Isaac Vail Brokaw Residence ca. 1901 This little castle on its corner site was one of the few remaining town houses which could boast such splendid isolation. Romanesque in many of its details, this mansion was basically of French Renaissance inspiration in its fenestration and roof lines. The marble interiors clove to the Romanesque Revival and were some of the finest and most original work of the style.

Couple on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. 1974.

Ukrainian Institute of America, ca. 1975. The Fletcher-Sinclair mansion (now the Ukrainian Institute of America) was built in 1897 and designed by the well-known architect Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert. The French Gothic mansion was constructed as a single family home for Isaac D. Fletcher, a banker and railroad investor. The building is elaborately designed with drip moldings, gargoyles, and a high mansard slate roof, though the narrow side (5th Avenue) facade is a bit plainer to blend in better with the neighboring buildings. The home, along with Fletcher's extensive art collection, was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art after his death in 1917. The museum turned around and sold the home to endow the prints and drawing collections. The buyer of the home was Harry Ford Sinclair, founder of the country's largest independent oil company. He would end up in jail for jury tampering related to the Teapot Dome scandal and sold the home in 1930. After one more private owner (supposed descendants of Peter Stuyvesant), the house was purchased in 1955 by The Ukrainian Institute of America, a new non-profit (started as a small organization on Long Island in 1948). The Institute is dedicated to promoting the art, music and literature of Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora. Since 1955, they have thoughtfully and professionally maintained and preserved both the interior and exterior of the building

The Brokaw Mansion, ca. 1900. Constructed between 1887 and 1890 for the millionaire clothing manufacturer Issac Vail Brokaw, the opulent mansion was modeled on the 16th century Chateau Chenonceaux in France’s Loire Valley. Built along "Millionaire's Row" on the east side of Fifth Avenue, the mansion lavishly designed inside and out, with a marble entrance, stained glass, carved wood decoration, mosaics, murals, and even a moat! Brokaw also had constructed on the property a number of homes for his children, including 7 East 79th Street and the 1905-built Gothic twin buildings at 984 and 985 Fifth Avenue. The main house remained in the family until Brokaw's son George sold it in 1946 to the Institute of Radio Engineers (they would later also purchase two of the other Brokaw residences). In 1963 the organization, now called the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, sold the buildings to Campagna Construction Corporation, who announced in the fall of 1964 that they planned to demolish the buildings. This announcement, paired with interest from the press public, and citywide organization, caught the city's attention and resulted in ardent calls for landmarks legislation. Nonetheless, despite the articles and rallies, the buildings were quickly and somewhat stealthily demolished in February in 1965. A year later, a 26-story cooperative apartment building was erected on the site. The events surrounding the end of the Brokaw Mansion were a warning shot. The threat to the mansions moved the landmarks legislation off the Mayor's desk and into the City Council committee. It was the loss of the buildings that then pushed the legislation to a vote and the eventual signing into law on April 19, 1965.

In 1977, the City created a new agency to manage its water supply and wastewater treatment and to regulate air quality, noise, and hazardous materials: the Department of Environmental Protection. DEP inherited the infrastructure, responsibilities, and documentation of many predecessor agencies dating back to the 1840s. That documentation comprises the bulk of the DEP archives and is still used in planning capital construction and rehabilitation projects, as well as watershed land management, facilities maintenance, and other operations.

990 Fifth Avenue ca. 1927 Built on the site of the grand Woolworth Mansion in 1927, 990 Fifth Avenue, designed by Rosario Candela, is only slightly less luxurious. 14 stories high, Candela designed the building to have only six apartments (5 duplex, and 1 triplex.) With a limestone facade and elegant detailing in a neo-Italian Renaissance design, 990 Fifth Avenue served as the epitome of how in the 21st century lavish homes were moving skyward.

The Beresford, ca. 1913. The Beresford was an apartment hotel built from 1889-1892 on the northwest corner of 81st Street and and Central Park West. It was superceded by the Beresford Apartments, built 1928-29.

Tanner's Spring, 1897. Tanner's Spring is one of two still-active springs in Central Park. Today it doesn't look like much more than a murky pond or large puddle, but the spring has an interesting 19th-century history. In 1825 free African Americans began buying land in an area between 82nd and 89th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The community grew to become Seneca Village and this spring provided the residents with water. The community was evicted in 1857 in preparation for the construction of Central Park. In 1880 the spring got its name when Dr. Henry S. Tanner, a proponent of therapeutic fasting, began a 40-day fast (under observation) with his only nourishment coming from the water at this spring. Local lore then developed that this water source contained some magically concentrated nutrients.

Louis Stern Mansion, 1884-1929 Louis Stern was the president of the Stern Brothers Department Store. He opened the successful retail company with his brothers, Isaac and Benjamin. The brothers were an important merchandising family who were born to German Jewish immigrants in New York City. In 1884, Louis Stern purchased a 27-foot wide lot between 80th and 81st street on Fifth Avenue. This lot was opposite Central Park. His palace was designed by German architect William Schickel in a French-Gothic inspired fashion. The mansion's ornate facade rose four stories, complete with a stone oriel that supported a stone-balustraded balcony. The doors of the home were clad in bronze and glass. The house quickly became a social hub, hosting parties and social gatherings that brought prominent New York society members to the home. The house was sold to an Adolphus Busch, of St. Louis, in 1911. The mansion was a gift for his daughter Edmee who married art collector Hugo Reisinger. When the couple moved in, Hugo's collection filled the many rooms of the mansion. Paintings of Childe Hassam, Whistler, Carl Melchers, Menzel, Zuegel, and Boecklin lined the walls. The United States entry into World War I prompted suspicion of the Busch's and Reisingers, two wealthy German families. In 1917, an illegal radio receiving station was found on the roof of the mansion. According to a mortified Edmee, their servant Alexander Hugo installed this powerful radio equipment in secrecy under the instruction of her father. The station included a De Forest audion detector, which allowed for the receiving of long-distance messages - likely from Germany's capital in Nauen. Edmee sold the house to a realty company after the war ended. A sixteen-story apartment was constructed a decade later.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the great landmarks, and the great institutions, of New York City, the nation, and the world. With more than two million objects in its collection, it is by far the largest museum in both New York and the country. Covering what would be several city blocks, stretching nearly a quarter-mile long, and housing over 2,000,000 square feet of space, it’s roughly the size of the Empire State Building. This story is adapted from a Village Preservation blog, which can be viewed here.

The Swedish style building seen here in Central Park arrived from Scandinavia in 1876 as Sweden’s exhibit for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Following the close of the fair, Central Park planner Frederick Law Olmsted brought the structure, which was modeled on a schoolhouse, to the park. Similar to often structures in Central Park, the Swedish Cottage has hosted a number of tenants and functions. In its first 75 years, it was home to a tool house, a library, and Central Park's entomological laboratory, as well as headquarters for the Civil Defense during World War II. In 1947, the quaint building became the home of the Marionette Theater. From that time to the present day the marionette performances both here and in schools around the city have delighted generations of New York children.

"It took New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), founded in 1870, a remarkable twenty-one years to convince its board of trustees to open the museum to the public on Sunday… On May 19, 1891, the issue was finally addressed during a three-hour meeting of the Met’s board. At this boisterous gathering, described as a 'series of cloudbursts,' a sharply divided board passed the following resolution: 'Resolved, that… the museum be opened free to the public every Sunday from 1 P.M. till half an hour before sunset.' A gentleman representing the World attended the meeting with a check in hand to help offset the additional costs of opening on the extra day. Later the World’s headline proclaimed, 'THE PEOPLE TRIUMPH.' The New York Times trumpeted, 'VICTORY IS WON AT LAST.' …More than a century later, in 2007 the Met’s Visitor’s Service Department reported an average Sunday attendance of between 16,000 and 18,000, with a peak of 40,000 visitors on one Sunday during the Christmas holidays. Whatever may be said about the individual motives of the Met’s founders, it is clear that they did the right thing." For more on the history of the Met, check out this article by Jerri Sherman in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

Central Park Obelisk, 1899. The obelisk, affectionately known as “Cleopatra’s Needle” (though its construction was not related to the historical Cleopatra), was a gift to the United States in recognition of friendly relations. The obelisk was installed in February 1881.

Cleopatra’s Needle, as it has long been known, stands approximately 70 feet high on the east side of Central Park, behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art near 83rd Street. It is the city’s oldest man-made public sculpture. Cleopatra’s Needle is one of a pair of granite obelisks (the other today sits on the banks of the Thames in London) from the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis (modern-day Cairo) built to commemorate the 40th year of the reign of Thothmes III (1476-1425 BCE). In 12 BCE, Roman Emperor Augustus moved the obelisks to Alexandria. In 1869, the Khedive of Egypt gave Cleopatra’s Needle to the United States after the opening of the Suez Canal. Because of the challenging logistics, it took over a decade to arrange its transport, which was overseen by Lieutenant Commander Henry Honneychurch Gorringe (1841-1885). The project included the construction of a specially-designed railroad track, for which William H. Vanderbilt donated over $100,000, for transport up the Hudson River. When the obelisk was officially installed in New York City in January of 1881, tens of thousands of people turned up to see it in person, and manufacturers and retailers responded to this enthusiasm by producing souvenirs and memorabilia related to the event. One such example, a bronze model of the obelisk, is included in the Museum of the City of New York’s collection. The model was designed by Gorringe and cast and retailed by Tiffany & Company. Its lengthy inscription honors Henry George Stebbins (1811-1881), president of the Central Park Commission in 1880-1881 and a founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vanderbilt’s donation, and Gorringe’s leadership in engineering its transport and erection. Since the obelisk’s installation, the City of New York, its caretaker, has made efforts to preserve its structure and make its history accessible to the public. In 1940, then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses commissioned The New~York Historical Society to create a permanent plaque commemorating the monument’s history. Throughout the twentieth century, the surface of the obelisk degraded. In early 2011, Egypt’s then-Minister of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, wrote to the Parks department imploring it to take measures to protect the obelisk from environmental factors that he believed were contributing to its degradation. He went as far as to imply that Egypt’s government would move to have the obelisk returned to Egypt if no action was taken. In 2014 the Central Park Conservancy worked on a half-million dollar conservation program for the monument which cleaned and stabilized its structure so it may “endure as a testament to the genius of a vanished civilization, an awe-inspiring tower holding its own on an island of modern skyscrapers.”

There is no place in the world quite like New York City. While this collection might not represent the best and the brightest of history or architecture, it captures some uniquely New York moments.

995 Fifth Avenue ca. 1928 Though now a residential cooperative, 995 Fifth Avenue began its life as the Stanhope Apartment Hotel. Its architect, Rosario Candela crafted an elegant Georgian facade for the building and laid out the graceful apartments that would ensure the Stanhope's success. Though the ownership of the building was transferred multiple times, The Stanhope quickly acquired a reputation of luxury that remains to this day.

The Beresford ARCHITECT: Emery Roth DATE: 1928-29 STYLE: Renaissance The Beresford Apartments, completed in 1929 and designed by Emery Roth, then at the pinnacle of his career as a specialist in apartment house design, is one of the largest and grandest of the apartment buildings along Central Park West. Prominently located at the corner of 81st Street across from the American Museum of Natural History, it takes full advantage of its site, with two monumental facades crowned by corner towers. Executed in brick with limestone and terra-cotta detailing, the Beresford is distinctively ornamented with a sculptural program of late Renaissance inspiration which features winged cherubs, angels, dolphins and rams’ heads, along with elaborate cartouches, festoons, rosettes and finials. Its vast scale and dramatic profile make the Beresford one of the most important elements on the Central Park West skyline, as well as a reminder of the heyday of luxury apartment building in New York.

1009 Fifth Avenue ARCHITECT: Welch, Smith & Provot DATE: 1899-1901 STYLE: Beaux-Arts This handsome Fifth Avenue mansion, prominently located at the southeast corner of Eighty-second Street, was built during the years 1899 to 1901. It is one of the few surviving houses which once formed part of an almost uninterrupted series of palatial residences facing Central Park. In recent years the majority of these grand townhouses have fallen victim to rising property values, and have been replaced by apartment buildings. No. 1009 is exceptional, as it remains in the possession of the family of the original owner, and today provides us with a fine example of turn-of-the-century architectural opulence.

Belvedere Castle Belvedere Castle is one of Central Park's five visitor centers. Calvert Vaux, co-designer of the Park, created the miniature castle in 1869 as a whimsical structure looking out on the reservoir to the north (now the Great Lawn) and the Ramble to the south. Belvedere provides the highest and best views of the Park and the adjacent cityscape. The castle's name is fitting, because it translates to "beautiful view" in Italian. "Right now, the temperature in Central Park is...." That information, heard frequently on radio and TV, originates here at Belvedere Castle. Since 1919, the National Weather Service has taken measurements of New York's weather from the castle's tower with the aid of scientific instruments that measure wind speed and direction. In a fenced-in compound just south of the castle, other weather data such as rainfall are recorded and sent to the weather service's forecast office at Brookhaven National Library on Long Island. After decades of deterioration, Central Park Conservancy renovated and reopened the castle in 1983 as a visitor center and gift shop.

This mansion at 972 Fifth Avenue was designed by Stanford White in 1902 and was completed in 1906 shortly after White's murder. The house was built for the Payne Whitney family as a wedding gift from Payne Whitney's uncle, Oliver H. Payne. White drew inspiration from High Renaissance Italian palaces when designing the interior and exterior of this opulent home, which featured a Venetian themed reception, and a marble-clad rotunda with a Renaissance statue in the middle. In the 1990s, it was discovered that the statue was in fact a Michelangelo, unknowingly purchased by White in Italy. In 1952, the building was acquired by the French Embassy to host their cultural services.

Looking over Turtle Pond to Belvedere Castle and Vista Rock, c. 1976. Vista Rock is a 130 feet high formation of Manhattan schist. It is the second highest outcrop in Central Park. The massive rock formation sits in the path of the 79th Street Traverse, one of the four roads that Olmsted and Vaux designed for the Park. To complete the planned roadway, gunpowder was used to blow out the path for a tunnel. The Vista Rock Tunnel is 146 feet long, 40 feet wide, and just under 18 feet at the center.

King Jagiello monument, Central Park, ca. 1976. Created for the Polish pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair, the monument is a replica of a statue which stood in Warsaw, before being melted down for bullets during the Nazi occupation. It depicts Władysław II Jagiełło, the 14th and 15th century Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland.

By Justin Martin Once Frederick Law Olmsted and his mentor, the British-American architect and landscape designer Calvert Vaux received the nod to proceed with their design for Central Park, the commissioners pressed them to move quickly. By 1858, the issue of a large park in New York had dragged on for many years. Millions had been spent obtaining the land; thousands more had been spent clearing it. To justify all this expenditure, some progress needed to be shown. The plan was to open the park to the public in stages. The board asked Olmsted and Vaux to have certain sections ready by winter so the park could receive its very first visitors, ice skaters. Read this in its original format here

West Drive, Central Park, ca. 1910.

By Jerri Sherman It took New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), founded in 1870, a remarkable 21 years to convince its board of trustees to open the museum to the public on Sunday. In the post-Civil War years, during what was called the Gilded Age, America’s greatest city experienced momentous social, cultural, and economic change, which led to an increasingly unrestrained environment. New ideas from many sources jeopardized traditional values, and the business and political frenzy acted as a magnet for masses of immigrants who came to America and settled in New York, hoping for a new and better life. By the 1880s, the city was both reeling from the onslaught of violent labor unrest and financial depression and struggling to accommodate a million people, fully two-thirds of whom lived in 32,000 overcrowded tenement buildings. Native-born New Yorkers felt their way of life threatened by the influx of these newcomers and their “foreign” ways. With a worsening urban crisis, it became clear that many aspects of social behavior required change. The development of rival doctrines also brought serious challenges to Christian religious conservatism. Sabbatarianism, one of Protestantism’s traditional moral crusades, found that it had lost touch with the labor movement, whose members chose in increasing numbers to avoid church attendance. The idea of a day exclusively for religious dedication was supplanted by the need for a secular day of rest. Thus the old boundary of the Sunday Sabbath needed to be broken. Read this in its original format here.

Metropolitan Museum of Art ca. 1908 The enormous scale of this facade is reminiscent of the main hall of a Roman public bath and forms a dramatic setting for the entrance to this great museum. The huge blocks of stone above the columns were intended for sculpture which was never executed. Richard Morris Hunt, dean of New York architects, designed it and once remarked that he would wish to have it considered his monument.

By Cynthia Brenwall The collection of Parks Drawings at the Municipal Archives are often called the “jewel in the crown” within the holdings. It includes hundreds of exquisite plans and designs of parks throughout the city and in particular, Central Park. Originally created to illustrate the park designers’ intentions and to guide those who built the parks, many of these drawings are now considered works of art. Some are again being utilized as “working” drawings, providing essential information for on-going restoration projects in the parks. One of the most visible of the recent projects is the Belvedere Castle. The original format of this story can be found with other excellent blogs: here.

The Beresford, 1931 The Beresford was designed by famed architect Emery Roth, who also created the plans for numerous other CPW apartment houses including The El Dorado, The San Remo, and The Ardsley. It was named for the Hotel Beresford, which had previously occupied the lot. Completed in 1929, the building was one of the most prestigious addresses for much of the 20th century. Helen Gurley Brown and her husband lived for three decades in the four-story penthouse that topped one of the three corner towers. She once said," I’m slightly prejudiced, but I think it’s the best apartment in New York." The building has been called home by a number of other famous and infamous New Yorkers, including Jerry Seinfeld, Diana Ross, and mobster Meyer Lansky.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1903. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870, New York had no major art museum. In the mid-19th century, the city's biggest cultural destination was PT Barnum's American Museum, where up to 15,000 people per day flocked to see attractions ranging from Siamese twins and live whales to performances of Shakespeare and opera by the singer Jenny Lind. The founders of the MET wanted to create something entirely different-an encyclopedic collection of high art that would ultimately compete with Europe's greatest museums. The city's industrialists joined the board, along with esteemed painters and architects. They also gave the Museum its foundational collections. In less than 20 years, by the late 1880s, the Museum was earning widespread attention. Works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Leonardo and Vermeer hung on its walls. And gifts from the city's rich-many from the individuals whose homes you stop at on this tour- would keep flowing in for decades. There were drawings by Albrecht Durer from Felix Warburg, Marie Antoinette's furniture from William K. Vanderbilt and Italian lace from Mrs. John Jacob Astor. Then there were the thousands of medieval and Egyptian objects from the collection of J.P. Morgan, who served as a trustee and then president. The Museum intended not only to build a world class collection of art, but also to teach visitors how to appreciate it. At first, it excluded the working class by closing on Sunday, the day they had off. Once the MET decided to stay open that day, curators, and directors stood watch in the galleries. Director Louis di Cesnola boasted of the results: "There is no more spitting tobacco juice on the gallery floors...no more whistling, singing or calling aloud to people from one gallery to another." One story circulated about Mark Twain's protests when asked to leave his belongings in the cloak room: "Leave my cane! Leave my can!" he purportedly exclaimed. "How do you expect me to poke holes through the oil paintings?"

When the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870, New York had no major art museum. In the mid-19th century, the city's biggest cultural destination was PT Barnum's American Museum, where up to 15,000 people per day flocked to see attractions ranging from Siamese twins and live whales to performances of Shakespeare and opera by the singer Jenny Lind.