Tavern on the Green
1000 5th Avenue | Central Park | built 1870
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1870
Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould build a sheepfold beside the Sheep Meadow
The building that became Tavern on the Green went up in 1870 as a sheepfold, designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould. It sheltered the flock that grazed the nearby Sheep Meadow, part of the park designers' picture of a pastoral landscape in the middle of the city.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1934
Robert Moses evicts the sheep and opens a restaurant in the old sheepfold
In 1934 Parks Commissioner Robert Moses moved the sheep out of the sheepfold and had the building turned into a restaurant, which opened that October as Tavern on the Green. It stayed a restaurant for most of the next seven decades.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1943
Arnold Schleifer and his nephews win the contract to run the restaurant
In 1943 a team of Arnold Schleifer and two of his nephews, Arthur Schleifer and Julius Berman, took over the contract to run Tavern on the Green. They enlarged the dance floor, added nightly music and a big outdoor patio, and built the Elm Tree Room around a classic American elm. Trees were first wrapped in the twinkling lights that became the restaurant's signature during their tenure.
“In 1943, Arnold Schleifer and his nephews, Arthur Schleifer and Julius Berman, won the contract to operate the restaurant.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1956
Robert Moses pushes a parking lot for the Tavern over the objections of neighborhood mothers
In 1956 a plan for a parking lot serving Tavern on the Green set Robert Moses against mothers who often visited a wooded hollow on the site. Moses signed off on destroying part of the hollow in spite of their objections, and demolition began after the park had closed for the night. It stopped only when a lawsuit was threatened.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1976
Warner LeRoy reopens the Tavern with a glass Crystal Room
Restaurateur Warner LeRoy took over Tavern on the Green and reopened it in 1976 after about $10 million in renovations, including a glass-walled dining room called the Crystal Room. After the city declined to renew the license, the restaurant closed on December 31, 2009; new operators reopened it in 2014 with a design closer to the original sheepfold.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1978
John Lennon and son Sean hold their joint birthday party at the Tavern
In 1978 John Lennon and his son Sean marked their shared birthday at Tavern on the Green, two years after Warner LeRoy's $10 million renovation had made the restaurant a New York hot spot again. The Daily News later noted that Whitney Houston, Barbara Walters and Hillary Clinton were among others who held birthday bashes there.
Source: nydailynews.com
- 1987
A star-studded memorial dinner for Bob Fosse is held at the Tavern
In 1987 the Tavern was the setting for a star-studded memorial dinner honoring the director and choreographer Bob Fosse. By then the restaurant regularly drew prominent actors, musicians, politicians and writers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1994
The film The Flintstones spoofs the Tavern as the Cavern in the Green
The 1994 live-action movie The Flintstones turned the restaurant prehistoric, with a stone-age version of the Tavern called the Cavern in the Green. The Daily News counted the cameo among the milestones in the Tavern's history, alongside the 1976 LeRoy renovation, the 1978 Lennon birthday and the 2009 bankruptcy.
Source: nydailynews.com
- 2008
Tavern on the Green agrees to pay $2.2 million to settle a harassment lawsuit
In June 2008 the restaurant paid $2.2 million to resolve a federal discrimination suit over sex and race brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which had alleged pervasive harassment of women and minority employees. The settlement came a year after the Tavern, which took in $38 million from over 500,000 visitors, ranked as the second-highest-grossing independent restaurant in the country.
“Tavern on the Green agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a sexual and racial discrimination lawsuit…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
Tavern on the Green closes after the city denies its operator a new license
The city announced on August 28, 2009, that it would not renew the restaurant's operating license, and Tavern on the Green served its final seating on December 31, 2009. Its operator filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy that September, and a 2010 court ruling found that the city, not the former operator, owned the Tavern on the Green trademark.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
A federal judge rules the city, not the LeRoys, owns the Tavern on the Green name
On March 10, 2010, Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum ruled that the city, not the LeRoys, owns the restaurant's name because Warner LeRoy had obtained the trademark fraudulently in 1981. The mark, appraised at $19 million, had been the bankrupt restaurant's most valuable asset, and more than 450 creditors owed over $10 million had hoped the LeRoy family could sell it to pay them. The restaurant had been shut since January 1, leaving 400 employees out of work.
Source: archive.nytimes.com
- 2010
Food trucks replace the Crystal Room in the Tavern's old courtyard
By October 2010 the Crystal Room was gone, and four trucks parked in the courtyard daily, opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 10 p.m.: Rickshaw Dumpling, Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, Ladle of Love and Pera Turkish Tacos. The Parks Department had turned the grand entrance into a visitors' center and gift shop and removed the shrubs hiding the courtyard, opening it toward the Sheep Meadow, after plans to reopen the restaurant under Dean Poll fell through.
Source: abcnews.go.com
- 2012
Landmarks approves a glass-box renovation that strips the Tavern's later additions
On February 21, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved the city's plan to renovate and restore the Tavern's 1871 building for a casual restaurant. The design by Swanke Hayden Connell would remove the post-1934 additions that had more than tripled the original 10,000-square-foot footprint, uncover the western facade, and fill the space left by the demolished Crystal Room with an all-glass box facing the terrace.
Source: citylandnyc.org
- 2014
Tavern on the Green reopens as a restaurant under new ownership
After operating from 2010 as just a visitor center and gift shop, Tavern on the Green reopened as a restaurant on April 24, 2014, under new operators Jim Caiola and David Salama.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Tavern on the GreenWikipedia
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