Dairy Visitor Center and Gift Shop

Park architect and designer Calvert Vaux originally created this charming Victorian cottage as a quiet retreat for children and their caregivers.

In the nineteenth century, the Dairy became a source of fresh milk and snacks. Families came to drink milk and enjoy pastries and ices under the loggia and enjoy the cooling breezes coming from the nearby pond.

By the 1950s, the building had become dilapidated. The Parks Department tore down the decrepit loggia and turned the building into a maintenance shed. A metal cow on its rooftop weathervane was the only hint of the Dairy’s former life.

Then in 1979, the new Central Park administration cleaned up the building and turned it into the Park’s first visitor center. A year later, the Central Park Conservancy was founded and we raised enough private money to restore the loggia, which was recreated from historic photographs.

Today, as one of the Conservancy's five visitor centers, parkgoers can find information on Central Park events and programs at the Dairy. Maps, guides, history books, and T-shirts and gifts are also available, all of which support the Conservancy’s mission.