McGown's Pass Tavern

McGown's Pass Tavern, formerly Mount St. Vincent's Hotel, on East Drive near 104th Street in Central Park. Photo circa 1915.

McGown's Pass Tavern was a refreshment house on McGowan's Pass in Central Park in New York City, near 104th Street west of Fifth Avenue. It was built in 1883–84 and closed in 1915.^[1]

Its proprietor until 1890 was Patrick H. McCann, brother-in-law to local Tammany Hall leader Richard Croker and sometime friend of Hugh Grant, Mayor of New York. During the Fassett Investigation in 1890, McCann testified that he lost his lease to the tavern because he refused to provide Croker, Grant and their political associates with free entertainment; in retaliation for which Croker and Grant began to bad-mouth the restaurant as a disreputable house patronized by lowlifes.^[2] After McCann the tavern was leased by Gabriel Case, and finally by John Scherz.

Until the early 1890s the refreshment house was known as Mount St. Vincent's Hotel, carrying on the name of an earlier establishment that had burned down in 1881. The Park Commissioners ordered the name change to avoid confusion with the Academy of Mount St. Vincent, a convent school which had occupied the site in the 1840s and 1850s, but had no further connection to the tavern. The tavern's new name hearkened back to a local watering-hole of a century before, the Black Horse Tavern, popularly known as McGowan's.^[3]

In 1915 the tavern was closed down and its furnishings auctioned off. The New York Times reported that its equipment, furniture, sporting prints, and "Old Gabe," the tavern's yellow parrot, brought in barely $1500.

References

↑ New York Times, March 10, 1915. "McGown's Pass Has Its Tavern No More."
↑ New York Times, April 26, 1890. "Result of a Family Row."
↑ Edward Hagaman Hall, McGown's Pass and Vicinity. 1905.

Central Park

Features

Geographical features	Cedar Hill Cherry Hill Conservatory Garden Conservatory Water Great Lawn / Turtle Pond Harlem Meer Onassis Reservoir The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary The Ramble and Lake Seneca Village Sheep Meadow

Sculptures	107th Infantry Memorial Balto Christopher Columbus Cleopatra's Needle Daniel Webster Eagles and Prey The Falconer Fitz-Greene Halleck Giuseppe Mazzini Indian Hunter King Jagiello Monument Robert Burns Romeo and Juliet Samuel Finley Breese Morse Seventh Regiment Memorial Sir Walter Scott The Gates (former) Untermyer Fountain USS Maine National Monument Victor Herbert William Shakespeare

Other features	Arsenal Belvedere Castle Bethesda Terrace and Fountain Blockhouse Bridges Burnett Memorial Fountain Carousel Delacorte Theater Diana Ross Playground Fort Clinton Lasker Rink Mall Marionette Theatre McGowan's Pass McGown's Pass Tavern Richard Morris Hunt Memorial Rumsey Playfield Strawberry Fields Tavern on the Green Victorian Gardens Wollman Rink Zoo Escape hoax Zoo York Wall Zoo York

Events

Neighboring features

Streets	Border Streets Fifth (East) North South West Transverses 66th 79th 85th 97th

Subway stations	Fifth Avenue – 59th Street 59th Street – Columbus Circle 72nd Street 81st Street 86th Street 96th Street 103rd Street Cathedral Parkway – 110th Street Central Park North – 110th Street

People and animals

Miscellaneous

Coordinates: 40°47′38″N 73°57′15″W / 40.79389°N 73.95417°W / 40.79389; -73.95417

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McGown's Pass Tavern

See also

References