Composting Operation

Today, this area known as the Mount is the site of the Conservancy’s chief composting operation. Visitors, however, will notice one vestige of its former life: the remnant of a foundation wall dating to about 1750.

The wall was part of the foundation of McGown’s Pass Tavern, a popular watering hole of the time. In 1847, the building made the unusual transformation from tavern to convent when the Sisters of Charity purchased the site to create a religious community called Mount St. Vincent. When the property was acquired in 1858 to build Central Park, the Sisters moved to the Bronx, where the convent and schools still thrive. While the Sisters lived on the site for just over a decade, the name they bestowed it endures today.

In the years following, the buildings were used as offices for park commissioners and as military hospitals during the Civil War. Eventually, McGown’s Pass Tavern returned to the site, operating until its closure and demolition in 1917.

Today, the Mount has found new life as the Central Park Conservancy’s compositing site. Conservancy staff and volunteers spend the fall and winter months raking and collecting the fallen leaves of the Park’s 24,000 trees. Each year, more than 3,000 cubic yards of leaves are taken to the Mount to be broken down into compost. Another 5,000 cubic yards of wood mulch is generated from tree and shrub clippings. The rich compost is recycled and returned to the Park’s landscapes, used year-round in all of the Conservancy’s planting and horticultural projects.