2. There Could Have Been a Bloomingdale Park at Columbus Circle

Today, “Bloomingdale” refers to the section of land from 96th to 110th Streets between Central Park and the Hudson River. There, you will find eponymous institutions like Bloomingdale School (P.S. 145), the Bloomingdale Public Library and the Bloomingdale School of Music. The name, however, once encompassed a much larger portion of city, including the entire west side of Manhattan north of Great Kill (a creek near what is now 42nd St.) to present-day Washington Heights. In fact, Bloomingdale Road, which was constructed around 1708, originally started at the site of Madison Square, and ran all the way up to 115th St. and Riverside Drive (and later to 147th St.).

Thus, when the city’s street plan was adopted in 1811, it included a section of land for Bloomingdale Square. The park would have spanned 53rd to 57th Streets between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. The original proposal, however, was scrapped in 1857 when Central Park was constructed. Bloomingdale Road north of 59th Street was also closed and replaced by the present Broadway in 1868.