New York Recreation The City of New York's Department of Parks & Recreation is responsible for 16 historic houses, from the 17th-century stone Conference House at the southern end of Staten Island to the elegant 19th-century Bartow-Pell Mansion at the northern tip of the Bronx. These houses bring the history of the City alive to tens of thousands of New Yorkers every year, some of them on tours led by Urban Park Rangers. We are grateful for the partnership of support existing between our agency and the Department of Cultural Affairs, which provides operating support to the Staten Island and The Bronx Historical Societies, and program funding for many of the house museums.
New York City's historic houses have been one of our under-appreciated resources, but thanks to the energetic work of the Historic House Trust, word is getting out about these important cultural resources.
Central Park
New York's Central Park is the first urban landscaped park in the United States.
Originally conceived in the salons of wealthy New Yorkers in the early 1850's,
the park project spanned more than a decade and cost the city ten milion
dollars. The purpose was to refute the European view that Americans lacked a
sense of civic duty and appreciation for cultural refinement and instead
possessed and unhealthy and individualistic materialism that precluded interest
in the common good. The bruised egos of New York high society envisioned a
sweeping pastoral landscape, among which the wealthy could parade in their
carriages, socialize, and "be seen," and in which the poor could benefit from
clean air and uplifting recreation without lifting the bottle.
The Creation of a "Central Park"
After years of debate over the location, the park's construction finally began
in 1857, based on the winner of a park design contest, the "Greensward Plan," of
Frederick Law Olmstead, the park superintendent, and Calvert Vaux, an architect.
Using the power of eminent domain, the city aquired 840 acres located in the
center of Manhattan, spanning two and a half miles from 59th Street to 106th
Street (in 1863 the park was extended north to 110th Street) and half a mile
from Fifth Avenue to Eighth Avenue. In the process, a population of about
1,600 people who had been living in the rocky, swampy terran, some as legitimate
renters and others as squatters, were evicted; included in this sweep were a
convent and school, bone-boiling plants, and the residents of Seneca Village,
an African American settlement of about 270 people which were boasted a school
and three churches. The members of AME Zion, Seneca Village's most prominent
church were scattered throughout the city, and their community was destroyed.
Though the city did compensate the landowners will an average of $700 per lot
of land, many residents estimated this far below the value of their property,
which despite the undesirable topography, contained their homes, their history,
and their livelihoods.
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