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This small park in Manhattan is well known, as it houses the New York City Hall.
Although at present it looks well-tended, with trees and a beautiful fountain, the current City Hall Park boasts a long history. Originally, this area was only a meadow that served as pasture for sheep and, over the years, it became the "common," the village green in the city. Time passed and the village green was used as a cemetery for the poor of the city and even got a hospice, which later turned into the famous Bridewell Prison, the prison for debtors, although it became better known because the British kept in it American prisoners of war. As a detail, you should know that the cells had no windows, only bars, and in the winter hundreds of patriot patients died within its walls owing to the bitter cold.
Eventually, the prison was demolished and the area became a park, while still hosting public events, such as demonstrations or executions. One of the persons who were publicly hanged here on the grounds of being a traitor was the famous Jacob Leisler, a Dutch merchant, chief of New York Libre. Anyway, the statue you can admire here is not his, but of a patriot named Nathan Hale, who was executed by the British near here, on the grounds of being a spy. His last words were: "I only regret not having more than one life to give to my country." It was also in this park where, in 1776, George Washington read the Declaration of Independence, which was shortly later approved by Congress on 4 July of that same year.
As you can see, this park has suffered, dreamed and lived significant passages of history. Therefore, the remodelling of City Hall Park as you can see it today was started relatively recently, in 1999. Stroll through the shade of the trees and recall everything that has happened here.
9-11 (19)
Bowling Green (11)
Central Park (120)
City Hall (23)
Cooper Union Foundation (62)
Empire State Building (73)
GE Building (90)
Ground Zero (18)
Memorial Plaza (145)
Nolita (29)
SoHo (37)
St Patrick's Old Cathedral (30)
Times Square (81)
United Nations (79)
World Trade Centre Transportation Hub (147)
9-11 Memorial (144)
Broadway (67)
Chelsea (50)
Columbia University (131)
Dakota Building (107)
Equitable Life Building (59)
General Post Office (66)
Lincoln Center (99)
Museum Mile (109)
One World Trade Center and One World Observatory (148)
South Street Seaport Historic District (27)
Statue of Liberty (3)
TriBeCa (36)
Wall Street (14)
Battery Park (4)
Brooklyn Bridge (26)
Chinatown (31)
Columbus Circle (97)
E. V. Haughwout Building (39)
Fifth Avenue (69)
Grand Central Terminal (75)
Little Italy (28)
New York Public Library (71)
Radio City Music Hall (89)
St John the Divine Cathedral (130)
The Mall (126)
Trinity Church (13)
Washington Square Park (41)
Bethesda Fountain (123)
Carnegie Hall (96)
Chrysler Building (76)
Con Edison Building (60)
Ellis Island (2)
Flatiron Building (68)
Greenwich Village (40)
Little Singer Building (38)
New York Stock Exchange (16)
Rockefeller Center (88)
St Patrick's Cathedral (87)
The Reservoir (127)
Trump Tower (103)
Woolworth Building (24)
30 Park Place (143)
Astor Place Subway Station (84)
Bryant Park (70)
Central Park Zoo (124)
City Hall Park (22)
Cushman Row (48)
Federal Hall National Memorial (17)
Grace Church (58)
International Building (93)
Marilyn Subway Grate (72)
New York Times Building (138)
Roosvelt Island Tram Way (140)
Stone Street (149)
Temple Emmanu-El (110)
Tiffany & Co. (104)
Wollman Memorial Park (121)
432 Park Avenue (142)
Bank of America Tower (136)
Caffe Reggio (139)
Channel Gardens (92)
Cleopatra's Needle (129)
Daily News Building (77)
Federal Reserve Bank of New York (15)
Groud Zero - Tribute to The Victims (20)
Lower Plaza (91)
New Victory Theater (83)
One57 (141)
St Luke's in the Fields (45)
Strand Book Store (56)
The Ghostbusters Headquarters (150)
Union Square Park (57)
African Burial Ground (25)
Belvedere Castle (122)
Carlyle Hotel (106)
Chelsea Hotel (52)
Conservatory Garden (125)
Duffy Square (82)
Ford Foundation Building (78)
Hearst Tower (135)
Madison Square (65)
New World Trade Center (21)
Riverside Church (132)
St Luke's Place (46)
Strawberry Fields (128)
The High Line Park (47)
Washington Mews (43)
Apollo Theater (133)
Bowling Green Bull (12)
Castle Clinton (6)
Church of Our Lady of the Rosary (7)
Cunard Building (10)
Eldridge Street Synagogue (33)
Fraunces Tavern (9)
Hudson River Park (49)
Maine Memorial (98)
New York by Gehry (8 Spruce Street) (137)
Riverside Park (101)
St Mark's Church in the Bowery (64)
Stuyvesant Street (63)
The Pythian Temple (100)
White Horse Tavern (42)
American Museum of Natural History (108)
DIA Art Foundation (54)
International Center of Photography (85)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (114)
Museum of Jewish Heritage (5)
National September 11 Memorial Museum (146)
Pierpont Morgan Library & Museum (74)
Theodore Roosevelt House (55)
Asia Society and Museum (112)
Forbes Galleries (44)
Jewish Musem (117)
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden (105)
Museum of Modern Art (95)
New Museum of Contemporary Art (35)
Rubin Museum of Art (53)
Villard Mansions (80)