Mineral Springs Pavilion ca. 1880

The Mineral Springs Pavilion was constructed due to the popularity of a health craze that was sweeping 19th-century New York. It was thought at the time that mineral water was essential to a healthy constitution (which at a time before the Croton Aqueduct supplied fresh water to most New York households it may have been.) Drinking mineral water was thought to be the cure for a number of ailments. Thus, Carl Schultz, the owner of a mineral water company successfully petitioned the Board of Health to have a pavilion, designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wray Mould, that would sell mineral water in the park. It was for a time quite popular, serving as a spot for socialization, however, the supply of readily available clean water meant that the Mineral Springs Pavilion lost its uniqueness and by the 1960s the pavilion was torn down.