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Central Park

Central Park Full Details

Type : Urban park

Location : Manhattan, New York City, United                           States

Coordinates : 40°46′56″N 73°57′55″W

Area : 843 acres (341 ha; 1.317 sq mi; 3.41 km2)

Created : 1857–1876

Owned by : NYC Parks

Operated by : Central Park Conservancy

Visitors : about 42 million annually

Open : 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.

Public transit access : Subway and bus; see                                                   "Public transport

Central Park Full Story

The population of New York City nearly quadrupled between 1821 and 1855. People were drawn to the few remaining open spaces, mainly cemeteries, for passive enjoyment as the city grew northward up Manhattan. They were viewed as havens from the hectic city life, which at the time was largely concentrated in Lower Manhattan. There were a number of smaller green spaces but no Central Park in the Commissioners Plan of 1811, which served as the blueprint for Manhattan's current street grid.

As a result, John Randel Jr. assessed the area in order to build intersections inside the current park site. His survey's lone measuring bolt, which marks the spot where West 65th Street would have crossed Sixth Avenue, is embedded in a rock north of the current Dairy and the 66th Street crossing. 

By the 1840s, the establishment of the city was publicly urging the creation of a new great park in Manhattan. At the time, Manhattan's seventeen squares together made up 165 acres (67 ha) of land, with the 10-acre (4 ha) Battery Park near the southern point of Manhattan island being the largest. Editor of the New York Evening Post William Cullen Bryant backed these designs in 1844, and one of the first American landscape architects, Andrew Jackson Downing, did the same in 1851.

In a letter to the New York City Common Council dated May 5, 1851, Mayor Ambrose Kingsland outlined the requirements and advantages of a sizable new park and suggested that the council take action to establish one. The application from Kingsland was sent to the council's Committee of Lands, which approved it. The committee decided on Jones's Wood, a 160-acre (65 ha) plot of property on the Upper East Side, because Bryant had pushed for it to be the location of the park. Due to its location, modest size in comparison to other potential uptown parcels, and price, the acquisition generated controversy.

After a measure to purchase Jones's Wood was declared unconstitutional, focus shifted to a second location: Central Park, a 750-acre (300 ha) area bordered by 59th and 106th streets between Fifth and Eighth avenues. The 35-acre (14 ha), 150-million-US-gallon (570 x 106 L) gathering reservoir for the Croton Aqueduct was chosen for the Central Park location by Croton Aqueduct Board President Nicholas Dean. The Central Park Act, which authorised the purchase of Central Park's current location, was enacted by the New York State Legislature in July 1853.

During its meeting, the board of property commissioners By July 1855, property evaluations had been completed on more than 34,000 lots in the region. While the assessments were being conducted, mayor Fernando Wood vetoed suggestions to scale back the plans. The area was occupied at the time by Irish immigrants and free black people who had established a community of landowners there since 1825.

The majority of the inhabitants of the Central Park location resided in the Mount St. Vincent's Academy school and convent or in one of the nearby small towns like Seneca Village or Pigtown. 15  Soon after the publication of the Land Commission's findings in October 1855, clearing started. and roughly 1,600 people were forced out by eminent domain. Although proponents said the park would only cost $1.7 million, the property ended up paying $7.39 million, which is more than what the United States would pay for Alaska a few years later ($215 million in 2021).

Fernando Wood established a seven-person advisory group in June 1856, led by the writer Washington Irving, to bolster public support for the development. Egbert Ludovicus Viele, a military engineer, was appointed by Wood as the park's head engineer and given the job of conducting a topographical survey of the area. The state legislature authorised the appointment of four Democratic and seven Republican commissioners, who had complete control over the planning and building process, the following April by passing a law.

 

The commissioners kept Viele from carrying out anything but topographical surveys, despite the fact that he had already developed a plan for the park. Soon after it was established, the Central Park Commission started holding competitions for garden designs. The commission mandated that each entry comply with the consulting board's requirement that it include extremely precise specifications. Plans for 33 businesses or organisations were presented.

When the park trustees met in April 1858, Calvert and Frederick Law Olmsted's "Greensward Plan" by Vaux was chosen as the most effective plan. Three additional designs were chosen as runners-up and displayed in a public exhibition. Olmsted and Vaux's plan included distinct separations with sunken transverse roadways, in contrast to many of the other designs that successfully integrated Central Park with the surrounding city. Symmetry was avoided in the design, choosing a more scenic route instead.

It was inspired by the pastoral ideals of landscaped cemeteries like Green-Wood in Brooklyn and Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In addition, Olmsted's 1850 visit to Birkenhead Park in Liverpool City Region, England, which is widely regarded as the first publicly financed civil park in the world, served as inspiration for the design. It was "of great importance as the first real park made in this country—a democratic development of the highest significance," Olmsted said of the park.

A variety of experts worked together to construct Central Park's layout. The main designers were Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, with board member Andrew Haswell Green, architect Jacob Wrey Mould, master gardener Ignaz Anton Pilat, and engineer George E. Waring Jr. as support staff. Olmsted was in charge of the general strategy, and Vaux was in charge of some of the finer details. The Tavern on the Green building and the Central Park Esplanade were designed by Mould, who regularly collaborated with Vaux.

The importation and positioning of plants within the park were Pilat's main responsibilities as the park's chief landscape architect. William H. Grant, the supervising engineer, assigned a corps of construction engineers and foremen the responsibility of measuring and erecting architectural features, including walkways, roads, and buildings. Land drainage was the responsibility of Waring, one of the engineers working under Grant's direction.

Because of the often rocky and swampy terrain, building Central Park was challenging. The park had to be cleared of about five million cubic feet (140,000 m3) of earth and rocks, and more gunpowder was used to do so than was fired at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Since the natural soil was neither fertile nor substantial enough to support the vegetation described in the Greensward Plan, more than 18,500 cubic yards (14,100 m3) of topsoil were imported from Long Island and New Jersey.

The labour of unskilled employees was increased by contemporary steam-powered machinery and specially made tree-moving machines. In total, more than 20,000 people contributed to the building of Central Park. Five workers lost their lives while working on the project as a result of rigorous safety measures adopted to reduce collateral damage at a time when fatality rates were often significantly higher.

Several dozen mounted police officers were employed by Superintendent Olmsted during the construction of Central Park. These officers were divided into two groups: park keepers and gate keepers. The park visitors were impressed with the mounted police, so they were eventually added to a regular patrol. Sometimes, the rules were rather strict. For instance, forbidden behaviours included parlour games, public speaking, gatherings with lots of people, including picnics, and plucking flowers or other plant parts. These laws were effective because by 1866, the park had almost 8 million visitors but only 110 arrests.

Workers started erecting fences, removing vegetation, draining the ground, and levelling the rough terrain in the latter part of August 1857. Chief engineer Wendell Viele said that there would be close to 700 people working on the project by the end of the month. Olmsted hired men directly without a contract and paid them each day in order to use day labour. There were no black or female labourers; the majority of the workers were first- or second-generation Irish Americans or Irish immigrants, as well as some Germans and Italians. Workers sometimes accepted jobs at other building projects to boost their income because they were frequently underpaid. There was a tendency towards seasonal hiring, where more people would be hired and paid more during the summer.

The park commissioners struggled with finances for a number of months, and it wasn't until June 1858 that a dedicated workforce and income stream were established. The Croton Aqueduct Board would be in charge of building the manicured Upper Reservoir, which was the only area of the park that the commissioners were not tasked with building. The Reservoir Project got under way in April 1858. Grading the roadways and draining the ground in the southern part of Central Park were the park's first significant construction projects.

The Ramble and Lake were the next attractions to be made available to the general public in Central Park; the Lake opened in December 1858 and the Lake in June 1859, respectively. The purchase of an additional 65 acres (26 ha) at the northern end of Central Park, between 106th and 110th Streets, was approved by the New York State Legislature in the same year. By 1860, most of Central Park's south side south of 79th Street was finished.

In June 1860, the park commissioners reported that $4 million had already been spent on the project. The commissioners reduced or removed key aspects of the Greensward Plan because of the significantly growing construction costs. The New York State Senate asked Swiss engineer Julius Kellers berger to draught a report on the park in response to allegations of cost mismanagement. According to Kellersberger's report, which was delivered in 1861, the commission's management of the park was a resounding success.

Olmsted and the park commissioners frequently disagreed, chiefly over Chief Commissioner Green. Green was appointed to Olmsted's job after his resignation in June 1862, and Vaux resigned in 1863 under what he perceived to be Green's pressure. Despite having little prior experience in design, Green expedited development as the park's caretaker. In an effort to cut costs, he adopted a micromanagement approach, keeping track of even the tiniest transactions. Green completed the purchase of the park's northernmost 65 acres (26 ha), which was eventually transformed into a rough woodland. River Harlem Meer.

While a sizable portion of Central Park had already been finished when the American Civil War broke out in 1861, the park commissioners chose to continue construction. Only three significant buildings were finished during the Civil War: the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, the Music Stand restaurant, and the Casino restaurant, both of which were later demolished. With the exception of a few fences, the park south of 72nd Street was finished by late 1861. The necessity to conserve the historic McGowan's Pass complicated work on the park's northern component, which had already started. The next year saw the completion of the Upper Reservoir.

During this time, Central Park started to become more well-known. The "Carriage Parade," a regular show of horse-drawn carriages that travelled around the park, was one of the main draws. The number of visitors to the park continuously increased; by 1867, Central Park could handle 1.38 million cars, 85,000 horses, and over three million people annually. All social classes of New Yorkers might participate in the park's activities. Nearly everyone had access to activities like ice skating or rowing as well as bandstand performances, yet only the wealthy could ride horses on bridle routes or ride in horse-drawn carriages.

Midway through 1865, Olmsted and Vaux were rehired. The Children's District, the Ballplayers' House, and the Dairy were among the buildings built in the southern area of Central Park. Belvedere Castle, Harlem Meer, and the buildings on Conservatory Water and the Lake all started construction.

Starting in April 1870, Central Park was under the brief authority of the Tammany Hall political system, which at the time was the biggest political power in New York. The former 11-member commission was repealed by a new charter drafted by William M. Tweed, the Tammany head, and replaced with a five-man panel made up of Green and four other individuals with ties to the organisation. In November 1870, Olmsted and Vaux again withdrew from the project. Olmsted and Vaux were once again employed after Tweed's corruption was made public in 1871, which resulted in his imprisonment, and the Central Park Commission nominated new members who were mostly in support of Olmsted.

The underdeveloped western side of Central Park was one of the places that largely escaped development, even though some major buildings would be built on the park's last few vacant lots. The American Museum of Natural History, which had been established in the Arsenal three years earlier, had Manhattan Square allotted to it by 1872. On the East Side, a similar area that was initially planned to be a playground would later turn into the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Vaux and Mould created a number of structures for Central Park in the last years of its construction. Mould designed the park's sheepfold (now known as Tavern on the Green), Ladies Meadow, and administrative offices on the 86th Street transverse between 1870 and 1872. The partnership between Olmsted and Vaux was broken up by the end of 1872, but the park wasn't actually finished until 1876.

By the 1870s, the middle class and working class began to frequent the park more frequently, and harsh rules—such as those barring public assemblies—were gradually relaxed. The cost of maintaining Central Park had fallen to its lowest point by 1879 as a result of the increased number of visitors, Tammany Hall administration indifference, and budget cuts mandated by taxpaying citizens.

Olmsted attributed the demise of Central Park to politicians, property developers, and park staff, while high maintenance costs also played a role. "By the 1890s, the park was facing a number of difficulties: autos were becoming more prevalent, and with the rise of entertainment and snack stands, people started to view the park as a leisure space and attraction." As a result of New Yorkers' ability to go to other locations, including the beaches of Coney Island or Broadway theatres, for a five-cent price, Central Park was replaced as the city's primary leisure attraction in 1904 after the New York City Subway opened.

Samuel Parsons, a landscape architect, was appointed director of parks for New York City in the late 19th century. Parsons, a former Calvert Vaux apprentice, contributed to the restoration of Central Park's nurseries in 1886. Parsons adhered closely to Olmsted's original plan for the park, preserving the trees while opposing the erection of numerous major statues. The Duke Ellington and Frederick Douglass Circles were built in the park's northern corners under Parsons' direction. After a protracted argument on whether spending money to repair the soil in the park was necessary, he was expelled in May 1911. A string of Democratic mayors with ties to Tammany were uninterested in Central Park.

Early in the 20th century, several park advocacy organisations were established. The citywide Parks and Playground Association and a coalition of various Central Park civic organisations operating under the Parks Conservation Association were established to maintain the park's identity between 1900 and 1910. These organisations argued against the development of a library, sports stadium, cultural centre, and an underground parking lot, as well as other improvements to the park. In 1926, the Central Park Association, a third organisation, was founded. Two years later, the Park Association of New York City was formed by the merger of the Central Park Association and the Parks and Playgrounds Association.

The August Heck scher Playground, so named because he contributed the playthings, opened towards the southern end of the park in 1926 and quickly gained popularity among low-income immigrant families. The following year, the Central Park improvement project was given to landscape architect Hermann W. Merkel by Mayor Jimmy Walker. According to Merkel's proposals, eight new playgrounds would be added, paths would be repaired, plant damage would be stopped, and all of this would cost $1 million. Soon after Merkel's report was filed, underground irrigation pipes—one of the suggested modifications—were put in place. The Great Depression delayed the implementation of the other recommendations in the study, such as fences to reduce plant devastation.

Fiorello La Guardia, a Republican, was chosen to lead New York City as mayor in 1934. He merged the five departments that were then involved with parks. Robert Moses, the recently appointed city parks commissioner, was tasked with cleaning up the park, and he abruptly fired many of the Tammany-era employees. The trees were fading or already dead, and the lawns were covered in weeds and dust spots. Equipment and walkways had been damaged, and ironwork was rusted. Monuments had also been vandalised. Robert Caro, Moses' biographer, later remarked: "The once-beautiful Mall appeared like the aftermath of a riotous party." Benches were lying on their backs with their legs pointed upwards.

The city's parks service removed dead trees and bushes, replanted flowers and lawns, sandblasted walls, fixed bridges and roads, and cleaned up statues during the ensuing year. A rat extermination campaign was started inside the Central Park Zoo, which was built from the park's menagerie and arsenal. 1791: Moses' destruction of the "Hoover Valley shanties" at the northern end of Turtle Pond, which became the 30-acre (12 ha) Great Lawn, was another notable development. Roads were enlarged or renovated, twenty-one playgrounds were added, and the western portion of the Pond at the southeast corner of the park was converted into an ice skating rink known as Woll man Rink. Public donations and money from the New Deal initiative were used for these projects. Moses took the sheep out of Sheep Meadow to make room for the restaurant Tavern on the Green.

A new boathouse was built in 1954, along with the rehabilitation of the Harlem Meer, both of which were finished in the 1940s and 1950s. Moses also started building the playgrounds and sports areas that are now part of Central Park. A 1956 battle over a parking lot for Tavern on the Green was one of the more contentious projects planned at the time. Moses, an urban planner well-known for displacing families for other significant projects throughout the city, was pitted against a group of moms who frequently visited a wooded hollow where a parking lot used to be. Moses gave his approval for a portion of the cave to be destroyed over the parents' objections. With the nighttime closure of Central Park, demolition work began and was only stopped after a legal threat.

Moses retired from his job in May 1960. Since that time, no park commissioner has had the same level of authority, and NYC Parks' position was not as secure after his departure. Twenty years after his departure, eight commissioners filled the position. Several citizens left the city due to economic and social changes, and they moved to the suburbs. Recreational activities now made up the majority of Central Park's usage, and interest in the park's environment had long since diminished. Throughout that decade, several unfulfilled extensions to Central Park were suggested, including a public housing development, a golf course, and a rotating world's fair.

Beginning in the 1960s, "Events Period in Central Park" mirrored the dominant political and cultural tendencies of the time. Summer performances by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera were introduced on the Sheep Meadow and the Great Lawn, and the Public Theater's annual Shakespeare in the Park event was relocated to the Delacorte Theatre. The park was used as a location for protests and cultural gatherings in the late 1960s, including the popular "love-ins" and "be-ins." In the same year, Lasker Rink, the sole swimming pool in Central Park during the summer, opened at the park's northernmost section.

By the middle of the 1970s, park conditions had deteriorated due to managerial negligence. According to a 1973 assessment, the park experienced serious erosion, tree degradation, and neglect or vandalism of certain structures. The Central Park Community Fund was subsequently established in response to a report from a professor at Columbia University. The Fund then requested a management assessment of the park and recommended the appointment of a board of local citizens in addition to a NYC Parks administrator. Elizabeth Barlow, the executive director of the Central Park Task Force, was appointed to the position of Central Park Administrator in 1979 by Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis. The following year, a nonprofit with a citizen board called the Central Park Conservancy was established.

The Central Park Conservancy served as the park's steward when reclamation efforts started by addressing needs that weren't being met by NYC Parks' current infrastructure. Under the "broken windows" approach, which promoted removing obvious indicators of decay, the Conservancy hired interns and a small restoration team to reconstruct and repair distinctive rustic elements, work on horticulture projects, and remove graffiti. The Dairy was the first building updated, and it reopened as the park's first visitor centre in 1979. The Sheep Meadow was the first landscape to be repaired, and it reopened the following year. The Bow Bridge, the USS Maine National Monument, and Bethesda Terrace and Fountain all underwent rehabilitation.

When Davis and Barlow presented their 10-year, $100 million "Central Park Management and Restoration Plan" in 1981, the Conservancy was already working on design projects and long-term restoration planning. The Central Park Zoo was closed in 1983 for a complete reconstruction, while the long-closed Belvedere Castle underwent renovation and reopened. Large events like free concerts were postponed in order to lessen the maintenance burden.

After the planning phase was finished in 1985, the Conservancy started its first campaign and created a 15-year restoration plan. In the ensuing years, the programme reconstructed Grand Army Plaza and the police station at the 86th Street crossing in the park's southern section, while Lynden B. Miller's Conservatory Garden was restored in the park's northeastern corner. After numerous postponements, real estate developer Donald Trump refurbished the Wollman Rink in 1987. The Zoo reopened the following year following a $35 million, four-year makeover.

beginning of construction on the park's northern end In 1989   The Harlem Meer, the Mall, the North Woods, and the Bridle Trails were all restored as a result of a $51 million campaign, which was announced in 1993. The Dana Discovery Centre was also built on the Harlem Meer. The Great Lawn and Turtle Pond's surrounding 55 acres (22 ha) were then renovated by the Conservancy, which was done in 1997. The city's water supply system decommissioned the Upper Reservoir in 1993, and the following year it was given a new name—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis—in honour of the former first lady of the United States. Midway through the 1990s, the Conservancy increased volunteer staff and established a zone-based system of park administration. The Conservancy took over the majority of park operations in early 1998.

Through the first decade of the twenty-first century, improvements were made, and in 2000, work to restore the pond was started. A copy of the original cast-iron fence that encircled the Upper Reservoir was installed by the Conservancy in place of a chain-link fence four years later. The Bethesda Arcade's ceiling tiles underwent renovation, which began in 2005 and was finished in 2007. The Ramble and Lake restoration project was started shortly after by the Central Park Conservancy, and it was finished in 2012. The Gill, which flows into the lake, was rebuilt to roughly resemble its spectacular former form, and Bank Rock Bridge was restored. The East Meadow, which underwent rehabilitation in 2011, was the last element to be restored.

The New York City Council suggested doing research in 2014 to determine whether it would be feasible to forbid cars from using the park's drives. The following year, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the closure of West and East Drives north of 72nd Street to all vehicular traffic since data from the city revealed that doing so had no negative effects on traffic flows. The remaining driveways south of 72nd Street were consequently made impassable to vehicles in June 2018.Numerous buildings underwent renovations. Belvedere Castle underwent substantial renovations in 2018 and reopened in June 2019. The Delacorte Theatre would be shuttered from 2020 to 2022 for a $110 million reconstruction, it was revealed later in 2018. The Lasker Rink would be shuttered between 2021 and 2024 for a $150 million refurbishment, the Central Park Conservancy further declared.

Between Manhattan's Upper West and Upper East Sides is where you'll find the urban park identified as Central Park in New York City. With 843 acres, it is the fifth-largest park in the city. (341 ha).  With an estimated 42 million visitors per year as of 2016, it is both the most popular urban park in the United States and the most often used filming location globally.

 

Following plans for a sizable park in Manhattan during the 1840s, its 778-acre size was accepted in 1853 (315 ha). With their "Greensward Plan," landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux took first place in a design competition for the park in 1857. The same year, construction started, and Seneca Village, a predominantly black community, was demolished after being taken by eminent domain. The public was allowed access to the park's first sections in late 1858. The park was finished in 1876 after more land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in 1859.

Robert Moses, the parks commissioner for New York City, began a programme to clean up Central Park in the 1930s after it had a period of decline in the early 20th century. Beginning in the 1980s, the Central Park Conservancy restored numerous areas of the park to prevent additional deterioration in the late 20th century.

Landscapes like the Ramble and Lake, Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and Sheep Meadow, amusements like the Wollman Rink, the Central Park Zoo, and the Central Park Carousel, formal areas like the Central Park Mall and Bethesda Terrace, and the Delacorte Theatre are some of the main attractions. Several hundred different species of plants and animals make up the ecosystem's biological diversity. Sports facilities, concerts, carriage-horse and bicycle trips, biking, and festivities like Shakespeare in the Park are all examples of recreational pursuits. Public transportation runs over the network of roads and walkways that crisscross Central Park.

It serves as a model for urban parks around the world due to its size and cultural prominence. Due to its impact, Central Park was recognised as a New York City aesthetic landmark in 1974 and a National Historic Landmark in 1963. Although the Central Park Conservancy has been in charge of running the park since 1998, it is actually owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. This arrangement is known as a "public-private partnership." The Conservancy, a nonprofit organisation, raises money for the annual operating budget of Central Park and is in charge of all fundamental park maintenance.