Photographs of Belvedere Castle
Belvedere Castle (also known as Fort Belvedere or Belvedere Tower) was designed in 1865 by Calvert Vaux and JacobWrey Mould. It sits on Vista Rock in Manhattan's Central Park next to Shakespeare's Garden" and was built in 1869 as a lookout.
The Belvedere Tower later came to house the New York Meteorological Observatory which was founded by Dr. Daniel Draper in 1868. Upon Dr. Draper's retirement in 1912, the United States Weather Bureau took over the observatory.
After its restoration in 1982, while still housing weather measuring devices, the tower once more became a lookout. In May 1996, the Henry Luce Nature Observatory also moved in.
Belvedere Castle, the object of much vandalism and deterioration, was closed to the public in the 1960s. It was restored and reopened by the Central Park Conservancy on May 1, 1983. In 1995, the Conservancy's Historic Preservation Crew replaced the painted wooden loggia of the castle, working from Vaux's designs, on the granite piers and walls that had survived.
The original design, represented in a published lithograph (Rosensweig and Blackmar 1992 p 203), had called for a more weighty Manhattan schist and granite structure with a corner tower with conical cap, to balance the mass of the main castle structure to the east, with the existing lookout over parapet walls between them.
The castle housed the New York Meteorological Observatory, which was taken over by the United States Weather Bureau in 1912. It is still the site at which meteorological data is collected for Central Park.
The Belvedere Tower later came to house the New York Meteorological Observatory which was founded by Dr. Daniel Draper in 1868. Upon Dr. Draper's retirement in 1912, the United States Weather Bureau took over the observatory.
After its restoration in 1982, while still housing weather measuring devices, the tower once more became a lookout. In May 1996, the Henry Luce Nature Observatory also moved in.
Belvedere Castle, the object of much vandalism and deterioration, was closed to the public in the 1960s. It was restored and reopened by the Central Park Conservancy on May 1, 1983. In 1995, the Conservancy's Historic Preservation Crew replaced the painted wooden loggia of the castle, working from Vaux's designs, on the granite piers and walls that had survived.
The original design, represented in a published lithograph (Rosensweig and Blackmar 1992 p 203), had called for a more weighty Manhattan schist and granite structure with a corner tower with conical cap, to balance the mass of the main castle structure to the east, with the existing lookout over parapet walls between them.
The castle housed the New York Meteorological Observatory, which was taken over by the United States Weather Bureau in 1912. It is still the site at which meteorological data is collected for Central Park.
Labels: facts about Belvedere Castle
posted by Bella at 9:18 AM
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