When Manhattan parks featured lovers’ lanes

This 1908 postcard, of “Lover’s Lane” in Riverside Park, doesn’t say exactly where it is along the river—and a search for it came up empty. 

But the curvy path sure looks like a sweet place to stroll or sit, as the couple far off on a bench demonstrate.

Central Park also had a Lovers’ Lane, as seen in these circa-1896 photos. 

According to a 1931 New York Times article, this narrow road ran “from east to west, just to the north of the 79th Street Transverse Road and south of the lake site.”

[Photo below from the NYPL digital collection]

Here’s the history of a colonial-era Lovers’ Lane in Brooklyn Heights.