Old Bowling Green, New York City

The old Bowling Green in 1831. Scale model with dolls, published in a vintage postcard, copyright 1932 by Museum of the City of New York 1932. Photograph by Samuel Herman Gottscho (1875-1971). Text on print: «Bowling Green looking south toward Battery Park. On the left, the Kennedy Mansion at No. 1 Broadway, in front of which stands the first omnibus to be operated in New York. Miniature group by Ned J. Burns.» Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

This is the beginning of Broadway. Later, by mid-19th century, Kennedy Mansion was replaced by the old Washington Hotel. The site is now occupied by the One Broadway building, former Washington Building.

Abraham Brower began the first public transit route of New York in 1927, a stagecoach named Accommodation that ran up Broadway from the Battery to Bleecker Street. By 1831, Brower added two more coaches: the Sociable and Omnibus.