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    Central Park, The Early Years
    Central Park, The Early Years
    Central Park, The Early Years
    Ebook220 pages1 hour

    Central Park, The Early Years

    By Dianne L. Durante

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    About this ebook

    It’s difficult to imagine Manhattan without the glorious oasis that is Central Park. But the Park’s existence was not inevitable, and its design was very much a product of its time. *Central Park: The Early Years* looks at why and how Central Park was created in the 1850s and its history during the formative decades of the 1860s and

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDianne L. Durante
    Release dateJun 18, 2018
    ISBN9780974589978
    Central Park, The Early Years
    Author

    Dianne L. Durante

    At age five, I won my first writing award: a three-foot-long fire truck with an ear-splitting siren. I've been addicted to writing ever since. Today I'm an independent researcher, freelance writer, and lecturer. The challenge of figuring out how ideas and facts fit together, and then sharing what I know with others, clearly and concisely - that's what makes me leap out of bed in the morning. Janson's *History of Art*, lent to me by a high-school art teacher, was my first clue that art was more than the rock-star posters and garden gnomes that I saw in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, and that history wasn't just a series of names, dates, and statistics. Soon afterwards I read Ayn Rand's fiction and nonfiction works, and discovered that art and history - as well as politics, ethics, science, and all fields of human knowledge - are integrated by philosophy. My approach to studying art is based on Rand's *The Romantic Manifesto*. (See my review of it on Amazon.) As an art historian I'm a passionate amateur, and I write for other passionate amateurs. I love looking at art, and thinking about art, and helping other people have a blast looking at it, too. *Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide* (New York University Press, 2007), which includes 54 sculptures, was described by Sam Roberts in the *New York Times* as "a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure" (1/28/2007). Every week I issue four art-related recommendations to my supporters, which have been collected in *Starry Solitudes* (poetry) and *Sunny Sundays* (painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and more). For more of my works, see https://diannedurantewriter.com/books-essays .

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      Book preview

      Central Park, The Early Years - Dianne L. Durante

      DESCRIPTION

      It’s difficult to imagine Manhattan without the glorious oasis that is Central Park. But the Park’s existence was not inevitable, and its design was very much a product of its time. Central Park: The Early Years looks at why and how Central Park was created in the 1850s and its history during the formative decades of the 1860s and 1870s.

      This book grew out of research for the seventy-three episodes of the Guides Who Know videoguide to Central Park. For a list of the episodes, see Chapter 9.

      NOTES

      The links (underlined in the text) are available in Chapter 11 (References) and online at

      http://diannedurantewriter.com/central-park-the-early-years-references

      IMAGES

      The images (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.) are based on the layout for the print version of this book. They are not in strict numerical order here.

      COVER IMAGES

      The 30 chromolithographic views of Central Park on the cover were issued by Louis Prang in 1864. I spotted them in a catalogue of William Reese Co.

      (https://www.williamreesecompany.com/): many thanks to Mr. Reese for sharing high-res photographs. The entire set of cards is printed in Chapter 12. Cover design: Allegra & Dianne Durante.

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      For more on the author, visit http://diannedurantewriter.com/about/ the Amazon Author Page for Dianne L. Durante, and my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/diannedurante.

      I’m happy to hear comments, corrections, and suggestions, and I’ll be delirious with delight if you write a review on Amazon.

      First published in book form via CreateSpace, December 2017.

      This issue published 6/18/2018

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1: Introduction

      Chapter 2: New York Circa 1850

      2.1 Early History of Manhattan

      2.2 Why the City Grew

      2.2.1 Transportation hub

      2.2.2 Transfer point or destination for immigrants

      2.2.3 Manufacturing center

      2.2.4 Financial center

      2.3 High Points of New York Circa 1850

      2.3.1 Business and wealth

      2.3.2 Literacy and the search for knowledge

      2.3.3 Architecture

      2.3.4 Music

      2.3.5 Sculpture

      2.3.6 Painting

      2.4 Low Points of New York Circa 1850

      2.4.1 Prejudice and slavery

      2.4.2 Corruption in city government

      2.4.3 Overcrowding

      2.4.4 Health hazards

      Chapter 3: Sidling Toward a Park

      3.1 Why Build a Park?

      3.1.1 Fresh air and exercise

      3.1.2 Pastoral views

      3.1.3 Culture

      3.2 Where?

      3.3 The Site before the Park

      3.3.1 Homes and businesses

      3.3.2 Institutions

      3.3.3 Topography

      Chapter 4: Players and Plans

      4.1 Egbert Ludovicus Viele

      4.2 Frederick Law Olmsted

      4.3 Calvert Vaux

      4.4 The Design Competition

      4.5 The Greensward Plan

      Chapter 5: Construction of Central Park

      5.1 Execution of the Greensward Plan

      5.2 Early Revisions to the Greensward Plan

      5.2.1 The Extension, 106th-110th Streets

      5.2.2 The Bow Bridge

      5.2.3 The circulation system

      5.3 Finances: Andrew Haswell Green

      Chapter 6: Architectural Elements in Central Park

      6.1 Bethesda Terrace

      6.2 The Belvedere

      6.3 The Dairy

      6.4 The Zoo

      6.5 The Sheepfold

      6.6 The American Museum of Natural History

      6.7 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

      6.8 Wall and Gates

      Chapter 7: Sculptures in Central Park

      7.1 Earliest Sculptures

      7.1.1 Bethesda Fountain, dedicated 1873 (Emma Stebbins)

      7.1.2 Schiller, 1869 (C.L. Richter)

      7.1.3 Eagles and Prey, 1863 (Christophe Fratin)

      7.1.4 Tigress with Cubs, 1866 (Auguste Cain)

      7.1.5 Indian Hunter, 1866 (John Quincy Adams Ward)

      7.1.6 Seventh Regiment Memorial, 1869 (John Quincy Adams Ward)

      7.1.7 Humboldt, 1869 (Gustaf Blaeser)

      7.1.8 Morse, 1871 (Byron M. Pickett)

      7.1.9 Scott, 1871 (Sir John Steell)

      7.1.10 Shakespeare, 1872 (John Quincy Adams Ward)

      7.1.11 The Falconer, 1875 (George Blackall Simonds)

      7.2 Board of Commissioners’ Rules on Sculpture, 1873

      7.3 The Halleck Fiasco, 1877

      Chapter 8: The Tweed Years, 1870-1871, and Their Effects

      8.1 Boss Tweed and His Cronies

      8.2 Effects of Tweed’s Reign

      Chapter 9: Episodes in the Guides Who Know Central Park App

      Chapter 10: Further Readings

      Chapter 11: References

      Chapter 12: 1865 Chromolithographs of Central Park by Louis Prang

      Chapter 1: Introduction

      I’m fascinated by the choices and chances that bring about what we think of as inevitable. Take Central Park. Although it’s difficult to imagine Manhattan without a glorious oasis in its center, the Park’s existence, its location, and its design were much debated. Central Park: The Early Years looks at why and how Central Park was created in the 1850s, and its development during the formative decades of the 1860s and 1870s. Included are many quotes from those who worked on the park and more than a hundred early photographs and images of the Park.

      Among the topics:

      Fig. 1: Image of Bethesda Terrace from the Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park for 1859. The illustration is signed by Jacob Wrey Mould as artist.

      Chapter 2: New York Circa 1850

      2.1 THE EARLY HISTORY OF MANHATTAN

      By the early 1850s, when a major park for Manhattan was first discussed, the island had been settled by Europeans for more than two centuries. It offered a unique combination on the east coast of America: a well-protected, deep-water harbor that was never closed off by ice, and a river that was navigable inland for some two hundred miles. The Dutch trading post of New Amsterdam, founded in 1624, began as a fort and a few houses near the harbor, and grew northward (Fig. 2).

      Fig. 2: The Castello Plan of Manhattan, 1660. The wall at the north edge of the settlement (to the right) is modern Wall Street. Image: Wikipedia

      As a successful trading center, Manhattan was a target. In 1664, four British warships sailed into the harbor and forced Peter Stuyvesant to surrender the town. New Amsterdam became New York.

      The town continued to prosper under British control, although it remained small. When the Declaration of Independence was read to a cheering crowd at the Common (now City Hall Park) in 1776, most of the town’s buildings

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