The Arsenal

The Arsenal has served the city of New York in a variety of ways.


Location: MAP | East Side at 64th Street
Hours: Gallery: Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm, Restrooms: weekends & holidays only
Phone: 212-360-1311 (main) and (212) 360-8163 (gallery)

The Arsenal is older than Central Park itself and represents New York's eternal ability to reimagine itself. Created initially to store arms and ammunition of the New York State Militia in 1848, the Arsenal has proven itself a chameleon in serving the city in a vast array of ways.

Located at 64th Street off Fifth Avenue, this brick structure has been a police station, a museum, a weather bureau, and a zoo. Today it offers a free treat to visitors with an ever-changing art gallery located on its third floor.

Now designated an official New York City Landmark, the Arsenal is still an important warehouse for New York. But its massive half-octagonal tower and other medieval fortress-like Gothic details, combined with a cast iron American eagle over the doorway, was not always to everyone's liking. In 1859, one resident wrote that he wished the Arsenal could be destroyed by an accidental fire. The objections increased in the late 19th century when live caged birds joined dinosaurs' skeletons during a time when the American Museum of Natural History was first housed there.

Its usefulness has always been the Arsenal's savior. During the Great Depression, it became the headquarters for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which it continues to be along with housing numerous other agencies like the Central Park Administration, the New York Wildlife Conservation Society, and The Parks Library.

Inside the lobby, a multi-story mural created by 1930's WPA artist Allen Saalburg depicts the Arsenal's early history through colorful vignettes of soldiers in formation.

With a reservation in advance, history buffs can see the original Greensward Plan - the blueprint for Central Park designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux.