The History and Design of New York's Central Park

Introduction: An Iconic Urban Green Space

Very few parks in the world are as iconic and story-filled as Central Park in New York City. This paper is not merely a recitation of the park's history. It also tells the stories of the people who planned, envisioned, and constructed the site, as well as those who have used the park for notable purposes. This paper is, in many ways, an encapsulation of the people who brought Central Park to life and have kept it at the high standards it still meets today. Historical and scholarly sources are used throughout to support the key arguments made. While there are certainly architectural and landscaping marvels both in the United States and around the world, few places are as breathtaking and story-filled as New York's Central Park.

The city of New York and its significance had been recognized as far back as 1800. It was clear that its future as a major commercial hub of the northeastern United States would be extensive, owing to its "well-protected and year-round harbor" and its strategic location at the mouth of the Hudson River.¹ As the city began to expand and grow, there was an eventual turn toward the idea of a green space or park to be situated somewhere on the main island of New York. However, many twists and turns occurred before the final location and size of the park were settled upon.

The initial street plan envisioned about a dozen north-south streets, each one hundred feet wide, along with approximately 155 east-west streets. About ten percent of those would be the width of avenues while the others would be narrower. This arrangement was intentional, as neighborhoods built on right angles are easier to maintain and develop. If the original park space plan of 1811 had been approved, it would have been massive — a truly "central" park. The total acreage dedicated was roughly five hundred acres, with about 239 acres situated between Twenty-Third and Thirty-Second Streets and Third and Seventh Avenues. This plan was quickly rejected, however, because the open space was considered far too large and sacrificed too much area that could be used for commercial development or residential housing. Over the 1810s and 1820s, the city continued to expand rapidly, and people began to complain that the amount of park space was entirely insufficient and should be remediated.²

Early Proposals and the Push for Park Space

Part of the demand for parks was addressed by land donated by Samuel Ruggles, which eventually became Gramercy Park. The Stuyvesant family gave land for a square that would later be named after them. By 1838, there were approximately 170 total acres of parkland. Still, there was a strong desire for more.

This is when the two major advocates of what would become Central Park entered the scene: William Cullen Bryant and Andrew Jackson Downing. Rather than being politicians, both were figures from the arts and letters world. Bryant grew up in Massachusetts and practiced law before moving to the New York area in 1829 to work in journalism. He was also a renowned poet and became a highly influential editor of the New York Evening Post. He made his case for a park in 1844 in an editorial that called for "an extensive pleasure ground for shade and recreation," stating that there was "no finer situation for the public garden of a great city." The latter quote referred to an area known as Jones' Wood, a heavily forested tract of land along the East River.³

Downing added his own voice to the cause, writing a series of pieces that focused primarily on lamenting the striking lack of parks across the country. These letters and other writings spanned roughly a decade, from his 1841 work A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adopted to North America through letters he wrote from 1848 to 1851. When initial plans for the Jones' Wood tract were put forward, early indications were encouraging. However, significant opposition soon emerged in the form of Democrats taking control of the City Council and a number of lawsuits filed by landowners opposed to the plan. Downing responded by asserting in another essay that five hundred acres was the absolute minimum New York should dedicate to its planned central park.⁴

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