Bowling Green Park, New York

Bowling Green is a small public park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. It was an area of public use since Dutch colonial days when it was also home of Fort New Amsterdam. The place was officially designated as a park in 1733.

Enclosed in its 18th-century iron fence, Bowling Green is the oldest park in New York City. The park actually was a bowling green early on and it had a statue of King George III on horseback. George came down with the American Revolution.

Bowling Green was a notable historical site. There was a settlement of the indigenous Lenape people at the end of the Wickquasgeck Trail, which later became Broadway. It was at the site of Bowling Green where the Dutch colonial governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Minuit, bought Manhattan Island from the Lenape in 1626. Minuit paid a grand total of $24 worth of trinkets for the purchase.

In the early years, elegant federal-style townhouses were built around the park. President George Washington resided at the Alexander Macomb House, on the north of the park at 39-41 Broadway. Washington lived in the house from February 23 to August 30, 1790, when the U.S. capital was moved to Philadelphia.

The park is an elliptical plaza. There is a large fountain in the center of the fenced-in lawn. A bronze sculpture of a "Charging Bull," designed by artist Arturo Di Modica, weighs 7,000 pounds. "Fearless Girl," by sculptor Kristen Visbal, faced off against the bull until she was moved in 2017 to face off against the New York Stock Exchange.