Bowling Green

A Guide to Exploring Colonial New York City in 2025

"As the oldest public park in NYC (officially designated in 1733), I appreciate that the site started as a Lenape council ground and later served as a parade ground, cattle market and Dutch meeting place. During colonial times the British installed a 4,000-pound gilded lead equestrian statue of King George III here, which was repeatedly vandalized and ultimately toppled after the Declaration of Independence in 1776; the story goes that the head was mailed to England and the body was melted into bullets for the Continental Army. The original fence still stands and there’s a plaque on it summarizing the park’s layered history." - Matthew Kepnes