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When someone mentions Central Park, you may think of the zoo or rowboats
or ice skating, or perhaps simply that big (843-acre) green thing
in the middle of Manhattan. You may not immediately think American
history, but you should. In addition to being home to a diverse ecosystem
that includes hundreds of different species of plants, trees, and
shrubs; multiple penguin species (in the zoo); and two ice skating
rinks (among other things), a vast amount of history, art, and architecture
is also bound up within this vast metropolitan park. In fact, as strange
as the notion may seem to you at first, the park itself can
be likened to an American history museum, and examining it
as a museum can be a very effective way to organize and access the
multitude of American history resources the park holds. The first question you might want to ask yourself is about the history of Central Park. Who started it? Why? What major personalities have shaped its history? In your attempt to answer these questions, you might be surprised to find out that the 150-plus-year-old big green thing is entirely man-made and took 20 years to create out of the original rock outcroppings and swamp. Tons of rocks were blasted and more than 10 million carts of fertile soil were brought in from New Jersey to produce the park’s topography, including every meadow, lake, and creek you see today. |
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Two men whose names you will definitely come across are Frederick
Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. Their design
for the park was chosen from among 33 entries submitted in an 1858
competition. Many important people believed that New York, as a growing
and increasingly world-class metropolis, needed a world-class park,
similar in appearance to the royal parks of Europe. However, unlike
European parks, New York’s great park was to be uniquely American
in that it would be accessible to all people. Between 1853 and 1856
the City bought the land from 59th to 106th streets, between Fifth
and Eighth avenues, to be preserved as an open space for future generations
to enjoy before the growing city, which had already developed land
up to 39th Street, could swallow up the undeveloped land. Unfortunately, the early 20th century saw the park fall into neglect. In fact, the Parks Department, which succeeded the Board of Commissioners, was created so that Boss Tweed, an infamous state legislator, could get graft from it. However, after Fiorello LaGuardia was elected mayor in 1934 and united the Parks Departments of all boroughs into one Department, with Robert Moses at its head, serious restoration of Central Park began. After Moses’s tenure ended in 1960, the park was neglected again, but community groups badgered the mayor and the Parks Department, and in 1980 the Central Park Conservancy, a non-profit agency that works with the Parks Department to maintain and oversee the park, was born. It has restored the park to its amazing present condition. Just delving into the history of the park’s development could lead you into an interesting research paper on social equality, urban planning, the creation of the New York City Parks Department, Olmstead, Vaux, or Moses, to name just a few possible interesting topics. Moses alone could prove to be a very interesting character to investigate. He wore many hats in New York City history: Commissioner of the Parks Department, director of the 1964 World’s Fair, Chairman of the Triborough Bridge Authority, Director of the New York State Power Commission, builder of Lincoln Center, and Director of Public Housing, to name a few. Robert Moses changed the face of New York City with both his expansion of the highway system and his creation and restoration of parks. In your initial research you’ve found out that Central Park is 843 acres. That’s probably more area than every other museum, historical society, or park site in this guidebook combined. So how do break the park down into manageable pieces to explore? Break it into themes. Pretend it’s a museum. Just as you can’t go to the Met and see everything in the museum in a single viewing, you can’t expect to do Central Park in a day. But just as you pick an exhibit or two and focus on that during a visit to the Met, you can pick a theme (or exhibit if you like) and focus on that during a visit to Central Park. The Park’s Department Librarian suggests several different themes along which you can organize various visits. One great place to start looking would be the architecture of the park, which was designed to appear man-made. If you recall, the park is surrounded by a stone wall. To enter the park, one must enter through a gate. The park’s designers intended that the gates pay tribute to the workers who made the city, including scholars, artisans, merchants, pioneers, farmers, hunters, inventors, and warriors. Just walking the perimeter of the park, examining the gates, and asking yourself why these professions were chosen and how they were depicted tells you a lot about historical views and cultural values of the nineteenth-century New Yorkers who built the park. You might also want to examine statues of such diverse characters as General William T. Sherman (think Civil War) Daniel Webster (popular orator and important political figure), Alexander Hamilton (if nothing else, the Federalist Papers should come to mind), a pilgrim (like on the Mayflower), Fitz-Greene Halbert (a popular American poet in his day), Shakespeare (he’s Shakespeare), an Indian hunter (modeled after indigenous people of the Dakotas), Alice in Wonderland (complete with the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, and Cheshire Cat), and Balto (one of the lead dogs in the sled relay that delivered diphtheria antitoxin from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska in 1925, saving the small town from succumbing to the disease). As immigrant populations grew, they added statues celebrating their own history and heritage, such as King Jagiello, hero of a 1410 Polish/Lithuanian victory, and Cuban freedom fighter José Martí. Ask yourself why an individual was chosen to be depicted in a statue, and you might learn as much about the period in which the statue was erected as the period in which the figure lived. Two other architectural features repeated throughout the park that you might want to examine are the bridges and the benches. The bridges are particularly interesting because, although each is designed differently and tells a different story, all are designed in such a way to hide the horse (now car) paths, bridle paths (originally meant to hold one-person carriages), and walking paths from each other. Benches might seem ordinary, but ask yourself why someone chose to put a bench somewhere, who commissioned the bench, and who the bench was dedicated to. You might just come across some very interesting history. Other architectural features include Bethesda Terrace, the Conservatory Water and Garden, the Swedish Cottage, the Dairy, and Tavern on the Green. Although all of these sites are worth mentioning in more detail, in the interests of time and space, this author will attempt to introduce only one of them. One of the park’s defining architectural features and certainly one of the most strikingly non-natural looking architectural features is Bethesda Terrace. Its ornate, carved detailing distinguishes it and Bethesda Fountain from an otherwise pastoral setting. Although grand, the Terrace is not grandiose, reflecting the conviction by those who designed and built it that the park should not contain elements of imperialist European architecture but maintain a democratic demeanor. A side note: the majority of the artwork in the park was created by men and depicted men, but Bethesda Fountain not only depicts a woman but was carved by a female artist. Whether you’re interested in feminism, civic architecture, or democratic themes in urban planning--or are simply a casual park visitor--a stop at Bethesda Terrace and Fountain is must. In addition to architecture designed to appear man-made, several prominent architectural features of the park were intended to appear natural. Of course this applies to virtually the entire park, but some destinations you might want to focus on include the Sheep Meadow, the Ramble, and the Great Lawn. Did you know that the Sheep Meadow was created by blasting away rock with dynamite, and that if you dig down about two feet you’ll find rock, rock and more rock? The Ramble, though it appears natural, was designed to insulate its visitors from the city so that they can forget they were actually surrounded by one of the world’s largest cities. And the Great Lawn, a part of cultural history (you’ve probably been there at least once to see a concert, perhaps one of the New York Philharmonic’s free summer concerts), was actually not original to the park. Olmsted designated the area as a reservoir, but Moses (after Olmsted’s death) converted the reservoir to the Great Lawn. That Moses guy sure had a lot of chutzpah. (And if you write more about Moses you’ll find out the degree of his chutzpah which, in New York City history, is probably pretty near unrivaled.) No matter what you’re interested in studying, start out with a simple “Why?” Ask, “Why is there a Great Lawn? Who put it there? How’d it get there? Why is it still there? What does it mean to people? Is it just a recreational space or has it reached iconic status?” Certainly the Great Lawn (like many other parts of Central Park) has come to symbolize both Central Park and New York City. You could probably write a very interesting paper just researching the use of it and other Central Park landmarks in movies, books, and other literary works. What do Woody Allen, The Taking of Pelham 123, Ghost, Working Girl, Saturday Night Fever, Diehard 3, and Crocodile Dundee all have in common? You probably wouldn’t have to guess too hard, given the context of this narrative, to figure out it’s Central Park. Even Holden Caulfield visits Central Park . . . the Duck Pond, to be specific. If you are interested in military history, consider researching McGowan’s Pass, the Block House, Fort Clinton, Nutter’s Battery, and Fort Fish. Once the site of McGowan’s Inn, McGowan’s pass was an important roadway that both parties of the Revolutionary War fought to control. The Blockhouse, the oldest building in Central Park, was built long before the park was. The stone fortress, which once housed a cannon, was built in 1812 to defend the cliffs from the British. Today the blockhouse remains locked and in a very secluded area of the park. Although paths do lead to it, for your own safety you should only go visit with a group and a map (and knowing my own talent for getting lost, I’d even suggest a compass or, better, an experienced tour guide). Several other war memorials are scattered among the park. One fun place you can use to find them or any other locations is an online map [http://www.kelley-graphics.com/centralpark/cpcloseview/ locator.html] -- this map lists locations, and all you have to do is click on them to find them. To pretend that the themes and locations suggested so far exhaust the park’s resources for a budding American history researcher such as yourself would do Central Park a great injustice. For example, I didn’t mention the zoo except in the introduction to say it housed multiple species of penguins, (which by the way was not in the original plan, but was created to house donations of animals that the park overseers otherwise did not know what to do with). However, this author hopes that they provide good starting points for what can otherwise be a rather daunting place to do research. You can find supplemental resources in several ways. You can try the park’s on-site learning centers such as The Dana Discovery Center, Belvedere Castle, The Dairy, and The Arsenal, where knowledgeable and friendly Park Rangers run educational programs and can answer your questions. You should be aware that inside the Arsenal is the Parks Department Library. This may not be the greatest resource for you, since it’s only open during school hours (when you are presumably in school) and because the Parks Department Librarian is used to assisting adult researchers, not high school students. However, you can contact the Parks Department Librarian by e-mail and ask questions about a topic or try to find more sources; just fill out this online form [http://www.nycgovparks.org/email_forms/library/mail_form.html]. As a rule, you probably want to contact the Parks Department Librarian only after you have exhausted other sources. What other sources are there, you ask? Well, your public library would be a great start. As far as online resources go, you can also try the Central Park Conservancy’s Website [http:// www.centralparknyc.org] and the New York City Park’s Department [http:// www.nycgovparks.org/]. Some books that the Park’s Department Librarian recommends are Central Park, An American Masterpiece by Sara Cedar Miller, The Park and the People by Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar, and The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro (a book all about Robert Moses). I also found some helpful information on the Central Park 2000 website [http://www.centralpark2000.com]. As a side note, you should know that, although the most famous of New York’s parks, Central Park is by far not the only one with an interesting history. If you’re interested in walking down the road less traveled, you might want to research another New York City park. And if you are at a loss about where to start, e-mailing the New York City Parks Department Librarian for some suggestions would be a good first step. If you are in the New York area, you should know that both the Park Rangers and the Central Park Conservancy run educational programs that take place all over Central Park, including the Dana Discovery Center and Belvedere Castle. The Conservancy runs three special programs for high schoolers: ROOTS (you restore park landscapes and learn park history and management), Teen Docents (you give tours and just might end up with a paid summer job), and Youth Web Leadership (you learn web design and work on the Conservancy’s website, which has a teen component—see http://www.centralparknyc.org/youth. There, you’ll also find the most up-to-date information about the myriad of programs in Central Park (including how to apply for them.) Who would have guessed you could learn so much from just taking a walk in a park? Pretty cool stuff, huh? |