Looking across Bowling Green at the U.S. Custom House. Bowling Green is named because it was once used as a grassy lawn for lawn bowling in colonial times. Bowling Green is the oldest existing public park in New York City.
The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is located on Bowling Green, and was built in 1907. The Custom House is now the home of a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian, as well as the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern Division of New York. The fence surrounding Bowling Green, to the left, was installed in 1771 to protect a statue of King George III from vandalization.
The Custom House sits on the land that colonists first settled on the island, in 1624. A fort was built on this site in the early 1600s.