I mentioned the Central Park Conservatory in my item about the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory the other day. Today the area that the conservatory was built on is a popular place for wedding photography and is known as the Central Park Conservatory Garden. But before it was a garden there really was a conservatory there from 1898 until 1934.
In those days the conservatory was used to harden hardwood cuttings and grow shrubs and plants that would eventually be used for the park’s plantings. So many of the trees and shrubs in the park today will have originally started as cuttings or seedlings in the conservatory.
After the conservatory was demolished Gilmore D. Clarke who was landscape architect to Robert Moses designed a six-acre garden. Opened in 1937 it is in three sections and styles, English, French and Italian and can be found close to the Vanderbilt Gate at Fifth Avenue and 105th Street.
Central Park Conservatory image.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a photograph of the exterior of what must have been a very large Victorian conservatory, but I found this charming old sepia photograph of a lady enjoying the conservatory sometime around the beginning of the 20th century.
