They did at least until the 1870s, when this grainy photo was taken—showing a couple of bovines relaxing in a pasture at Lexington Avenue and 45th Street.
That’s a stone’s throw from Grand Central Terminal’s train shed, which was built at Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue) in the 40s, according to New York: An Illustrated History.
“In the distance looms the northern end of the vast iron-and-glass train shed of Grand Central Depot,” the photo caption reads.
That train shed and the adjacent station were replaced by the Beaux-Arts Grand Central Terminal that still stands today.
Here’s more farm animals grazing and chilling in New York.
Tags: Cornelius Vanderbilt, farms of New York City, Grand Central Station, Grand Central Terminal, history of 42nd Street NYC, New York City street, when midtown was farmland
Ephemeral New York 
December 13, 2010 at 4:42 pm |
I just tweeted this – I love this picture! I went to high school a block away from Lexington and 45th, and know the area well (no cattle there in the 1970s though, just a lot of businessmen)
December 13, 2010 at 5:50 pm |
st agnes?
December 13, 2010 at 4:45 pm |
Yeah, that pasture was replaced by skyscrapers and office buildings. The only cow left in Manhattan is the one at the Children’s Zoo in Central Park!
December 13, 2010 at 6:40 pm |
[…] the 1870s, cows could be seen grazing near the Grand Central train shed [Ephemeral […]
March 16, 2012 at 4:59 am |
[…] out the original Grand Central Depot, in the 1870s, with real live cows grazing in front of it. Share this:TwitterLike this:LikeBe the first to like this […]
March 16, 2012 at 10:17 am |
How I wish I could go back and wander around this NYC – sooooo different from the city I grew up in. Just wonderful to see photos showing what it once looked like. Wonder how much it will change in the next 100-150 years?
September 12, 2013 at 5:45 am |
[…] “This doesn’t look much like the old Grand Central, does it?” the postcard’s sender writes to the recipient. It sure doesn’t—this was the Grand Central (with grazing cows nearby!) that came before it. […]
October 5, 2015 at 4:49 am |
[…] this is Grand Central Station (formerly Terminal) in the early 1900s, after a renovation of the original 1871 structure—which had become too small for the growing […]
November 14, 2015 at 4:46 pm |
Reblogged this on The Arts Mechanical and commented:
The cows of 45th St? They said that the first Grand Central was in the middle of a nowhere in a cow pasture, but I never really believed it, until I saw this pic.
November 18, 2015 at 8:58 am |
[…] STRANGE NYC: When cows grazed next to Grand Central. […]
November 18, 2015 at 1:03 pm |
[…] https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/when-cows-grazed-next-to-grand-central/ […]
June 1, 2016 at 2:03 pm |
[…] Photo via Ephemeral New York […]