AOOKOGICAL SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 
Published by the New York Zoological Society 
Votume XXIII 
MARCH, 1920 
9 
NuMBER 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE AQUARIUM BUILDING 
FORMERLY KNOWN AS CASTLE GARDEN 
By Cuarves Haskins Townsenp 
In the library of the Aquarium, there are a number of old prints showing the appearance at 
various times, of the building which it occupies, formerly known as Castle Garden. 
It has been 
thought desirable to reproduce them in this number of the BuLtietin, and thus make them avail- 
able to a considerable number of visitors to the Aquarium who make inquiry respecting the history 
of the building. 
HE low, dingy building in Battery Park 
i which houses the Aquarium, shares with 
old St. Paul’s, the City Hall, Fraunce’s 
Tavern and perhaps a few other down-town 
structures, the distinction of being more than a 
century old. 
It has had a varied career under various names. 
Built between 1807 and 1811 as a fort, known as 
Southwest Battery, it later was called Fort Clin- 
ton and afterward Castle Clinton, in honor of 
the Mayor of New York during the war of 1812. 
In 1823, having been abandoned as a military 
station, it was ceded by the federal government 
to the City of New York. The roomy structure 
was soon converted into an amphitheatre capable 
of seating six thousand persons and was opened 
as a public assembly hall in 1824, called Castle 
Garden, a name which clung to it long after it 
became an immigrant depot in 1855, and indeed 
after it was made an aquarium in 1896. 
The career of prosperity on which Castle Gar- 
den started in 1824 was continued for many 
years. Being the largest place of assembly in 
the country, and possibly in the world, it is not 
surprising that it should have been used for many 
purposes. It was virtually the water-gate to 
the City. The public receptions held there 
fill the old building with historic memories. 
Lafayette was received there in 1824; President 
Jackson in 1832; President Tyler in 1843; 
Jenny Lind in 1850; Kossuth in 1851; the Prince 
of Wales in 1860; some of Daniel Webster’s ora- 
tions were delivered there, and it was there that 
Professor Morse, in 1835, publicly demonstrated 
the use of the Morse telegraphic code. It be- 
came the home of Italian Opera, where Malibran, 
Sontag, Mario, Strackosch and_ others 
Castle Garden was, in fact, 
In 1852 
it was the scene of the centenary of the stage in 
New York, when John Braham sang and Lola 
Montez danced. 
Grisi, 
achieved triumphs. 
the first real home of opera in America. 
The greatest musical event connected with it 
was Jenny Lind’s first appearance in America, 
under the management of P. T. Barnum. The 
following notes are extracts from Rosenberg’s 
Jenny Lind in America: 
“On the morning of Wednesday, September 
11, there was little more than her name talked 
about from one end of New York to the other. 
Go where you would, the subject of conversation 
was the great singer. Mr. Barnum had 
made every possible effort to control the multi- 
tude. The police were there and were 
very actively employed in keeping the gates and 
pathway across the Battery, from the end of 
Broadway, clear of the crowd. This neverthe- 
less was a task which they attempted almost 
wholly in vain. 
