Central Park- The need to continuously preserve by aayushisejpal

Central Park

The need to continuously preserve

Central Park

The need to continuously preserve

Central park the lungs of New York city has gone through a number of transformations and updates. It has been the topic for a lot of historical movements and discussions in the city. The park was first established in 1857 initially intended for recreation for the elite, and is now one of the most democratic spaces in New York.

A number of people played a part in shaping central park to what it is today from -politicians, park commissioners, and real estate agents to union members, sports enthusiasts, and protesters. The first movement towards the making of the park emerged in 1840’s. This was a time when a lot of New Yorkers were taking trips to Europe and were getting influenced by the highly aesthetic and well-maintained parks of Paris and London. They recognized that New York was lacking in these leisurely amenities. But the city grid was often restrictive to the development of larger sized public parks. (The New York Preservation Archive Project, 2010)

The Central park is often described as the big back yard of New York city. It is right in the centre of city of Manhattan occupying an area of 840 acres. The park has a vast expanse between 59th and 110th streets, and between fifth and eighth avenues. It is the first park in America to be planned and developed by using landscape architecture systems. There was an increase in urbanization in the 1840’s it was at this point in time that the landscape architect Andrew Jackson Dowing and poet William Cullen Bryant both proposed the idea of a park. Their views gained widespread support, and in 1856 most of the park’s present land was bought with about $5,000,000 that had been appropriated by the state legislature. (Britannica, 2020)

“The clearing of the site, which was begun in 1857, entailed the removal of a bone-boiling works, many scattered hovels and squalid farms. Seneca Village was the first prominent community of African American property owners in Manhattan, with a population of roughly 225 people, twothirds of which were the first freed African Americans. The Village, existing between 1825 and 1857, stretched from 82nd to 89th street in Upper Westside, was then taken from its residents through eminent domain to create Central Park.” (Britannica, 2020)

Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. (1873). Map of the Central Park

Contrasting views

The purpose of the park has been questioned and argued right from the onset of it and from the time when the first thought was put into place for the park. The ‘social democracy’ (Rosenzweig and Blackmar,1995, pp.233) of Central Park was divided from the start, with the landscape architects Frederick law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux articulating opposing concepts of the park’s public purpose even as they collaborated on the founding Greensward Plan of 1857. Both men jointly believed in the romantic nature that “cultural life was governed by moral and aesthetic principles antagonistic to those of the marketplace”. Central park was proposed to be an ‘oasis’ in the hustle bustle and busy life of New York’s urban life. Central Park was to be an oasis of contemplation in New York’s urban maelstrom. But the two architects had extreme opposing views on the ‘political implications’ that the park would have on the city. Olmsted hoped that Central Park would exercise “a distinctly harmonizing and refining influence upon the most unfortunate and most lawless classes of the city”. (Rosenzweig and Blackmar,1995, pp.233). Being the co- designer and one of the landscape architects of the park Olmsted practiced ‘strict policing’ of the central park and restricted sports or group picnics that many of the New Yorkers of the ‘working class’ enjoyed as he wanted to maintain a social order of the park. Opposing Olmsteds views the other co-designer Vaux aimed for ‘cultural democracy’ he wanted to make central park open for all kinds of New Yorkers by making the resources open to all and “foster capacity to see and fully appreciate the beauty” (Rosenzweig and Blackmar,1995, pp.233-234)

The central park has a number of social movements attached to it in a part of the 20th century, the city beautiful movement and the progressive movement.

The city Beautiful movement was an American Urban Planning movement between 1890’s and 1920’s. The movement was spear headed by architects, landscape architects and reformers. The movement stated that design could not be separated from social issues and should encourage civic pride and engagement. The city beautiful movement arose when there was a need for outdoor spaces, for people to breathe and relax. Due to rapid urbanization and increased congestion in the city more recreational areas were needed in the city. The central park was one such space that allow Thousands of people to appreciate the beauties of woodland scenery the nature its most raw form. Daniel Hudson Burnham believed, such spaces could provide healthy activities to those citizens who could not afford extensive traveling and who thus depended on the city for recreational and cultural enrichment. The idea of the city beautiful movement was actively linked to the preservation movement to not take away from the existing park lands for other functions that might cater only to particular sectors of the community. The movement wanted the parks to be equal for all and encourage engagement of social issues. A number of plans were proposed by architects, artists and civic organizers to change certain portions of the park to include more recreational activities like playgrounds or even restaurants, this was the progressive movement, this reflected the idea that parks were meant for recreational purposes only for the lower class.

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. (1931). Central Park, including Central Park South, Columbus Circle, Central Park West.

Method of research

I first went through a lot of archival material most of it from the New York times newspaper. After reading and sieving through a lot of the articles in the newspapers I realised that a lot of the articles in the years between 1900’s to 1960’s there were arguments and protests about developments and encroachments into central park. This made me realise that it could be related certain movements in that time of history. After looking up certain books and articles/ journals online that relate to central park I read that there were a lot of differences in opinion amongst people right from the onset of the park. From what I understood there were majorly two opposing views, one to do with preservation of the park and to develop it in a way that was planned by the original architects as a place for resting and relaxation for all the people of New York. And the other that encroaches it with particular kinds of recreational activities that would serve only certain parts of the population of New York.

Why in Central park?

Throughout history and through the timeline of central park we can notice a continuous tiff between the preservation of central park and encroaching the central park for uses such as recreational playground facilities or even development of buildings.

Starting with one of the first examples in 1911. A playground was proposed in central park that would take a away a part of it. There were protests held and letters written by the citizens union as a protest against the making of the playground according to them it was a “bad choice to convert a park with beautiful landscape features into a playground.” (“The New York Times”, 1911) The portion of the park that was selected for the playground is already congested and if any more additions of playgrounds would make the greenery suffer. The letter written by Henry Moskovitz the chairman of the parks committee citizens union further states that they understand the neighbourhood around central park might be in need of a playground, he says it does not justify the playground to be made in central park itself, since the central park was made for the citizens of the entire city and not for particular neighbourhoods. He then goes on to state that playgrounds can be provided closer to and within the neighbourhoods that need them and encroaching into central park isn’t necessary (“The New York Times”, 1911)

One of the other examples of the progressive movement was the want to shift the Lennox ibrary building to the middle of central park, even though there are number of other sites more suitable for the Lennox library building. The protectors of the park state that If the Lennox library does get built in central park there will definitely be further invasions in that will be difficult to stop and reduce the greenery and nature that the park offers to the people. (“The New York Times”, 1912)

Further down the time-line in 1933 there was a proposal by Mr. Sheehy the commissioner of the park for introducing athletic fields into the park. This introduction would in turn affect the whole city the affects of it would not only be limited to the neighbourhood. This intrusion is contrary to the traditional use of the park and the philosophy on which the park rests- a place of refuge for all. This development would take away from the surrounding plantations by clearing them to provide spaces for thousands of spectators on the baseball fields. (“The New York Times”, 1933)

In 1933 there was a time when Mr Olmsted himself had written a letter to oppose the development of a speed track in central park, he stated that provision for these sports should be made only “incidentally and subordinately” (Olmsted, 1933) (“The New York Times”, 1933)

In 1935 Robert Moses had planned 19 playgrounds for younger children on the rim of central park, providing spaces for children to play around shrubs and trees. Soon there after he announced clearing of an existing site towards the inner portion of central park for the provision of a larger playground. This proved that there were a lot of inconsistencies between both his announcements. It is noticed that there have always been a lot of “imbalance” (“The New York Times”, 1935) between providing recreational uses and the proper use of the park as resting spaces for all. (“The New York Times”, 1935)

An arts festival at the park? In 1956 there was a proposal to exhibit an arts festival in the already crowded parks. An arts exhibit with its erected structure would increase the concentration of crowds. The people of the preservation movement wanted to curb the number of exhibitions/ dhows of any kind of development in the park that was originally only meant for leisure. (“The New York Times”, 1956)

Year by year there were proposals for encroachments in the park. In 1960 Hartford gifted a café of 2 stories to seat 1000 diners with the size of 240x40 ft. Robert Moses was continuously rallying for the restaurant, he also wanted to increase the parking for an already existing restaurant Tavern on the green, this would urther take more area away from the park. Even though the new restaurant was a gift it takes away from the role that the park was originally planned to play. (“The New York Times”, 1960).

Residents of New York city have also come out in protest against this massive intrusion, there have been letters written to the Times in protest of the construction on the café. Mr E.L Martin states that he has always enjoyed the ‘lakes’ ‘ponds’ and ‘winding paths’ of central park. He questions “Must we emulate Paris and Copenhagen? Do we need a Tivoli in the heart of the city?” (1960) He says that many people do not have private gardens to enjoy. The only places they do have is public parks to spend their time in the quiet beauty of central park. (“The New York Times”, 1960)

The park has always been for the benefit of the people, contradicting this the people have no say and all the power is given t the commissioner of the park. With the increase in volume of protests of the Hartford café in central park the people need a hearing and an official forum to debate about the café. These hearings should be held periodically not only for the café but for the future policy of “improvements” that will take down trees and introduce concrete into the park. (“The New York Times”, 1960)

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1904). Boys’ playground, Central Park, New York. Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. (1935-07-04). Central Mall restaurant , looking northwest

References

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2020, February 6). Central Park. Encyclopedia Britannica. https:// www.britannica.com/place/Central-Park-New-York-City

Central Park. (1933, April 30). The New York Times, 60 (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/04/30/issue.html.)

Central Park. (1935, December 28). The New York Times, 14 (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/12/28/93514024.html?pageNumber=14)

Central Park Democracy. (1960, May 26). The New York Times, 32 (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/ timesmachine/1960/05/26/105436952.html?pageNumber=32)

Fight for central park. (1912, June 14). The New York Times, 10. (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/03/23/104859330.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0)

In central park-No. (1960, March17). The New York Times, 32. (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/03/17/105421636.html?pageNumber=32)

Letters to the times (1960, April 9). The New York Times, 22 (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/04/09/issue.html)

Roy Rosenzweig, Elizabeth Blackmar, ( Jun., 1995, Vol. 54) The Park and the People: A History of Central Park, University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians, pp. 233-235 (https:// www.jstor.org/stable/990970?seq=1)

Samuel Parsons, 1919, Vol. 17 (1919), History of development of central park, Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, pp. 164-172 (: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42890080)

Thomas S. Hines, (2005) Architecture: The City Beautiful Movement, Encyclopedia of Chicago (http://www. encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/61.html)

The New York preservation archive Project. Central Park. (https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/central-park/)

TLTC Blog. History of New York City Central Park (November, 2016) (https://blogs.shu.edu/nyc-history/2016/11/14/central-park/)

Urge city against popularizing parks. (1911, March 23). The New York Times, 6. (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/03/23/104859330.html?pageNumber=6)

Why in Central park. (1956, January 24). The New York Times, 30. (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/ timesmachine/1956/01/24/86509850.html?pageNumber=30)

References

Images

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. (1935-07-04). Central Mall restaurant , looking northwest Retrieved from https://digitalcollections. nypl.org/items/510d47e4-41fb-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. (1930). Manhattan: Central Park - Playgrounds [field on the North Meadow.] Retrieved from https:// digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-2fcd-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. (1931). Manhattan: Central Park - Playgrounds [between North Meadow and Upper Reservoir.] Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-2fc3-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. (1873). Map of the Central Park Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/4e6a6080-3569-0134-549e-00505686a51c

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1904). Boys’ playground, Central Park, New York. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections. nypl.org/items/510d47e1-0f8d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99