Bowling Green Park and The Wall Street Bull

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Bowling Green Park is a small public park in Lower Manhattan located at the foot of Broadway. It is New York City's oldest park, with a history dating back to 1686. In 1773 this land was leased for use as a "bowling green," for the game of lawn bowling, which was a fashionable English game similar to the Italian game of bocce.

The park now contains a pretty fountain surrounded by park benches. It is a popular spot for workers of the surrounding office buildings to sit during lunch hour.

The wrought iron fence surrounding the small park is the original, and if you click to enlarge the photo above you can read that it was erected in 1771.

This plaque states that the park was established in 1733 for the "Beauty and Ornament of the Said Street as well as for the Recreation & Delight of the Inhabitants of this City"

This little park also has a symbolic role in our young country's history. In 1770, the British government erected a gilded lead equestrian statue of King George III in the center of Bowling Green. When relations between the British government and the colonists deteriorated, the fence was constructed to protect the statue from vandalism. On July 9, 1776, after the Declaration of Independence was read to Washington's troops at the site of what is now City Hall, patriots rushed down Broadway to Bowling Green, and toppled the statue. Cast-iron crowns that topped sections of the surrounding fence were also knocked off. Both the crowns and the statue were hacked up and then sent to a foundry to be made into musket balls for the patriots to use in the upcoming American Revolutionary War.

It is amazing to think that this fence has been here since 1771! I'm sure many New Yorkers pass it every day without realizing that fact. In the photo above, and below, you can see the thicker portions of the fence whose tops once held the cast-iron crown decoration that was destroyed at the same time as the statue of the king.

Inside the park, in the southern corner, was an interesting plaque commemorating the name of first Italian settler, Peter Caesar Alberti, who arrived in New York on June 2, 1635.

The park is also a favorite sighting place for Peregrine Falcons, and if you click on to enlarge the photo above you can read this informative plaque, that is located on the fence, describing the falcons return to New York City.

Outside Bowling Green Park, on its northern boundary, is a flag pole, and its location is also historical!

If you click on to enlarge the photo above you can read that on November 25, 1783, General George Washington was returning to New York after the British evacuation, following their defeat in the American Revolutionary War. Before they left, however, in a last act of defiance, the British hung a Union Jack flag on a flag pole at this site, cut the flag's lanyard, and greased the pole so that the flag would remain, and Washington would see the British colors still flying over the city. A young sailor named John van Arsdale was able to climb the pole, however, and replace the British flag with the American stars and stripes. The plaque goes on to say that in the 200 years hence, the British have become our strongest friends and allies.

To the north of the flag pole, and at the very end of the area in front of Bowling Green Park triangle, is sculptor Arturo Di Modica's "Charging Bull" also known as the "Wall Street Bull." It was originally placed in front of the New York Stock Exchange, without permission, as a "Christmas gift to the people of New York," by the artist on December 15, 1989. The police seized the sculpture and placed it into an impound lot, but an ensuing public outcry led the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to install it two blocks south of the Exchange, in the plaza at Bowling Green. It is a very popular tourist attraction and people line up to be able to have their photo taken as they stand next to, on top of, or behind the bull. The artist still owns the statue, and it is for sale, but for now, it is on loan to the city, much to the amusement and enjoyment of all who see it!