McGowns Pass

Inaccurate, based on garbled information handed down by other writers. McGowan’s Pass (original spelling) is the portion of East Drive that goes over McGowan’s Hill (as it was known in 1776). The switchback road runs very close to the route of the Pass in 1814, as can be seen in old illustrations. The Pass did NOT run into the present site of Harlem Meer! The foundations at «the Mount» or Hill are a combination of foundation work from Mount St. Vincent’s chapel and other buildings, with some additional stonework from the rebuilding of Mount St. Vincent’s Hotel in 1884 (later renamed McGown’s Pass Tavern). The stone wall on the north side of the Mount are not building foundations but a retaining wall. There was formerly an elegant wooden staircase connecting the Conservatory Gardens and the museum and restaurant at the Mount St Vincent’s Hotel; this adjoined the retaining wall.

High ground is critical in battle.
It is for this reason that a road running through the northeast corner of Central Park, known then as McGowns Pass, and going around Harlem Meer, was of unique import during the Revolutionary War.
The British described this area as «a place where a few troops might stop an army.» Believe it or not, a few hundred years ago this was Manhattan’s MAIN HIGHWAY running north to south! Eat your heart out FDR drive and West Side highway.
In fact, this is the route George Washington took from Washington Heights (gee, I wonder how it got that name), through what is now Central Park to get a closer look at a British Invasion that had nothing to do with the Beatles. It is also the route American POWs marched after the battle of Harlem Heights. Washington returned through McGowns pass in 1783 with some 800 American troops, upon the surrendering of the English.
There is a area here where you can see what look to be ruins of a stone foundation, they are from a demolished convent, but this is the approximate location of McGowns Tavern, for which the pass took its’ name. While Manhattan was under British rule, Hessian soldiers camped there in defense of New York City for much of the Revolutionary War.
Sadly, my guess is less than 1 in 1000 New Yorkers even know about this historic little area. But if you’re into history, and you happen to be in Central park, it’s worth a bike ride up to see the critical «high ground» that the British stationed troops at throughout the Revolutionary War in defense of Manhattan.