Description: NEW YORK CITY - Central Park Boat House - 1925: Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City that was the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the sixth-largest park in the city, containing 843 acres (341 ha), and the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016. In April 1858, the park commissioners selected Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's "Greensward Plan" as the winning design. The first major work in Central Park involved grading the driveways and draining the land in the park's southern section. The Lake in Central Park's southwestern section was the first feature to open to the public, in December 1858, followed by the Ramble in June 1859. Boating has a long and rich history in Central Park. The first recorded boating concession was established in the early 1860s for a yearly sum of $1,000, and boating on the lake rapidly became a popular summer activity. By 1869 the number of patrons had risen to over 125,000 each year. A series of landings and, eventually, houses culminating in the Loeb Boat House, were built to accommodate the growing demand for the popular new pastime. Initially, boats were moored and boarded at various landings; there were six such docks in 1865. The boats were stored in a small wood plank dock just west of Bethesda Terrace, but increased demand made the construction of a regular boat house necessary, and the idea was first aired in 1870. When the park’s landscape architects, Calvert Vaux (1824-1895) and Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) agreed that construction was needed, Vaux embarked on the $2,360 project himself. Vaux’s boat house was a Gothic-detailed timber complex on the south shore of Bethesda Terrace, with the front façade facing the lake and terraces on the second floor. Opened in 1873, it served the public for over eighty years and offered a splendid view of the Ramble, a sprawling, hilly space dotted with trees, an aviary, and a gazebo. By the early 1950s, with boating as popular as ever and Vaux’s original structure in a state of disrepair, a generous donation of $305,000 by investment banker and philanthropist Carl M. Loeb enabled the building of a new boat house, with the contribution of a further $110,000 from Parks. Vaux’s building was demolished and a new one constructed on the east-end of the lake. The Loeb Boat House was designed by Chief Park Designer Stuart Constable and officially opened in March 1954 at a ceremony presided by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981). The boat house, named in honor of the Loeb family, is a tri-partite neo-classical brick structure with a copper-hipped and gabled roof. The landside of the building includes a parking area and approaches from the east side. Loeb Boat House contains a food concession, dining terraces, restrooms, and all the necessary facilities for boat landing, boarding, and storage. It has become a popular café and event venue, and it also serves as the unofficial headquarters of birdwatchers, who record their sightings of birds in Central Park in a notebook kept on a table inside. Renovations in the 1940s and 1950s include a restoration of the Harlem Meer completed in 1943, and a new boathouse completed in 1954. This White Border Era postcard, mailed in 1925, shows the original boathouse by Vaux. The card is in good condition. Irving Underhill, N. Y. No. 5405.
Price: 8.5 USD
Location: Brooklyn, New York
End Time: 2025-01-24T05:11:36.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Unit of Sale: Single Unit
Featured Person: Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux
Size: Standard (5.5x3.5 in)
Material: Paper
Year Manufactured: 1925
City: New York City
Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
Brand/Publisher: Irving Underhill
Subject: Central Park Boat House
Continent: North America
Type: Printed (Lithograph)
Era: White Border (1915-1930)
Theme: Architecture, Cities & Towns, Landscapes, Transportation, Central Park, Rowboats, Manhattan, Loeb Boat House
Country: United States
Region: New York
Features: Panoramic
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Postage Condition: Posted
