FACING the corner of Fifth Avenue and E. 64th Street is a former state militia armory that serves as the headquarters of NYC Parks. As a landmarked building, its history is documented in great detail. The building’s ground level has the permits office and a snack bar, and on the third floor is an art gallery with seasonal exhibits. There is an older work of art in this building, completed by artist Allen Saalburg in 1936.
The mural covers the walls of the entrance lobby on the first and second floors, illuminated by a chandelier. It was painted as a New Deal project shortly after the Arsenal became the main office of the Parks Department. Looking at its north wall, we see soldiers in Civil War uniforms and cannonballs atop columns. Yet the Arsenal’s use as an armory lasted for just six years after its completion in 1851, and briefly during the Civil War. After the city acquired the Arsenal, it served as a police office, weather station, zoo, and Natural History Museum, before assuming its present role.
On the eastern wall, Saalburg painted the Metropolitan Museum of Art as it appeared on March 30, 1880, when President Rutherford B. Hayes dedicated the museum. This original structure is today enveloped within the greatly expanded museum. Next to the museum illustration is an image of a lion in a cage, showing how little space captive animals had in those days, resulting in short life expectancy and health problems. Central Park Zoo is the second oldest in the country, having its start in 1864 as a menagerie of donated exotic pets. Prior to the 1930s, cages stood around the Arsenal and on its ground floor.
On the left side of the main entrance is a matching illustration of the Arsenal as an armory, flanked by a Zouave. Named after the native Zouaoua people in French Algeria, their uniform design and drill techniques were adopted by Col. Elmer Ellsworth and his New York volunteer infantry.
The elevator entrance has the look of the early American republic, whose flag colors were the same as revolutionary France and the Netherlands, rare democracies at a time when most nations were governed by absolute monarchs. The eagles flanking the elevator originally stood in Fort Greene Park, dating to 1908.
On the second floor, Saalburg painted for Olmstedian parks but the aerial views are not to scale nor accurate. Van Cortlandt Park has its lake as a centerpiece, missing the Putnam railroad that preceded the park, or highways that would cut into the park after the mural was completed. The widest road inside the park ran from Mosholu Avenue in Riverdale to Mosholu Parkway in Norwood. The construction of Henry Hudson Parkway severed this connection.
Prospect Park appears devoid of buildings, with its Long Meadow and lake as the most visible elements. A grid of paths near the lake faces Music Island, where concerts took place.
Bronx Park is bisected by Pelham Parkway, with its south tip on top of this view. The bottom half is the New York Botanical Garden and an outline of its palatial library is seen here. No buildings appear on the Bronx Zoo portion of this park.
Central Park offers the most details, with the Arsenal, Obelisk, Tavern on the Green, and Belvedere Castle depicted. The Lower Reservoir that later became the Great Lawn appears in this view.
Among the perks of working here is having access to the rooftop, which has a garden and seating, with penthouse views of Central Park. The turrets also serve as offices, with the large south-facing window on the third floor as a conference room.
Prior to the Arsenal’s transformation into the NYC Parks headquarters, its turrets had conical covers, the walls were covered with vines, there was a wooden rooftop clock, and a back entrance stair.
Looking back, Arsenal’s place in Central Park wasn’t initially secure. As it was not in context with other buildings in the park, there were calls for its demolition. On Otto Sibeth’s 1873 map of the park, the building is in dotted lines, with proposed paths running through it. Also seen on this map is Outset Arch, which was removed during the 1934 expansion of Central Park Zoo. Nearby Greengap Arch remains but is used as a storage space by the zoo.
A photo of the Arsenal from 1911 shows the zoo structures crowded around it, with vines further concealing a building that some civic activists considered an eyesore. I had works on display at its holiday art show in 2017 and 2018. I also explained the 1950s topographical map at the commissioner’s office.
During Robert Moses’ administration as Parks Commissioner, the zoo was redesigned by Aymar Embury II, with a symmetrical plan that put the Arsenal at its center. Now it appears to fit perfectly into the zoo’s layout. Prospect Park Zoo also situated its buildings around the seal pool.
Within the zoo, there are many inanimate animals appearing in the architecture and sculptures. Surrounding the seal pool, I initially thought they were survivors from the demolition of the old Penn Station. They were saved by Robert Moses in 1941, when the First Avenue overpass above Shore Road in Brooklyn was demolished during the construction of Gowanus Parkway. His administration brought these eight stone birds to the zoo.
Four years earlier, the zoo welcomed a dancing bear and goat by Frederick Roth, who also has the Balto and Mother Goose sculptures in Central Park. Roth also has sculptures at the Prospect Park Zoo.
On the facade of the zoo buildings are more stone animals. The main building had Roth designing African antelopes, tigers, cheetah, leopard, and puma, Rocky Mountain goats and caribou by Carl C. Mose. In a courtyard next to this building is Auguste Cain’s tigress and cubs.
The gift shop building has cockatoo, cormorants, eagles and vultures, by Emil Siebern, penguins by J. Walter, Rocky Mountain sheep, swans, and turkeys by Roth.
The theater building facade has the American antelope, chimpanzee, gorilla, rhesus and ring-tailed lemurs, baboon and mandrill, macaque and orangutan. The penguin building has lions by Roth. The zoo also has sculptural animals on a miniature carousel at the Delacorte Clock and the entrance to its Children’s Zoo.
Concerning artistic animals, when the Children’s zoo opened in 1961, it had a whale sculpture. Nicknamed Whalemina, it was later derided as kitschy and threatened with destruction. A group of artists gave it a new home in the Rockaways. Although Hurricane Sandy destroyed the original sculpture, there is a replica Whalemina by Geoff Rawling that appears at the annual Poseidon’s Parade on the concrete boardwalk.
For other examples of historic interiors at NYC Parks, see earlier essays on the Biddle House, Van Cortlandt Mansion, Onderdonk House, and LaTourette House.
Sergey Kadinsky is the author of Hidden Waters of New York City: A History and Guide to 101 Forgotten Lakes, Ponds, Creeks, and Streams in the Five Boroughs (2016, Countryman Press), adjunct history professor at Touro University and the webmaster of Hidden Waters Blog.
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