate in the early 1800s. Ball season extended from debutante parties in December through weddings around Easter time. But Mrs. Astor's fête—always the first Monday in January—was the most exclusive of them all. Her social advisor, Ward McAllister, had determined that there were "only about 400 people in fashionable New York," telling the press "If you go outside that number, you strike people who are either not at ease in the ballroom, or else make other people not at ease." In fact, Mrs. Astor's first ballroom accommodated up to 600 guests. But that wasn't the point. In 1895, Mrs. Astor decided to leave her home on 34th and Fifth Avenue to come up to this location before you, following the trend to move uptown. She hired William K. Vanderbilt's architect, Richard Morris Hunt, who put up the four-story French Renaissance chateau to the tune of $2 million—or $54 million in today's dollars. Like her house, Mrs. Astor's balls took their inspiration from European kings and queens. Servants wore green plush coats and brass-buttoned red vests with white breeches, black silk stockings, and gold-buckled shoes. Mrs. Astor, meanwhile, usually donned royal purple, diamonds, and pearls, and greeted guests while standing next to a portrait she commissioned of herself. Until the end of her life, Mrs. Astor tried to maintain her reign over Gilded Age society. In a 1906 interview for a magazine called, appropriately, The Delineator, Mrs. Astor said, "I hope my influence will be felt in one thing, and that is discountenancing the undignified methods employed by certain New York women to attract a following." She added that recent parties "belonged under a circus tent rather than in a gentlewoman's home," probably thinking of a recent Newport ball that had totally upended the social order with guests dressed as the servants. Mrs. Astor died in 1908. Her mansion was torn down in 1926.

Sheep Meadow ca 1910 Sheep Meadow is the best example in today’s Park of the pastoral vision that Olmsted and Vaux intended for Central Park’s meadows. Their design called for peaceful expanses of green that inspired calm and refreshing thoughts just by looking at them, not necessarily walking upon them. The fifteen-acre meadow holds true to this intention today as Central Park’s largest lawn without ballfields and as a designated quiet zone. No organized sports or gatherings are allowed on Sheep Meadow to preserve the space for quiet picnicking and relaxation. Originally a rocky and swampy terrain, Sheep Meadow was the most expensive landscape in the Park to construct. Its transformation to a pastoral meadow required the blasting of rock outcrops and the installation of four feet of soil. The landscape was first known as “the Green” or “the Commons,” but became known as “Sheep Meadow” in the early twentieth century due to the ever-present flock of pedigree sheep that grazed the meadow. For nearly fifty years, the sheep spent their days on the meadow and their evenings in the nearby Sheepfold, which is now the landmark Tavern on the Green restaurant. In the 1960s, Sheep Meadow became the iconic gathering spot for New York’s counterculture, including anti-War protests, peace rallies, love-ins, be-ins, draft card burnings, Earth Day celebrations, and popular concerts. These events, and the lack of management and proper maintenance led to severe damage and erosion on the lawn. By the late 1970s, it was a virtual dustbowl. The restoration of Sheep Meadow was one of the first projects undertaken by the Central Park Conservancy in 1980. The newly lush and well-managed lawn was the first green space that many New Yorkers had ever seen in Central Park. Public excitement over the newly opened lawn inspired and an outpouring of support for the nascent Conservancy that empowered its first decade of success. -Central Park Conservancy

17-25 East 64th Street, adjoining and west of the northwest corner of Madison Avenue.

Residence of Judge Elbert H. Gary, 1927 Like many of Candela's buildings, 856 Fifth Avenue was built on the graves of the mansions that came before it, including Judge Gary's mansion and some adjacent buildings were torn down to build Candela's 856 Fifth Avenue. The Gary mansion had stood on the site for only 15 years. Gary's widow moved into the apartment house at 856 Fifth upon its completion in 1928.

Hotel St. Moritz, 1932. The Hotel St. Moritz (seen at center) was designed by Emery Roth and constructed in 1930. The 36-story hotel is highly ornamented at the base and the upper floors, while the middle of the building is largely plain. W. Parker Chase described the hotel in his book, "New York, The Wonder City, 1932", "a picturesque cliff, amidst towering trees to the north, and other soaring skyscrapers to the south." Named for a Swiss resort town, the hotel offered long-term and short-term residence. It quickly became a popular hotel among professional athletes and theatrical figures. In the 1930s the hotel add the Café de la Paix, a sidewalk cafe that claimed to the be city's first. In 1950 the hotel underwent a complete redesign and renovation, updating the interiors to a mid-century style. The hotel's Rumpelmayer’s Café offered guests and visitors pricey coffee and ice cream. The hotel was sold a number of times in the last decades of the 20th century with its owners including Harry Helmsey and Donald Trump. Trump had plans to encase the facade in glass, gut the interiors, and convert it to condos. That plan was thwarted by a new buyer in 1999. Changing hands a few times once again, the building was finally purchased and converted into a Ritz-Carlton hotel-condominium. During this conversion the deteriorated ornamentation at the topmost floors were stripped and replaced with copies of the originals. Though the windows replacement was non-historic, the conversion was generally historically sympathetic (for a non-landmark building).

Elbridge T. Gerry Residence, 1901. Designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt, the Elbridge Thomas Gerry residence (1891-1894) on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 61st Street was built for Gerry and his family. Gerry, a prominent lawyer and philanthropist, eventually gave up his law practice to devote his time to the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a charity he helped establish in 1874. The house was demolished in 1927, the year of Gerry's death, and replaced by the Pierre Hotel, completed in 1930.

Temple Emanu-El Temple Emanu-El was established in 1845 as New York City’s first Reform congregation. 33 members met in a loft at the intersection of Clinton and Grand Streets on the Lower East Side. As the congregation grew, Emanu-El moved further and further uptown. In 1854, it moved to its third location at 110 East 12th Street, which later housed St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church. By 1868, the congregation had built a permanent structure on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, designed by Leopold Eidlitz and Henry Fernbach. Much fanfare surrounded its consecration on September 11, 1868. The following day, The New York Times reported that a limited number of tickets available for the ceremony sold out several days in advance. “The anxiety to secure them was very great. When the doors were opened there was a crushing and crowding in which ladies’ crinoline and gentlemen’s hats suffered severely.” Over time, however, the neighborhood became increasingly commercial and Temple Emanu-El was unable to expand to accommodate its growing membership. In 1925, Temple Emanu-El sold the building and purchased property at Fifth Avenue and 65th Street, the site of the John Jacob Astor mansion. Construction of the new temple at the site of the Astor mansion began in 1927 and would last two years. Architects Robert D. Kohn, Charles Butler, and Clarence Stein designed the building. In the meantime, services were held 11 blocks uptown at Temple Beth-El, another Reform synagogue. On January 10, 1930, 2,500 people attended Temple Emanu-El’s formal dedication at 1 East 65th Street, where it remains to this day.

Thanksgiving—comfortable or contentious, there are some things we've come to expect from this day each year. Whether it's the presidential turkey pardon, watching the big game, or eating too much, many families have time-honored traditions and individual ways to celebrate. One of these is The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! This Story is an abbreviated version, the original can be viewed here.

856 Fifth Avenue ca. 1929 With its smooth stone facades and flush windows rising above a three-story rusticated base, 856 Fifth Avenue was one of architect Rosario Candela's most elegantly severe designs. The building initially comprised nine single-floor apartments, two two-story maisonettes, and a penthouse duplex of 18 rooms. Interior decorator and style maven Dorothy Draper served as consultant on the building's plans and decorations.

Knickerbocker Club ca. 1915 Architects William Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich excelled at interpreting and adapting the architecture of Colonial America and the early Republic. The architects specialized in designing socially exclusive New York City clubs, for whom the Anglo-American past had rich associations. As a young architect, William Delano designed this facility for the Knickerbocker Club, an offshoot of the Union Club, in the Federal style. Delano wrote, “I felt the elaborate façades of the prevalent French School did not fit in New York,” and drew inspiration instead from the more understated expression of his father’s townhouse on Washington Square.

The Mall is a quarter-mile stretch in Central Park, capped off on the south end by the famous Literary Walk. The only deliberate straight line in the park, it contains a quadruple row of American Elm trees, an important feature as the location is one of the few remaining stands of the trees in North America. As one of the most photographed and visited sections of the park, it has been nicknamed the "Promenade."

Central Park Apartments, 59th Street ca. 1828 The Central Park Apartments, otherwise known as the Spanish or Navarro Flats for its developer Jose F. De Navarro, was praised as “the most vast, complete, and permanent apartment houses ever as yet erected in any country.” Stretching 425 feet along the southern edge of Central Park on 59th Street, east of Seventh Avenue, the massive 10-story complex “in the “Moorish style” was composed of eight smaller separate buildings, each named after a Spanish city. Navarro financed his project creatively, according to American Architect and Building News, intending “to erect the buildings in his own name, and sell the apartments absolutely to those who wished to occupy them by means of trust-deeds and perpetual leases.” The buildings could be constructed one by one, and the sale of the finished apartments paid for the construction of the next. The first four buildings—the Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Cordova—were built in 1883, and the Valencia, Granada, Salamanca, and Tolosa were completed in 1885. The complex was designed by French-born architect Philip Hubert and his firm, Hubert Pirsson & Co., who were credited with originating the cooperative apartment system as well as the duplex-apartment layout in New York. The cooperative apartment system, commenced in 1880, allowed residents to partially and collectively invest in ownership of the building. Each building contained twelve apartments, some of which included up to three floors and up to six bedrooms, a parlor, living room, dining room, and library. Apartments sold for $15,000 to $20,000 with annual maintenance fees from $1,000 to $2,000. The complex was arranged around a system of courtyards that gave light, air, and access to the buildings and the interior of the block.

New York Athletic Club, 1911. While this address is best know as the St. Moritz Hotel, prior to that classic Emery Roth building, this plot was occupied by the club house of the New York Athletic Club. Constructed in the late 1890s, the Athletic club moved into the building in October 1898. The eight-story building was lavishing decorated. The private club, founded in 1868, is considered the foundation for amateur athletics in the United States. In 1928 the club sold their 1898 building for $2.5 millions (in 1930 the Hotel St. Moritz would be completed on the lot) and moved into their new (and still occupied) City House, one block over on Seventh Avenue and Central Park South.

857 Fifth Avenue, 1929. In 1906, after seeing the new mansions of Fifth Avenue rise around him, particularly the new gleaming white Thomas Fortune Ryan mansion next door, George Gould decided to demolish his home and built something new. He hired Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer, who created an Italianate mansion that matched its neighbor's style, down to a rusticated base that was nearly exactly the same. The home once again became the host to a couple society wedding, this time for the daughters of George. George would die in 1923 and following his death, a major battle ensued over his wealth and real estate between his older children and his second wife (and former mistress with whom he had children while still married to his first wife). The house was eventually purchased by a Vanderbilt relative. Sold by that owner in 1951 for a mere $400,000 (it was built in 1907 for $1.25 million), it was torn down in the early 1960s and replaced with a 19-story building.

Inscope Arch, ca. 1910. In the 1870s, the crowds of pedestrians were becoming an annoyance to horseback riders and carriage drivers. The bridge which created the Inscope Arch was one of three suggested and built by Olmsted and Vaux in the 1870s, and it is the only one still remaining. The engineering of the bridge was complicated, as the land it occupied was once a swamp. Though the water had been drained, the soil remained soft and moveable. The resulting structure, rendered in ornamental pink and gray granite, is a half-oval archway, 13 feet 7 inches across at the base and 12 feet high in the middle. Inscope’s underpass is 34 feet long, and it has a 100-foot-long railing on top.

Dancing Goat sculpture ca. 1962 This whimsical bronze statue is part of a pair of niche sculptures that flank the buildings in the Central Park Zoo. The Dancing Goat stands at the south side, with the Honey Bear at the north. Cast at Roman Bronze Works in Brooklyn and installed in 1937, the sculptures serve as decorative fountains. Placed in basins at the sides of the zoo's Dancing Crane Cafe, both animals stand on their hind legs. Water sprays from five ducks at the feet of the goat, and from five small frogs at the feet of the bear. The lighthearted pieces were created by renowned animal sculptor and Brooklyn native Frederick George Richard Roth. They are among several Roth works acquired by Central Park in the 1920s and 1930s. (Among them is Balto, the statue of the legendary Alaskan husky). Central Park Conservancy refurbished the sculptures in 1993, and today Roth's pieces continue to delight Park and Zoo visitors of all ages.

Jewish New Year Prayer services and celebrations were always newsworthy and still are, in the pages of The Forward.

Josephine Schmidt Mansion ca. 1900 Though now replaced by the blue blooded Knickerbocker Club, this lot was once home to the Josephine Schmidt Mansion. Josephine's husband had been a successful brewer and she built this limestone chateau in 1899 following his death. However, it was not to last long for in 1909 she married the son of an Italian prince and moved to Europe. The Knickerbocker Club purchased the mansion in 1914 and tore it (and its neighbor) down to build their club house.

Essex House, ca. 1993. This 44-story Art Deco building began construction one day after the Stock Market Crash in 1929. The depression slowed the building process and the hotel, with 509 rooms, opened in October 1931. The building's most well-known feature, the roof-topping six-story, red neon sign, was erected in 1932. Taken from it's bankrupt owners only a couple years after opening, it was owned for 15 years by the US Reconstruction Finance Corporation (which gave financial support and loans to local governments and businesses, following the Depression). The hotel has cycled through various hotel chains and foreign and domestic business owners over the last 50 years. Today it is the JW Marriott Essex House, still topped by the iconic neon sign.

John Quincy Adams Ward's bronze work titled the "Indian Hunter Monument" was the first statue created by an American artist in Central Park-- and is one of the oldest statues in the park. Lauded for its realism, the original plaster work was so popular that a committee of New Yorkers raised funds in 1869 for a bronze cast.

107th Infantry Memorial, ca. 1935. A bronze figural group depicting seven larger-than-life-sized World War I soldiers in battle, the 107th Infantry Memorial honored the dead of the Seventh Regiment. Created by sculptor Karl Illava (who was a sergeant with the 107th) and placed on a massive base designed by architects Rogers and Haneman, the"doughboys" seems to be advancing out of the woods of Central Park towards the Regimental headquarters a few blocks east. The monument was dedicated on September 27, 1927, the ninth anniversary of a decisive battle at the Hindenburg Line, where the 107th helped secured a victory that turned the tide of the war.

Gapstow Bridge, ca. 1910. The iconic Gapstow Bridge over a small neck of the Central Park Pond is the second bridge on this site. The first structure was an elaborate wood and iron bridge, designed by Jacob Wrey Mould in 1874 that declined to the point that it needed to be replaced in 1896. The second bridge which still stands is constructed of Manhattan schist. The bridge is 12 feet high, spans 44 feet of water, and has a full length of 76 feet. The bridge has been featured in many films set in New York City, including Weekend at Bernies, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and It Should Happen to You.

New York Athletic Club, 1929. Founded in 1868, the New York Athletic Club is a private social and athletic club. The 180 Central Park South location, known as The City House, includes two restaurants, a cocktail lounge, library, ballroom, billiard room, meeting rooms, rooftop solarium, eight floors of guest rooms, in addition to its sports facilities. The athletic floors boast swimming pools, basketball and squash courts, fencing and wrestling rooms, and a judo floor. A Long Island location, known as Travers Island, hosts larger outdoor sporting facilities. The elite club has not existed without controversy. Since its conception, the NYAC was a men-only club. It wasn't until 1989, with pressure from both the city and the United States Supreme court, that the club allowed women to join. The New York Times wrote: "a symbol of masculine exclusivity has bowed to the forces of change and feminine scorn and agreed to accept women as members."

Victory Arch of Jewels, March 25, 1919. To celebrate the victory of the First World War and to honor those who fought, had been injured, and died for their country, New York planned a massive parade. The celebrations largely honored the efforts of the 27th Division, an Army National Guard unit, largely made up of men from New York State. 27,000 veterans marched up Fifth Avenue and more than 500,000 New Yorkers took to the streets. The New York Times noted that 'the city \[was] never so elaborately decorated or its people so enthusiastic." The Victory Arch of Jewels erected at the corner of Central Park near Grand Army Plaza at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street was one of two ornate temporary decorative arches (the other was at Madison Square Park). The Arch of Jewels marked the entrance to the section of the parade route lined on both sides with grandstands. The arch was constructed of wood and plaster and stood 80 feet tall. The two shafts were covered with thousands of prisms that when illuminated by bright beams of light sparkled with colors of the rainbow.

The Coronet, 1912. The Coronet is a 10-story brick and stone Beaux-Arts building completed in 1902. It aimed to be a high-class, modern apartment building. And high class it was with balconies, carved lions’ heads, heavy scrolled brackets, an impressive two-story arched opening, and stone parapet at the roof. By the 1970s the building was suffering from the loss of wealthy tenants. Some of its grand architectural features were lost including the parapet and some of the balconies. In 1976 the building was converted to an 85-apartment condominium. Today the building still stands, though it does not exude the grandeur it once presented.

855 Fifth Avenue, 1891. From 1885 until the mid-1890s, this home was the residence of one of the most prolific members of Hispanic society in New York. Born Francisca Aparicio y Merida in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, Aparicio had served as the First Lady of Guatemala from 1874 until 1885. Her husband, President Justo Rufino Barrios, trusted her with duties of the state. When Barrios was killed on the battlefield in an attempt to re-form the Central American Union, Aparicio moved to the United States with her seven children. Upon moving to New York City, the former First Lady purchased a building at 855 Fifth Avenue. She soon made her home widely known for lavish entertainment. A column in an Ohio newspaper of the time claimed, "of all New York's young widows and matrons she receives the most attention." The article describes "Mme. de Barrios," wearing a Cleopatra costume, herself in the possession of "a selection of jewels so great that if she wore a new parure each day there would be more than enough for all the days in the year." Aparicio's home became a social destination for Spanish-American society in New York. The residence became a lavishly decorated mansion full of Latin American Art, where Aparcios hosted classical music performances, private operas, costume balls, and dancing (a skill in which she was supposedly very talented). On one of her trips with her family to Europe, she met Jose Martinez de Roda, a member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies. They were wed in her Fifth Avenue home. As was to be expected, this ceremony was full of pomp and circumstance, with the civil service performed by New York City's mayor Hugh J. Grant and the religious ceremony by the archbishop of New York, Michael Corrigan. The couple moved to Europe shortly after they were married. One-time minister to the court of Spain Perry Belmont took over the residence after the newly-weds moved out.

Southeast corner of Fifth Avenue, ca. 1912. The building at no. 856 was constructed in 1881-1882—the corner building in a set of four townhouses (three of which faced Fifth Avenue and one at 2 East 67th Street). Designed by the firm of Lamb & Wheeler, the home was built for H.O. Armour, a meat-packing industrialist, who ran the New York syndicate of the well known Chicago firm. Armour died in 1901 and his wife sold the home in 1910. The 19th century home on this very desirable lot (of considerable size, 30 foot by 120 foot) was quickly demolished. The new construction was a mansion for Judge Elbert Gary.

On October 25th, 1917, New York City celebrated "Liberty Day," a massive attempt to raise funds for the United States entry into World War I. The campaign drew a crowd of thousands to watch a parade of military vehicles fill the streets of Fifth Avenue. Bomber planes flew low over the city, dropping a message in paper pamphlets: "A Liberty Bond in your home will keep German Bombs out of your home." But the real sight to see was the German captured submarine, renamed "U-Buy-A-Bond" in honor of the occasion.

834 Fifth Avenue ca. 1946 Designed by Rosario Candela, 834 Fifth Avenue embodies the trend in the early 20th century of luxury apartment buildings replacing townhouses and mansions as residences for the rich. Because Margaret V. Haggin, owner of the house on the corner of 64th Street and Fifth Avenue, refused to sell it to developer Anthony Campagna, Candela originally designed 834 Fifth Avenue as just a mid-block apartment building replacing a row of existing residences. During construction, however, she changed her mind, and the building was redesigned to encompass the corner. Haggin stayed on the site of her former home, occupying a duplex in the new building.

The William Tecumseh Sherman monument is one of the masterpieces of the famed New York sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens. In 1892, St. Gaudens had created a bust of General Sherman, who had moved to New York after the Civil war, and it was this bust that inspired St.Gaudens to sculpt the larger equestrian statue to commemorate Sherman's wartime contributions. Completed in 1903, the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument was placed at the main entrance of Central Park. However, when the Pulitzer Fountain was created, the Monument was moved in order for Grand Army Plaza to be symmetrical.

Bronze statue of Robert Burns, Central Park, ca. 1976. The Central Park monument to Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire, was cast by the poet's countryman, sculptor John Steell and dedicated on October 2, 1880. It is one of four casts, with its siblings located in London; Dundee, Scotland; and Dunedin, New Zealand.

Check out some of the sites in the lower half of Central Park! 🌳

While New York is the setting of an enormous amount of films, some scenes define a space and some spaces define a scene. Either way, they happened in New York. 🎬

H.O. Havemeyer Mansion ca. 1901 Henry Osborne Havemeyer was the president of the family's sugar refining business until his death in 1907. Designed by Charles C. Haight, the architect of the similarly turreted New York Cancer Hospital which still stands at 106th Street and Central Park West, the Havemeyer mansion was built between 1890 and 1891 on the north east corner of Fifth Avenue and 66th Street. The home was best known for its sumptuous interior decoration by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Samuel Colman, commissioned by Havemeyer and his wife Louisiana in 1890. The interior design provided a distinctive setting for the Havemeyer's collection of Impressionist and Old Master paintings.

Knickerbocker Club Building ARCHITECT: Delano & Aldrich DATE: 1913-15 STYLE: Neo-Federal Recognized as one of the finest examples of the neo-Federal style in New York City, the Knickerbocker Club Building was built between 1913 and 1915 by the fashionable architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich. Occupying a prominent lot at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 62nd Street, the building was designed to fit comfortably into the surrounding residential neighborhood as well as to maintain the club’s historic presence on the avenue.

R. Livingston and Eleanor T. Beeckman House ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1903-05 STYLE: French Classic Although this small townhouse is sandwiched between two large apartment buildings, their overpowering size cannot overshadow the palatial scale nor the elegant grandeur of its architecture. Designed by an architect educated in the finest tradition of the French Beaux-Arts School, this house, in its character, reflects the influence of the Eighteenth Century classic period of Louis XV. Two windows wide, the three-story masonry facade, with steep mansard roof containing two floors with dormers has an impressive dignity and restraint.

Mineral Springs Pavilion ca. 1880 The Mineral Springs Pavilion was constructed due to the popularity of a health craze that was sweeping 19th-century New York. It was thought at the time that mineral water was essential to a healthy constitution (which at a time before the Croton Aqueduct supplied fresh water to most New York households it may have been.) Drinking mineral water was thought to be the cure for a number of ailments. Thus, Carl Schultz, the owner of a mineral water company successfully petitioned the Board of Health to have a pavilion, designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wray Mould, that would sell mineral water in the park. It was for a time quite popular, serving as a spot for socialization, however, the supply of readily available clean water meant that the Mineral Springs Pavilion lost its uniqueness and by the 1960s the pavilion was torn down.

George Gould Residence, ca. 1900. George Gould was the son of millionaire railroad man Jay Gould. In 1892 George had built a new mansion for his growing family. The mansion, built in a French Neo-Gothic style, was made of dark brownstone and was ornamented with turrets, balconies, and peaked gables. It was the location of the 1895 wedding of George's sister Anna to a French count, where the social elite of New York and European royalty arrived by carriage, and New Yorkers lined the street to try and glimpse the guests. In 1906 the dark, Gothic style mansion was terribly out of fashion with the new mansions of the Upper East Side. So George had his home razed and constructed a new building on the site.

William Shakespeare monument, Central Park, ca. 1975. John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910) created the sculpture of William Shakespeare located at the south end of the Mall. This was the first sculpture of a writer to be placed on the Mall, which is also known as Literary Walk.

Zoos were not always magical places. Many of the early menageries and zoos collected animals by trapping them in the wild and placing them in cramped cages that looked nothing like their native environment. Today, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the zoos and the aquarium here in New York (with the exception of the Staten Island Zoo; so independent, that Staten Island), works tirelessly to protect wildlife and the natural world. This desire to protect animals is actually something people have been passionate about for years. People - specifically Brooklynites.

The Upper East Side’s three landmarked armories might be the most “commanding” structures in the neighborhood. Among New York’s earliest landmarks, these fortified urban fortresses were built to store arms and to provide training and social space for local regiments whose members served in every major U.S. conflict from the War of 1812 through The Second World War. More recently, these structures have been transformed into schools, park facilities and art spaces. Today, they offer a slice of local history and an impressive catalog of ideas for adaptive reuse. As the conversation continues around reorienting our city’s martial elements toward the communities they serve, the evolution of our neighborhood’s armories reminds us that historic preservation is a tool both for honoring the past and for enriching the present. Scroll on to learn more about the Upper East Side’s armories. Read this story in its original format here.