3. A Remnant of Vanderbilt’s Estate is the Entrance to a Garden
The Conservatory Garden is a quiet, lesser-traveled part of the park where you can enjoy a peaceful stroll through French, English, and Italian gardens. From 1898 until 1934, this area was covered by a massive glass conservatory (hence the name). Visitors enter the garden through massive wrought-iron gates. These gates were once part of the estate of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Designed by George B. Post and forged in Paris in 1894, the gates survived the estate’s demolition in the 1920s. Bergdorf Goodman stands where the mansion once was on the corner of 57th Street and 5th Avenue. Vanderbilt‘s daughter, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney donated the gates to Central Park in 1939.