DESCRIPTION OF PLATES

c. 1861-C. 1876

Plate 151

(Central Park)
Lithograph.                                       36^ x 23^^          Date depicted: 1864.

Artist: H. Geissler.                                                       Date issued: Copyright 18

Lithographer: Henry C. Eno.
Publishers: Caldwell & Co., 82 Cedar Street.
Owner: N. Y. Public Library (Eno Collection), etc.

Another state exists, copyrighted in the same year, with the title: "Martel's New York ;
Central Park."   On this the name of Caldwell & Co. does not appear.   The address of the ;
publishers, the Central Park Pubhshing Company, is given as 720 Broadway, New York. '
This state, which is doubtless the earlier of the two, lacks the names of the locations, etc.,
along the lower margin.

The view is interesting especially for its depiction of the park six years after the work
of improvement was begun, and also as showing Fifth Avenue in its undeveloped state.
The Manuals for the years 1859 and 1864 contain several views showing the progress of
work during the development of the park. See Plate 149 for a reproduction of the winning
design for the park lay-out, submitted by Olmsted and Vaux in the competition held in
1857, as well as for a series of photographs of the park taken in 1862 and the years imme¬
diately following.   See also Plate 149 A for the Viele survey of the park area in 1855.

The old reservoir was completed in 1842, and the new one, to the north, also shown in
the view, in 1858. The corner-stone of the arsenal, on the Fifth Avenue side of the park,
facing 64th Street, was laid on July 5, 1847, and the building was completed in 1851. Be¬
sides arms and munitions belonging to the state, the arsenal contained, in a cellar under
one of the wings, a number of relics of the Revolution. It was abandoned as an arsenal in
1857 and was long used as a natural history museum. For many years prior to the com¬
pletion of the Municipal Building, in 1914, it was the headquarters of the Park Depart¬
ment, and is now used, temporarily, by the Police Department.

The buildings that appear on the east side of Fifth Avenue and on the side streets were
the progenitors of the present day palaces.

A comparison of this view, made in 1864, with a photograph taken in 1909 and repro¬
duced as Plate 164-b, is interesting, as is also a comparison with a similar but very crudely ..
coloured lithograph of this section of the city issued by J. Slater about 1879 (copy in N. Y.
Pubhc Library—Eno Collection).