Manhattan's Bowling Green park, sitting at the very beginning of Broadway,
is the first official park in New York. At the early days of New York there was
cattle market on this place. On March 12, 1733 the city Council authorized the
enclose of the small lot in the front of the fort on the southern tip
of the island for “the recreation and delight”.
The world's oldest surviving bowling green in the world is the Southampton Old
Bowling Green in England, which was first used in 1299.
There are many forms of bowling - the Italianbocce, the French petanque and British lawn bowling.
The bowling game was banned for many centuries
for most people in England. Henry VII, the king of England , played the game, but banned it for the poor because
"Bowyers, Fletchers, Stringers and Arrowhead makers" were spending
more time at recreational events such as bowls instead of practicing their
trade. It was only in 1845 that the ban was lifted, and people were again
allowed to play bowls as they wanted.
The English, Dutch and German
settlers all imported their own variations of bowling to America. One of the earliest mention of it in American
literature is by american writer Washington Irving, when Rip Van Winkle awakens to the sound of
"crashing ninepins."
Before 1905 balls were done primary out of very hard wood. But in 1905, the first rubber
ball, was introduced. In. In 1952 automatic production model of pinspotter was introduce. Today, the sport of bowling is
enjoyed by 95 million people in more than 90 countries. Bowling Green in New
York is the first permanent American bowling location for lawn bowling.
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| Statue of King George III in New York |
This park is the site of one of the most symbolic moment of the War ofIndependence. There was an equestrian statue of King George III in the middle
of the Bowling Green park erected by the British government in 1770. The
monument mirrored the famous Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in the
ancient Roman, erected in 176 AD. The statue in New York was cast in lead and gilded. The monument was huge with estimated weight about 4,000 pounds.
King George the Third ruled England from 1760 to 1820, the longest reign of any
of the male monarchs in England. There are three equestrian statue of King
George the Third in Great Britain: in London, Liverpool and Windsor.
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| Statue of George III on Snow Hill, Windsor |
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| Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome |
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The statue quickly became unpopular and law against vandalism and graffiti was
passed in New York in 1773 and an iron fence was built to protect the monument.
But it did not help.
George Washington, commander of the Continental forces
in New York, read the document aloud in front of City Hall, just a mile to the
north from the Bowling green. The wild crowd cheered the inspiring words , then full of revolutionary excitement
rushed to the statue of the English king. A number of soldiers, sailors and
citizens threw ropes around the statue, pulled it down, and cut it into pieces. Washington later disapprove the act and expressed the hope that “the military
would leave this kind of work "to the proper authorities."
Do you want to know what happened next with the monument? Wait for my next post to come!
But for the architects Trowbridge & Livingston of 14 wall street it was not enough – they used Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, designed by the Greek architects between 353 and 350 BC in present Bodrum, Turkey as a model for structure on top of the tower. 
In April 2012, majority control of the 1.05 million-square-foot building was sold for $303 million in cash to Alexander Rovt, a fertilizer tycoon from Ukraine, who paid off the building's outstanding debt as part of the deal. This skyscraper is the largest building built by Rovt but not the first one! In my next post I’ll tell you more about mr. Rovt from Mukachevo!
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