Accessibility InfoThis text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.
This section of the Broadway Malls runs through the neighborhood of Morningside Heights. The City first acquired the land for Broadway, or Bloomingdale Road, as it was once known, in 1855. Bloomingdale Road was a major thoroughfare connecting the Dutch village of Bloomingdale, located near West 90th Street, to Lower Manhattan. From 1867 to 1869, Bloomingdale Road was redesigned, and in 1869, the new “Boulevard” opened, modeled after the Champs Elysées in Paris. Intended to raise area property values and employ workers laid off by the completion of Central Park, the Boulevard featured a 160-foot-wide right-of-way, twin rows of elm trees on each 15-foot sidewalk, and 30-foot-wide landscaped medians with broad walk-through malls.
Directions to Broadway Malls
 |
%7Cutmcsr%3D(direct)%7Cutmcmd%3D(none)%3B%2B__utmv%3D47653175.-%3B)