Bowling Green

Bowling Green is a small, teardrop-shaped park located at the southern end of Broadway, set apart from the surrounding streets by an eighteenth-century wrought-iron fence. As the oldest public park in New York City, it sits on land that once served as a Dutch parade ground and a communal cattle market. In seventeen thirty-three, the city leased the space to three local landlords for a yearly rent of one peppercorn, tasking them with creating a landscaped area for residents to play lawn bowls.