The straw hats the men are wearing give the season away. They’re strolling through Battery Park beside what was once Castle Garden Fort, now the home of the New York Aquarium, according to the back of the postcard.
The card continues: “Here can be seen in large glass tanks the most valuable and complete collection of fish, seals, turtles, and other deep sea inhabitants in existence.
“At the entrance of the harbor is the Statue of Liberty and a little further up is Ellis Island, through which all immigrants landing in New York City must pass.”
The aquarium relocated to Coney Island in 1957.
Tags: Battery Park, Castle Garden Fort, Coney Island Aquarium, New York Aquarium, New York in 1917, New York Park photos, New York street, New York Zoos, Summer in New York City, Vintage postcards New York City
Ephemeral New York 
June 8, 2011 at 1:43 am |
The aquarium was forced out to Coney Island by Robert Moses…
June 8, 2011 at 2:56 pm |
Averaged over 5,000 visitors a day in its first decades — all enjoying free admission. In 1941 the aquarium was closed and demolished in preparation for construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel — now widely regarded as a bit of characteristic vindictiveness by Bob Moses against those who had successfully forced him to abandon his plans for a Brooklyn Battery Bridge.
The much overlooked Bronx hosted aquarium collections from 1941 to 1957, when the current Coney Island home was at last completed.
For a detailed examination of the collections at the time of the postcard, see digital copy of the comprehensive Guide to the New York Aquarium, published 1919 by the New York Zoological Society.
June 8, 2011 at 3:22 pm |
Interesting: here’s a link to the book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=WVhIAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
June 8, 2011 at 9:20 pm |
[…] The straw hats the men are wearing give the season away. They’re strolling through Battery Park beside what was once Castle Garden Fort, now the home of the New York Aquarium, according to the back of the postcard. […]
September 24, 2012 at 5:21 am |
[…] Postmarked 1903, this vintage view of Battery Park—from a ferry from Staten Island or Governor’s Island?—is kind of the daytime opposite of this one. […]