McGowan's Pass
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McGowan's Pass (sometimes spelled "McGown's") is a topographical feature of
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in
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, just west of
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and north of 102nd Street. It pre-dates the park, and was incorporated into the park's East Drive in the early 1860s, during the park's creation. A steep hill descending into a switchback road, it is a popular training route for competitive bicyclists and runners. Although the name is usually omitted from maps today, McGowan's Pass was clearly marked on charts of the region from the Revolutionary War until the early 20th century. It acquired its name from the McGowan or McGown family who kept a tavern near there from 1756 through the
Revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...
period, and owned the surrounding property until the 1840s. The area was incorporated into Central Park after 1860, when the park's boundaries were extended north from the line of 106th Street to 110th Street, and the Harlem Meer was built in the park's northeast corner.


Colonial era

In Dutch Colonial days, this area of north
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was part of the "commons," land administered by the community of Nieuw Haarlem as a whole. During the late 17th century, as Manhattan passed back and forth between the Dutch and English, the colony of New Harlem lost its autonomy. Common Lands were sold off in 1712. Much of this property in upper Manhattan passed to members of the extensive Benson and Dyckman families, who would continue to own much of northern Manhattan well into the 19th century.James Riker, Revised History of Harlem, 1906. In the 1740s, Jacob Dyckman, Jr. purchased the lands along the Pass from his Uncle George. He planted orchards and built a house and outbuildings, including a public house, "At the Sign of the Black Horse." During a yellow fever epidemic in 1752, the Colonial Assembly decamped from downtown New York and met in the Black Horse tavern, while boarding a half-mile east at the farm of Dyckman's cousin, Benjamin Benson. In 1756, Dyckman decided to move back north near his family in Spuyten Duyvil, and build a new tavern by the
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. He advertised his Harlem property for sale and sold it a few days later to his in-laws, Daniel McGown (as he spelled himself) and Catherine Benson McGown. With their son Andrew, the McGowns ran the Black Horse tavern until after the Revolutionary War.


Revolutionary War to Civil War

From 1776 until 1783, during the British occupation of New York, McGowan's Pass was a key high-ground position on the route between New York City to the south and Fort Knyphausen ( Fort Washington) to the north. For most of this period, the area around the Pass was the site of a Hessian encampment. After the Treaty of Paris, British and Hessians marched through the Pass when evacuating north Manhattan; and George Washington likewise came through the Pass when he reentered New York on Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783. After the war, John Leggett and his family moved into the Black Horse and managed it as "Leggett's Halfway Tavern." During the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
, a series of fortifications and redoubts were put up nearby. These included
Blockhouse No. 1 Blockhouse No. 1, colloquially known as The Blockhouse, is a Blockhouse, small fort in the North Woods (Central Park), North Woods section of Central Park, Manhattan, New York City. Finished in 1814, the Blockhouse is the second-oldest structure ...
, completed two days before the war's end in 1814, which still stands on a hill in the
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. Also built nearby were
Fort Clinton Fort Clinton was an American Revolutionary War fort erected by the Continental Army on the west bank of the Hudson River in 1776. Fort Clinton was the original West Point academy Protecting the chain It was one of a pair of fortifications which ...
,
Fort Fish Fort Fish was an earthworks fortification within what is now Central Park, Manhattan, New York City. The fort was located on East Drive near 105th Street, directly across from the Central Park Conservancy's composting area, which was once a gi ...
, and
Nutter's Battery Nutter's Battery is a scenic overlook in the North Woods of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, overlooking the Harlem Meer to the north. The battery was built during the War of 1812 as a small part of an extensive system of fortification ...
along the north side of the Pass, remnants of which can still be seen. There was also a gatehouse straddling the road just east of present-day Lasker Rink, near the grid coordinates of 107th Street and
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(formerly
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), where present-day East Drive makes its first downhill switchback. This 1860s route of East Drive was partially constructed over the old earthwork fortifications. The chapel of Mount St. Vincent's Academy, a convent school built around the old McGown house, was built in 1847. It became the U.S. General Hospital or St. Joseph's Military Hospital, during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
from 1862 to 1865, after the Mount St. Vincent Academy moved north to its present campus in Riverdale. From 1859 to 1863,
Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
and his family lived in the Mount St. Vincent's buildings, while Olmsted directed the landscaping of Central Park. The campus existed until 1881.


Post-Civil War

From the 1860s to the 1880s, the Park Commission leased out the old school grounds as a sculpture museum and tavern, while the hill continued to be known as Mount St. Vincent's. When Central Park was being built, a lake called Harlem Meer was constructed from a natural waterway north of McGowan's Pass. A new section of East Drive was made to veer sharply to the west and south and again to the north, bypassing the Meer.


Tavern

A refreshment house, known as Mount St. Vincent's Hotel, opened at McGowan's Pass in 1883–1884. Its proprietor until 1890 was Patrick H. McCann, brother-in-law to local
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leader
Richard Croker Richard Welstead Croker (November 24, 1843 – April 29, 1922), known as "Boss Croker", was an Irish American political boss who was a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall. His control over the city was cemented with the 1897 election of R ...
and sometime friend of
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, Mayor of New York. During the Fassett Investigation in 1890, McCann testified that he lost his lease to the tavern because he refused to provide Croker, Grant and their political associates with free entertainment; in retaliation for which Croker and Grant began to bad-mouth the restaurant as a disreputable house patronized by lowlifes. After McCann the tavern was leased by Gabriel Case, and finally by John Scherz. The name of the tavern caused confusion for visiting parents who told their cab driver to take them to Mount St. Vincent's and found themselves at a large, convivial saloon in Central Park, instead of a sedate convent school. Accordingly the Park Commission officially designated the region "McGown's Pass" on maps and signage, and renamed the "Mount St. Vincent's Hotel" roadhouse as "McGown's Pass Tavern."Edward Hagaman Hall
''McGown's Pass and Vicinity''
(NY: 1905), 26, accessed May 8, 2011
The tavern's new name hearkened back to a local watering-hole of a century before, the Black Horse Tavern, popularly known as McGowan's. In 1906 a plaque commemorating the "McGown" family and the Pass was installed nearby at the Fort Clinton memorial. In 1915 the tavern was closed down and its furnishings auctioned off.'' The New York Times'' reported that its equipment, furniture, sporting prints, and "Old Gabe," the tavern's yellow parrot, brought in barely $1,500. The old tavern's driveways and foundations remain in use by the
Central Park Conservancy The Central Park Conservancy is an American private, nonprofit park conservancy that manages New York City's Central Park under a contract with the government of New York City and NYC Parks. The conservancy employs most maintenance and opera ...
, which uses it as a composting area and has reverted to calling it "The Mount."


References

{{Central Park Central Park