New York Vauxhall Gardens

Vauxhall Gardens, Greenwich Street ("Survey'd in 1767") map of New York, had become popular in Colonial New York, taking advantage of the "Sunset Strip-like" jurisdiction, two miles from the post office,. At a site called "Bowling Green" since 1722, Samuel Fraunces opened a pleasure garden, first called the Vaux-Hall Gardens, in New York, in 1767 and it received a chief competitor in the much larger Ranelagh Gardens, (named after Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea, London), occupying a wooded rise of ground just north of the northernmost city houses, on the south side of Duane Street; the site overlooked Lispenard's Meadows and the riverfront road to Greenwich Village. The original Vauxhall Gardens was located in a smaller site on Greenwich Street near the Hudson River between what later became Warren and Chambers streets in the fashionable Sixth Ward; Public School 234 stands at the site today. Ratzer's map shows its square garden plot, conventionally divided in four by walks. Fraunces operated Vaux-Hall through Summer 1773; in October, he auctioned its contents and sold the property. His notice mentioned two large gardens, a house with four rooms per floor and twelve fireplaces, and a dining hall that was long and wide, with a kitchen below. As New York City expanded, streets of rowhouses with rear gardens took over the land occupied by the Vauxhall Gardens. Vauxhall Gardens, Lafayette Street In 1805, it moved, this time to Lafayette Street, stretching from 4th to 8th streets in what were then the northern reaches of the city, ==Astor Place Area==

The Vauxhall Gardens, Lafayette Street, area later belonged to John Jacob Astor. In 1826, he carved out an upper-class neighborhood from the site with Lafayette Street bisecting eastern gardens from western homes. Wealthy New Yorkers, including Astor and other members of the family, built mansions along this central thoroughfare. Astor built the Astor Library in the eastern portion of the neighborhood as a donation to the city. Architect Seth Geer designed eye-catching row houses called LaGrange Terrace for the development, and the area became a fashionable, upper-class residential district. This location made the gardens accessible to the people of both the Broadway and Bowery districts. In the summer of 1838, the owners opened a saloon for the staging of vaudeville comic operas. Later theatre managers expanded the offerings to appeal to a wider range of patrons. By 1850, the rowdier crowds of the Bowery had mostly scared off the upper classes, and revenues suffered. The theater buildings were demolished in 1855, and the gardens closed for the last time in 1859. ==See also==