Central Park Casino
A modest park refreshment house evolved into New York's glamorous Jazz Age nightclub until Robert Moses denounced its exclusivity and tore it down.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A restaurant and later nightclub near Fifth Avenue inside Central Park, Manhattan.
Originally designed by Calvert Vaux, the building became an elite supper club under Mayor Jimmy Walker.
Existence timeline
Calvert Vaux designs a park amenity.
The building evolves into a restaurant.
Walker-era New York gains an elite venue.
Music and political society fill the rooms.
The parks commissioner targets the club.
Playground and later performance space replace it.
Why it ended
Parks commissioner Robert Moses closed and demolished it in 1936 as part of his remaking of Central Park amenities.
Last confirmed trace
New York park archives, photographs, menus and the Rumsey Playfield site preserve its layered history.
What it left behind
The Casino's end exposes the political struggle between exclusive nightlife and publicly framed park reform.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer obtainable in its original public form.
Verified normal public availability maps to 100 under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.