New York City’s oldest park, designated in 1733. The name comes from outdoor lawn bowling game “bowls“, thus a bowling green is a flat lawn that you can roll bowling balls across – not the modern indoor 10-pin bowling.
As the park has developed over the years, adjacent roadways have been scaled back. To the north, the triangle was extended to split Broadway, and thus no vehicle turn around was needed. To the south, the short road between Battery Place and Broadway was removed for a pedestrian plaza that now connects Bowling Green with the National Museum Of The American Indian.
Features
- Fountain – medium in diameter though short water feature
- Fence: “The fence which surrounds the park is the original which was first placed around the park in [*1771]. This makes it one of the oldest free-standing artifacts in all of Manhattan.” [Bowery Boys]
- Francis Makemie Memorial Plaque
- Evacuation Day Plaza: marking the date when the British Army departed NYC in 1783. Annually observed on November 25th since 1783.
- Charging Bull statue: bronze sculpture of a bull that seems to challenge Wall Street financial institutions
Details
- Website: Bowling Green
- Wikipedia: Bowling Green
- Hours: NYC Park hours, generally 6am-10pm
- Location: downtown Manhattan, where Broadway ends, near Battery Place and Beaver Street
Getting There
- Subway
- 4/5 to Bowling Green – direct access
- 1 or R/W to Rector Street – then south a couple of blocks
- 1 or R/W to South Ferry – the north a couple of blocks
- Bus
- Downtown Connection Bus – free downtown circulator
- NJ Transit 120 from Bayonne (pdf)
- MTA: M20, M55, and burrough connections QM7, QM8, QM11, QM25, SIM5, SIM15, SIM35
- Also, the M15 to South Ferry then walk a couple blocks north
Sources
- Untapped New York: Bowling Green is Manhattan’s Oldest Park: How It Got its Name
- Wikipedia: Bowling Green
- Bower Boys: Ten Images of Bowling Green and Ten Facts about its Marvelous History