City in the Park

Parks tend to grace the neighborhoods bordering them. Fifth Avenue's character is formed by the green acres of Central Park, with its surrounding architectural towers. The city is somewhat lacking in small neighborhood parks.

In 1838 the city surveyor's office prepared a plan for 18 small parks in Manhattan to be built on land plots set aside for that sole purpose. Grammercy Park is a private preserve whose original owners were said to have gold keys to the fence surrounding it.

Battery Park, City Hall Park, Prospect Park in Brooklyn and a few others, as beautiful as they were, did not exist in sufficient numbers to allow the city to breathe.

With Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux's winning design for Central Park (originally named Greensward), the city made up for lost time.

Begun in 1859 on 843 acres of swampland inhabited only by thousands of squatters sharing their shantytown quarters, Central Park was finally completed 20 years later.

The grooves, ponds, glades, footpaths and zoo make it a supreme example of 19th century city planning.

Central Park Afternoon
Watercolor
5" x 7"
by Jessica Mieles