Belvedere Castle

File:Belvedere Castle Corner Tower 2176px.jpg and wind vane on the top; these instruments record the official wind speed and direction for Central Park]]

Belvedere Castle was built as a shell with doors and windows open to the weather.{{Rp|162}} Originally, the main tower had a more medieval design, with a weather antenna on top, but during the castle's 1983 renovation, the tower was restored in a German style with a flag, a weather vane, and an anemometer on top. The two fanciful half-timbered wooden pavilions deteriorated without painting and upkeep and were removed before 1900, but restored in the 1980s.Ca. 1900 photograph in {{harvnb|Rogers|1987|page=114}} illustration.

File:2024-05-24 17 49 58 View south across the Central Park Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) in Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York.jpg

Starting in 1869, Belvedere Castle housed the New York Meteorological Observatory, which had been taken over by the United States Weather Bureau. The current weather station in Central Park, an Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), is located immediately south of the castle, though wind equipment is still located on the main tower.{{Rp|162}}[http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/centralpark/highlights/11956 "Belvedere Castle"], New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

The castle caps Vista Rock, a {{Convert|130|ft|m|-tall|abbr=|adj=mid}} outcropping of schist and the park's second-highest natural elevation.{{cite web|url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/central-park/highlights/12391|title=Central Park Highlights|date=June 26, 1939|website=Vista Rock & Tunnel : NYC Parks|access-date=April 30, 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.centralpark2000.com/database/vista_rock.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021115231704/http://www.centralpark2000.com/database/vista_rock.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=November 15, 2002|title=Vista Rock|work=centralpark2000.com|access-date=March 4, 2010}} (Summit Rock, at 83rd Street overlooking Central Park West, is higher at {{convert|137.5|feet}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=12391 |title=Vista Rock & Tunnel – Historical Sign |publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation|access-date=March 4, 2010}}) Constructed of Manhattan schist quarried in the park and dressed with gray granite, it tops the natural-looking woodlands of The Ramble, as seen from the formal Bethesda Terrace. The natural rock was tunneled through for the innovative sunken transverse roadway that still carries commercial and other traffic unobtrusively through the park.

The castle serves now as a visitor center and gift shop. Free family and community programs hosted at Belvedere Castle include birding and other Central Park Conservancy discovery programs for families as well as a variety of history and natural history programs led by NYC Urban Park Rangers, including stargazing/astronomy and wildlife-education events.

The eastern elevation formerly faced a rectangular receiving reservoir that was part of the Croton Aqueduct system.{{Cite web|date=October 5, 2017|title=Meeting New York City's Demand for Water|url=https://www.centralparknyc.org/articles/water-central-park|url-status=live|access-date=March 29, 2021|website=Central Park Conservancy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022025917/https://www.centralparknyc.org/articles/water-central-park |archive-date=October 22, 2020 }} The reservoir was filled in with city building rubble, beginning with spoil from construction of the New York City Subway's IND Eighth Avenue Line (now carrying the {{NYCS trains|Eighth center}}) in the 1930s. Today, the eastern elevation overlooks the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond, which occupies the former site of the receiving reservoir.

File:DragonTransom.jpg, part of a transom over a doorway of the Castle in 2004]]

The castle was designed by the architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould as an additional feature of the Greensward Plan, created by Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted and Vaux were re-hired to their positions in mid-1865 after quitting abruptly several years before.{{cite book|last=Kinkead|first=Eugene|title=Central Park, 1857-1995: The Birth, Decline, and Renewal of a National Treasure|location=New York|publisher=Norton|year=1990|isbn=0-393-02531-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/centralpark1857100kink/page/71 71]|url=https://archive.org/details/centralpark1857100kink/page/71}}{{rp|58–59}} In 1867, Vaux decided to develop this area by building Belvedere Castle on the top of the rock, overlooking the Croton Reservoir.{{cite web|url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/centralpark/highlights/11956|title=Central Park Highlights – Belvedere Castle|publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation|access-date=March 4, 2010}}[http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=12391 Vista Rock], New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The site already held a fire tower under the control of the Croton Aqueduct board, and so the fire tower was demolished.{{sfn|Rogers|1987|p=115}}

The original plans for Belvedere Castle called for two turreted stone towers: a larger structure on the eastern elevation and a smaller structure on the west side.{{Cite book|last=Heckscher|first=Morrison H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dx_GNFFLSXsC&pg=PA17|title=Creating Central Park|date=2008|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|isbn=978-0-30013-669-2|language=en}}{{rp|60}} Under Tammany Hall's leadership, it was revised in November 1870 to reduce costs and was completed as an open painted-wood pavilion of Mould's design.{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=269f}} The eastern structure was completed by 1871, while the western structure was never built.{{rp|60}} As the plantings matured, the castle has been obscured from its original intended viewpoint. Its turret is the highest point in the park.[https://www.citylisten.com/our_tours/detail/2/new_york_city/2/central_park/ CityListen Audio Tours, Central Park: An Urban Marvel] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205124257/https://www.citylisten.com/our_tours/detail/2/new_york_city/2/central_park/ |date=February 5, 2011 }}

File:Belvedere_Castle,_Central_Park.jpg

After the New York Meteorological Observatory automated its equipment and moved its offices to Rockefeller Center in the 1960s, Belvedere Castle was closed to the public and became an object of much vandalism, neglect and deterioration.{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|p=502}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/18/archives/new-jersey-pages-decay-and-vandalism-besieging-belvedere-castle-in.html|title=Decay and Vandalism Besieging Belvedere Castle in Central Park|last=Kennedy|first=Shawn G.|date=January 18, 1975|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 17, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} The Central Park Conservancy launched a restoration effort and reopened the structure on May 1, 1983. The original turret was replaced, the pavilions were rebuilt, and the castle was converted into a visitor center. In 1995, the Conservancy's Historic Preservation Crew replaced the painted wooden loggia of the castle, working from the 1860s designs, on the granite piers and walls that had survived. The same year, a $340,000 grant was distributed toward restoring the castle as the Henry Luce Nature Center. That restoration was completed in 1996.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/09/realestate/postings-a-new-use-for-an-old-folly-a-learning-center-for-the-belvedere-castle.html|title=POSTINGS: A New Use for an Old Folly; A Learning Center for the Belvedere Castle|date=July 9, 1995|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 17, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

In 2018, the Central Park Conservancy conducted a second renovation of Belvedere Castle. Plans included replacing existing doors and windows with double paned glass. In addition the Conservancy proposed to construct a new access path to ADA standards from the East Drive.Landmarks Preservation Commission, [http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/lpc/downloads/pdf/presentation-materials/20170502/CPC_Belvedere_for%20website.pdf Presentation Materials], May 2, 2017. The access path − actually an elevated ramp with parapets − has been criticized as creating an unnecessary barrier in the otherwise naturalistic park.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/nyregion/plan-for-inclined-walk-central-park-preservationists.html|title=Plan for Inclined Path in Central Park Worries Preservationists|last=Barron|first=James|date=June 11, 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 17, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} Following the $12 million renovation, the castle reopened on June 28, 2019, complete with a geothermal heating and cooling system that was installed by the Central Park Conservancy.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/nyregion/central-park-belvedere-castle.html|title=Central Park's Castle Gets a $12 Million Fairy-Tale Makeover|last=Hu|first=Winnie|date=July 12, 2019|website=The New York Times|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|access-date=July 1, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://ny.curbed.com/2019/6/18/18683851/central-park-belvedere-castle-restoration-reopening-date|title=Central Park's Belvedere Castle will reopen June 28|last=Rosenberg|first=Zoe|date=June 18, 2019|website=Curbed NY|access-date=June 19, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.gothamist.com/2019/06/18/belvedere_castle_2019.php|title=Central Park's Belvedere Castle Reopening After Restoration|last=Carlson|first=Jen|date=June 18, 2019|website=Gothamist|access-date=June 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618180137/https://gothamist.com/2019/06/18/belvedere_castle_2019.php|archive-date=June 18, 2019|url-status=dead}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Elizabeth Barlow|author-link=Elizabeth Barlow Rogers|display-authors=etal|year=1987|title=Rebuilding Central Park: A Management and Restoration Plan|location=Cambridge, Mass.|publisher=MIT Press for the Central Park Conservancy|isbn=9780262181273|oclc=14586688|url=https://archive.org/details/rebuildingcentra00roge_0}}
• {{Cite Central Park History}}

{{Commons category|Belvedere Castle}}

• {{Official website|https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/belvedere-castle}}

{{Central Park}}

{{Protected areas of New York City}}

Category:1869 establishments in New York (state)

Category:Buildings and structures in Manhattan

Category:Castles in New York (state)

Category:Central Park

Category:Folly buildings in the United States

Category:Nature centers in New York City