Belvedere Castle

79-03 East Drive | also 1000 5th Avenue | Central Park | built 1872

Open on the map14 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1867

    Vaux clears a Croton fire tower from Vista Rock to make way for the castle

    Before the castle, Vista Rock already carried a fire tower run by the Croton Aqueduct board. In 1867 Calvert Vaux decided to build a lookout castle on the outcrop, and the older tower was demolished to clear the summit. The castle that took its place was the folly now known as Belvedere Castle.

    “The site already held a fire tower under the control of the Croton Aqueduct board, and so the fire tower was demolished.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1869

    Vaux and Mould complete a lookout castle on Vista Rock

    Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould designed Belvedere Castle in 1867 as a mix of Gothic and Romanesque forms, and it was finished in 1869. From that year it housed the New York Meteorological Observatory.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1870

    November

    Central Park's commissioners scale back Belvedere Castle's design to cut costs

    The original plan for Belvedere Castle called for two turreted stone towers. In November 1870, with the eastern section still under construction, the design was revised to reduce expenses, and the western tower was never built. The eastern structure, an open painted-wood pavilion, was finished the following year.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1872

    Mould's decorative wooden tower at the castle's northwest corner is torn down

    Vaux and Olmsted's plans had called for a second stone tower at the northwest corner, but it was never built. In its place Jacob Wrey Mould designed a decorative wooden tower. Structural problems doomed it, and it was torn down in 1872. A replica of the wooden tower was built during the 2018 to 2019 restoration.

    Source: Untapped New York

  5. 1919

    Central Park's official weather station moves into the castle

    Since 1919 Belvedere Castle has been home to Central Park's official weather station. After the weather operation was automated and relocated to Rockefeller Center in the 1960s, the castle suffered vandalism and neglect until the Central Park Conservancy began restoring it in 1983.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1922

    March

    Taxpayers sue over the Weather Bureau's "pig sty" enclosure beside the castle

    After the Weather Bureau settled into Belvedere Castle, a patch of the rock vista was fenced off as an enclosure. In March 1922 some residents filed a taxpayer suit, and the press called the enclosure a "pig sty" that they said blighted the view. The dispute was settled quickly, and extra trees went in beside the enclosure to screen it from view. Today the enclosure still holds the weather equipment in the same spot.

    Source: vlab.noaa.gov

  7. 1961

    January 1

    Central Park becomes New York City's official weather observation site

    When the Weather Bureau moved its city office from Lower Manhattan to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in December 1960, there was no room there for observing equipment. The Central Park site by Belvedere Castle became the official New York City observation on January 1, 1961. Readings were automated and shown on a display at Rockefeller Plaza, and Weather Bureau staff still made the trip through the snow to the park to measure snowfall.

    Source: vlab.noaa.gov

  8. 1977

    Thieves steal the castle's anemometer as vandals strip the empty building

    By the 1970s no one staffed Belvedere Castle, and it was tagged, broken into and stripped of wiring. In 1977 an anemometer was stolen, and on another occasion equipment disappeared while a National Weather Service worker was at it. The agency and the city responded with barbed wire and steel doors, and the Weather Service even looked into moving its instruments elsewhere in the park.

    Source: vlab.noaa.gov

  9. 1980

    The new Central Park Conservancy makes the neglected castle its first priority

    During the 1960s and 1970s Belvedere Castle suffered vandalism and rapid deterioration. The Central Park Conservancy, founded in 1980, made restoring the castle its first priority. Donations from foundations and philanthropists paid for the first large-scale renovation, which began in 1983.

    Source: Untapped New York

  10. 1983

    May 1

    Belvedere Castle reopens as a visitor center after years of neglect

    After the weather bureau moved out in the 1960s, Belvedere Castle sat closed to the public and fell into disrepair, drawing vandalism. The Central Park Conservancy restored the building and reopened it as a visitor center on May 1, 1983, with its pavilions rebuilt.

    Source: Wikipedia

  11. 1995

    June

    A public uproar saves the castle's weather station from closure

    After the National Weather Service moved its New York office to Long Island in 1993, a plan circulated to close the Central Park station as observations were converted to automated systems. A major local uproar kept it open. An automated ASOS unit was installed at the castle site in June 1995 and commissioned that November 1, and the last National Weather Service observer left New York City on December 31, 1995.

    Source: vlab.noaa.gov

  12. 1996

    The Henry Luce Nature Center opens inside the castle

    A mid-1990s restoration replaced the castle's painted wooden loggia using 1860s designs and, with the help of a $340,000 grant, established the Henry Luce Nature Center inside the building, completed in 1996.

    Source: Wikipedia

  13. 2015

    November

    The Central Park Conservancy takes over measuring snow at the castle site

    Snow at the Central Park station had been measured by Weather Bureau staff who made the trek to the park. After the National Weather Service's last staff left in 1995, the job briefly fell to the Central Park Zoo. In November 2015 the Central Park Conservancy took over as the snow observer, a role it still holds.

    Source: vlab.noaa.gov

  14. 2019

    June 28

    Belvedere Castle reopens after a $12 million renovation

    A second major restoration gave the castle new doors, double-paned windows, a geothermal heating system and an accessible ramp. The $12 million project ended when the castle reopened on June 28, 2019, as a visitor center.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 15 buildings with stories in Central Park