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.

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 It was superceded by the Beresford Apartments, built 1928-29.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.

25-23 West 83rd Street, ca. 1911.

New-York Historical Society STATUS Designated Individual Landmark ARCHITECT: York & Sawyer DATE: 1903-08 The facade is divided into very severe end pavilions bounding and containing a colonnaded central section which, though treated with great discipline, is nobly ornamental. At the second floor level, a wide horizontal band course runs around the entire building, creating a ledge in the slightly recessed central portion of the structure. Resting on this ledge, and of great compositional importance, are the eight three-quarter engaged Ionic columns of the colonnade. These support a cornice which, apart from the handsome bronze grille-work of the large side windows, is the only element of the building which may be said to be richly ornamented. The pedimented heroic size main portal on Central Park West makes a very grand entrance to the building.

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.

American Museum of Natural History, late 1970s.

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.

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.

San Remo Apartments ARCHITECT: Emery Roth DATE: 1929-30 STYLE: Apartment, Skyscraper The San Remo is one of the finest apartment buildings designed by Emery Roth, a noted New York architect who specialized in apartment house design, and whose work played a key role in the creation of Central Park West, one of New York’s grandest residential avenues. It is one of Manhattan’s last great luxury apartment houses built in the pre-Depression era, and was the first twin-towered residential skyscraper in New York.

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.

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.

15 West 81st Street, formerly the American Geographical Society Building. The American Geographical Society Building was designed by Howells & Stokes in 1901. For whatever reason the society never seemed able to settle on a location, constantly moving around the city until 1911 when they moved to Audubon Terrace. Today, they are located in Brooklyn. The building pictured in the foreground was demolished in the late 1920s and replaced with an Emery Roth designed apartment building.

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.

44 West 77th Street, ca. 1909. The building at 44 West 77th Street was conceived as a cooperative studio apartment building with generous double height windows, making for excellent artist studios. The highly ornate neo-Gothic building was designed by the firm of Herbert S. Harde and R. Thomas Short and completed in 1909. The structure was awe-inspiring, with rich terra cotta decoration described as "appear\[ing] to have been squeezed out of a pastry tube." By 1911, only two years after completion, pieces of terra cotta had started to fall off and the entire front facade was scaffolded for repair and replacement. The safety issues never truly ceased and the removal of the projecting details in 1944 points to that continued danger. Today the building remains ornate, though lacking the breathtaking meringue of its early decades.

American Museum of Natural History The huge triumphal-arch motif is the work of John Russell Pope, designed par excellence of classical monuments. The sweeping wing-walls in front of the building with their charming bas-reliefs, and the powerful equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt by James Earle Fraser, lend great dignity to the ensemble, making one immediately aware of the colossal scale of the main entrance.

247-249 Central Park West, ca. 1975. Constructed between 1889 and 1890, developer William Noble and architect Edward Angell created a row of nine Queen Anne style homes. The buildings which ran from nos. 241 to 249, were speculatively built, intended for wealthy families. These grand homes facing Central Park spared no expense; they included stained glass, gargoyles, angled staircases, turrets, and balconies. The Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide described the row as perhaps too whimsical, taking offense at their “giddiness.” Being the corner building, no. 249 (at right) was perhaps the most fanciful of the homes, with a faceted tower topped by a conical tiled cap and false balconies. It was first purchased by by wallpaper manufacturer Frederick Beck and hosted his daughter's extravagant society wedding in 1890. In 1914 it was owned by clergyman Luther Albert Swope and his wife, who came from a wealthy New York family. The home passed to a Swope nephew in 1930 and was sold in 1974. By that time some of the facade had been stripped of its ornamentation, it had been painted (!) white, the interior had been converted to apartments, and all of its neighbors (save no. 247 next door) had been demolished. Around 1990 the paint was striped to work on the facade which had begun to crumble. In 2006 the home was sold for $14.4 million and a conversion back to a single family house was undertaken. Amazingly, though the upper floors have been gutted, much of the original interiors of the lower floors remain intact, including an entirely oak-paneled dining room.

The New-York Historical Society was established in 1804 as New York’s first museum. Its eleven founders all lived through the turbulent years of the American Revolution and the British occupation of New York. These men believed that New York’s citizens needed to take decisive action to preserve eyewitness evidence of their own historical moment, which they recognized as important, fearing “dust and obscurity” would be the inevitable fate of accounts and artifacts if left in the hands of private individuals. “Without the aid of original records and authentic documents,” they declared, “history will be nothing more than a well-combined series of ingenious conjectures and amusing fables.” It is in this tradition that New-York Historical has moved forward into the 21st century, offering to visitors on-site and online a vast collection of art, objects, artifacts and documents and an ongoing collecting program that aims to facilitate a broad grasp of history’s enduring importance and its usefulness in finding explanations, causes, and insights.

25 to 5 West 76th Street, 1936. W.P.A work being done on the street.

241 Central Park West, date unknown. Built between 1930-31 and designed by Schwartz & Gross, the 19-story Art Deco building is clad in brick and cast stone. The architecture firm was well-known for their apartment houses, particularly in Morningside Heights.