Not Actually A Toy

From 1907, a postcard of “The Block House, Central Park, New York”:

The Blockhouse looks like a toy fort, an impression not lessened by having three children standing at the door. It was in fact, quite real when built in 1814, part of a series of similar miniature forts across hilltops that are now in Central and Morningside Parks. At that time the US was at war with Britain, and the British had burned much of Washington and attacked (and been repulsed) at Baltimore. In other words, the fear that there might be an attack was not baseless. The heavy fortifications were built around the harbor. I suspect the purpose of the small blockhouses north of the built-up portion of the city was to (a) provide advance notice of an attack from the north and (b) delay that attack until the militia down in the city (i.e., below Houston Street) could get organized and out in the field.

The blockhouse has survived because it is, really, a bunch of rocks sitting on rock. Thick masonry walls, little interior structure, and foundations on bedrock at the top of a hill. You can abandon a building like that for a long time before it collapses. In any case, these days it is being maintained, so anyone who feels the need to climb up a long hill path in the northern end of Central Park can visit it.