Recognize this view on Fifth Avenue? Probably not! It is the Croton Reservoir, with 50 foot high granite walls, which held the water brought down from Westchester County into Manhattan, shown in a photo from 1902 (New York Historical Society).
Here’s the site today — it’s the New York Public Library (with the lions) between 40th and 42nd Streets, and Bryant Park beyond the library.
Another 1902 photograph of the Croton Reservoir from above, looking south along Fifth Avenue. The reservoir had a public “Promenade” on top, which became a fashionable stroll and helped turn Fifth Avenue into a high-society district. The Croton River water stored in this reservoir was distributed by pipes to public fountains and buildings throughout Manhattan. The Croton Reservoir was replaced in 1915 by the Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers, still in use today.
Bryant Park, on the back half of the old Croton Reservoir site. The slope-roofed tower in the center of the photo is home to our project’s sponsor, Hart/Howerton. Today Bryant Park is one of NYC’s most popular lunchtime outdoor spaces.
Who is Bryant Park named for? None other than landscape poet William Cullen Bryant, shown here in one of America’s most famous paintings: “Kindred Spirits” by Asher Durand. In this Catskill Mountains scene, Bryant talks with landscape artist Thomas Cole, the first of the Hudson River School painters. Through their poetry and art careers these two created the mystique of the Catskills as a Romantic landscape. We see them here appreciating a Catskills waterfall and gorge years before it’s waters would be made available in the city where both great artists worked during the week.