The Charles A. Dana Discovery Center provides environmental education and activities. It is also one of four visitor centers in Central Park.

Perched on the northern shore of the Harlem Meer is Central Park's newest building — the first in its history to be built specifically as a visitor center.  The Charles A. Dana Discovery Center opened to the public in 1993 and offers a wide variety of the Conservancy's free education and community programs, seasonal exhibits, and holiday celebrations.   

Catch-and-release fishing at the Harlem Meer has become a favorite family and community pastime. The Dana Center provides poles, unbarbed hooks, and instruction booklets. There is also a fishing jamboree celebrated each year after Labor Day.

Catch-and-release fishing at the Harlem Meer

Adjacent to the Dana Center is a small plaza where annual events take place.  These include the Harlem Meer Performance Festival, the Halloween Pumpkin Sail of candlelit Jack O'Lanterns across the Meer, and the Dana Holiday Lighting.

Location

• Inside the Park at Central Park North (110th Street) between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue)

  Details

  • Visitor Center offering Family and Community Programs
  • Hours 10:00 am - 5:00 pm, Tuesday - Sunday
  • Catch-and-Release Fishing; April to October; Tuesday to Sunday; 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
  • 212-860-1370

  
  

  
  The Charles A. Dana Discovery Center is host to many Central Park Conservancy seasonal exhibits, community programs, and holiday celebrations, often in collaboration with other City cultural institutions.

  Sailing pumpkins on the Harlem Meer in celebration of Halloween