aThe Great Urban Landscape Urban Landscape
aThe Great Urban Landscape
By Taylor McCue
Origins of The Park
Of all the wonders of New York City, Central Park is ranks the first of spectacular sites as
it is arguablyone of the most important man-made public space instructures in the United States
as it is the first established green space open to the public.1 Up until the Park’s opening in 1857,
any resident of Manhattan who
wanted to experience a pastoral
landscape had to retreat to the
countryside. 2 W However, what
is most remarkable about the
landscape is its size; its 843 acre
span takes up 6% of Manhattan’s
total acreage.3 On an island with
Aerial View of Central Park, 2008. Available through centralpark.com
limited space, one must wonder
what made the Park worthy to
inhabit the great mMetropolis. In
the wake of the Industrial Revolution, Evening Post editor William Cullen Bryant suggested that
a “Cause of regret that in laying out New York, no preparation was made, while it was yet
1 Sarah Cedar Miller, Central Park: , An American Masterpiece. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,
2003), 7.
2 Dorceta E. Taylor, “Central Park as a model for social control: Urban parks, social class and leisure
behavior in nineteenth-century America.” Journal of Leisure Research 31. no. 4 (1999): 429.
3 “FAQ,” Central Park Conservancy, accessed November 19, 2013,
http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/generalinfo/faq/http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
.
practical, for a range of parks and public gardens along the central part of the island.” He
believed public parks were necessary to escape the din of city life as, in the context of the mid
nineteenth century, “The advancing populations of the city are sweeping over them [the available
land] and covering them from our reach.”4 As Frederick Law Olmsted, the primary architect of
Central Park, explained, “The primary purpose of the Park is to provide the best practicable
means of healthful recreation, for the inhabitants of the city, of all classes... It should... present to
the eye a charming rural landscape, such as, unless produced by art, is never found within the
limits of a large town.” 5 UUrban parks were constructed as a with special significance to serve
meaningful functionsresponse to Bryant’s widespread through that the fast-developing city was
swallowing up the island. Among these included: to ease. Park supporters believed a park should
be built in order to: ease congestion by providing a breathing space, act as an urban resorts for
peoplepeople with no access to the countryside, e and allow for the structure and growth of the
city, and protect the urban water supply.6 Urban troubles caused by industrial life, a rapidly
growing population, sanitation problems, and limited space contributed to the need for
Manhattanites for such a retreatto have an easily assessable place to retreat.
The original idea to build the Park sprouted from elite New Yorkers who were inspired by
the formal gardens they saw in London, and Paris, and Vienna. However, as word spread about a
park, ambitions for the Park’s construction grew far beyond that. The Park was built based off
three motivationsSupporters of the Park were motivated by three main goals: to establish the first
American urban landscape on Manhattan, use the Park as a tool of social control, and createas a
recreational space away from the turmoil’sturmoil of industrial life. These three primary reasons
4 W.C. Bryant. A New Park. New York Evening Post. July 3, 1844.
5 Charles E. Beveridge and David Schuyler, Volume III: Central Park (Baltimore and London: The John
Hopkins University Press, 1983), 91
6 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control,s, 427,
.
Congeston in the Five Points in 1827.; painted by George Catlin. Available through Wikipedia.org
were extremely
important because
they werealike in that
they shaped by
theresponded to the
special spatial
limitations of the
island.
Columbus Circle in the late nineteenth century. Available through archpaper.com/wordpressarchive.
.
.
Landscape Architecture in Mmid-Nineteenth 19th Century America as Social Control
In the years leading up to the Civil War, urban landscape design emerged in commercial
capital cities such as Washington DC and New York City. Early landscape architects sought to
establish the United States as “Nature’s Nation”. 7 The constructions of rural cemeteries were
early attempts of urban landscapers’ to combine nature and culture. Formally designed landscape
eventually combined the country and the city in the form of urban landscape (which included
parks, suburbs, and parkways). 8 Experimentation with this new design was centered primarily
on the outer perimeters of large scale cities.
9
This was becausewas due to the fact that the the
cost of acquiring park lands was expensive; officials planned parks in the cheapest and most
7 Gunther Barth, “Book Reviews,” review of The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Form
in Nineteenth-Century America, by David Schuyler. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography , July 1988, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20092251?
seq=1
8 Gunther Barth, “Book Reviews,” review of The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Form
in Nineteenth-Century America, by David Schuyler. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography , July 1988, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20092251?
seq=1
9 David Schuyler, “The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Form in Nineteenth-Century
Nineteenth century illustraton of Manhattan’s waterfront. Available through untappedcites.com
America.”
(:John Hopkins University Press, 1988). .
.
inconvenient locations, which was were usually located on the outskirts of town. or rocks, or
unusable terrain10 However, the issue with implementing the same park design on the waterfront
in ManhattanManhattan’s waterfront was the island’s that the perimeter was reserved for industry
and commerce, thus making the perimeter off limits for construction of the Park.infernal
perimeter. The waterfront, by the 1870’s, was condemned by the New York Times as full of
“rotten structures” where , the abode of rats and the hiding places of river thieves…” where
political ambition came before cultural or societal needs. 11 The Park could not be built on the
waterfront because the perimeter was crucial to industry in the nineteenth century.
10 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 440.
11Roy Rosenzweig, and Elizabeth Blackmar. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park ( Ithaca
and London: Cornell University Press, 1992). 17. On the Irish Waterfont
.
Popularity of Parks
In the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, parks became a
highlight feature of cities in wWestern
citiesEurope. In London, the previously
private royal lands of the royals were
opening up to the public. In
London’s Hyde Park, built in 1637. Available through true-london.com
.
In GermanyGermany towns, old fortifications were reconstructed as public gardens. 12 Parks
became an important infrastructures in wWestern European cities as the leading landscape
architects believed parks to
operate asbe as instruments of social control and the enlightenment. Urban parks were not
merely a physical space, but also a socially-constructed area. 13 By the early nineteenth century,
municipal and national governments established landscaped public parks in response to the
widespread romantic ideal of rus in urbe—country in the city. 14
12 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 4Rosenzweig, and Blackmar. The Park and the
People, 4.
13 Dorceta E. Taylor, “Central Park as a Mmodel for Ssocial Cocontrol,: Urban parks, social class and
leisure behavior in nineteeth-century America.” Journal of Leisure Research 31 (1999): 420.
14 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 4.
.
Under Pressure from Europe
The well-traveled elite of New York
found themselves running into harsh
criticisms from wWestern European men
who were accustomed to formal and ly visually
pleasing established gardens in the midnineteenth century. These New Yorkers
found themselves increasingly fixated on
the inferiority they felt when comparing
Manhattanites who could not afford to leave the City spent their tme in the
Battery. Available through The Park and the People.
American public green spaces to the likes of London and Paris. One noted T“they discussed “the
difference between our country and city, and those abroad; and the remark was made that there
was no want of our city so great as a large park for walking and driving.”15 The elite of
Manhattan found themselves battling affluent critics from abroad. Alexis de Tocqueville upon
visiting the United States in the 1830’s, noted “few of the civilized nations of our time have
made less progress” in the arts, literature, or science. 16 The elite of New York city were key
actors in the construction of urban parks in accordance to middle class tastes and values. 17 As
the island became more crowded and industrial, Adding to the stress from Europe, the elite New
Yorkers found themselves in the context of an increasingly growing hostile environment on the
island. thus, the need for the Park shifted outside of the homes of these elite and into the city
streets.
15 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 16.Robert Brown Minturn, Jr.,Memoir of Robert
Brown Minturn (1871) 65-146
16 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America(. Garden City, NY:J.P. Mayer, 1969)., 454.
17 Taylor, Central Park as a Mmodel for Ssocial Ccontrol ,421.
.
Growing Tensions
.
The poet and editor of the New York Post, William Cullen Bryant , voiced the first
documented need for a park: “Commerce is devouring inch by inch the coast of the island.”18
The trade lines, factory production, railroads, banks, and insurance houses made Manhattan into
a financial, national trade, and industrial center. 19 The growing Growing population and crowded
city streets left the middle of the island untouched because business and commerce were
concentrated along the waterfront.. Thus, the middle strip of the island was a plausible place to
build the Park.
At the time that the construction of Central Park was being discussed, over 20,000
immigrants were arriving to
the City each year500,000
people lived in Manhattan with
20,000 immigrants arriving
each year. By 1850, half of the
island’s the City residents were
recent immigrants.20 Thus the
middle strip of the island was a
plausible natural place for a
possible location for the Park.
City street of Manhattan in the mid-nineteenth century. Available through jpmag.com.
American landscape architect, Andrew Jackson Downing, wrote in 1849 that a public park would
“refine the national character, foster the love of rural beauty…The true policy of publics is to
18 Berenson, Barnes and Noble Complete Illustrated Map and Guidebook to Central Park.9 Richard J.
Berenson, Barnes and Noble Complete Illustrated Map and Guidebook to Central Park. (New York:
Silver Linings Books, 1999, 2003), 9.
19 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 22.
20 “The History of Central Park,” Central Park Conservancy.
.
foster the taste for great public libraries, parks and gardens which all may enjoy.” In the cry for
reform, the Park takes took on a new dimension as park supporters suggested the Park would
solve problems in sanitation, government, transportation and leadership.
Escaping the Island
However, arguments for the Park “intersected with concerns about the city’s competitive
position within its own emerging metropolitan area.”. 21 Many residents of Manhattan’s former
residents took to fleeing the city and settling down in growing establishments such as Brooklyn
and New Jersey. Arguments in support of building the large-scale Park become ever the more
prevalent in order to “prevent this the drawing away of theour population.”22 In addition, the
booming economy and rapid population growth had created health and sanitation problems, thus
compromising the appeal of the city to settle, visit, or do business in. Malnutrition,
contaminated water, disease, contagion and polluted air all contributed to the growing toxicity of
the city. All of which was due to the congestion the waterfront traffic created. Industry
contaminated the island’s perimeter. In the 1830’s and 184’0’s, Park supporters argued the Park
21 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 24.
22
.
New York City in 1873. Available through boweryboys.blogspot.com
would act as “lungs for the city” and serveact as anecdotes to the “ills of industrial society”
caused by the commerce which was devouring the island’s perimeter. 23
The Park Gives the People Lungs
In an increasingly growing commercial city, it is clear why the elite of Manhattan felt the
need for a Park considering the geographical limits New York had as an island. As garbage filled
the streets and congestion made living uncomfortabletight., the island, completely
circumnavigated by water, limited spatial movement. There was nowhere to escape the
harshness of city life, except in the form of retreat to the surrounding lands across from o other
burrows of the island. New York politicians utilized the
23 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 24
.
mMetaphor that the Park served as
New York’s lungs in order to
promote the benefits of the Park as a
place for rejuvenation, reflection,
and exercise. 24 Though politicians
and planners had other commercial
and business-based intentions for the
Sketch of Central Park from 1860. Available through Time Photos.
Park, their greatest argument came in
the formpromoting the Park as a
space of this space for fresh air amidst the polluted air of the island city. 25
The Park as Refuge for New Yorkers in Manhattan
n
In many ways, theThe construction of Central Park saved the islandstopped the island’s
inhabitants from leaving. To solve the problem of congestion, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law
Olmsted, the Park’s primary designers, opted to “pant out” the city from within the park. They
blocked out city congestion by planting trees and shrubs along the park’s perimeter. 26 As the
elite began to leave and take refuge in more spacious areas, they were again drawn back to the
24 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 24
25 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 24-25.
26 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control , 440.
.
The Patrician Landscape. Illustraton of Central Park in the 1870’s, which by then served as the primary
escape for New Yorkers from the congeston of the island. Available through Time Photos.
island due to the
allure of the Park
and its many water
work creations
which stood as
artificial
replacements for
water [link to my
essay “The
Waterworks of
Central Park]. 27 It created an escape on the island itself, thus keeping people from leaving. Due
to the fact that Manhattan isAs an island and because the waterfront was reserved for industry,
ManhattanNew York’s urban planners were limited in free space available for landscape
developmente. Though parametric expansion created more land space for construction28, this was
limited to the commercial atmosphere of the waterfront. A public green space which would allow
high culture was essential a crucial response to the growing congestion of the island, because it
provided a more comfortable environment for people to continue to live on the island. As soon as
the Park opened to the public in 1857, “it was renowned as an island of solitude in the midst of a
throbbing metropolis.”29 The boundaries which Manhattan as an island prevented New Yorkers to
easily retreat form the brutality of Industrial life
27 See essay “Aesthetics of Central Park” by Taylor McCue
28 See essay… Maya’s Perimeter
29 Miller, Central Park, An American Masterpiece, 7Miller, Central Park, 7.
.
. A great number of middle- and upper-class New YorkersManhattanites became
increasingly affection afeected?affected by the claustrophobic feeling implemented by the
limited space of the island and as industrial life and population continued to grow. They began to
take note of the public health dangers the pollution of the city created. Thus, the appeal of the
Park became all the prominent prevalent as a way to remain on the island with theas it
promisedes a naturalized retreatof natural escape and space. As Nnew YorkersManhattanites
were brought into contact with nature, though artificial, it still provided the escape from the
artificial life style created by the industry of the waterfront. 30
Drawing the People Back to the Island
Landscape architects described the Park as a serene, contemplative space intended to
improve the lives of peoples living in the noisy, filthy, disease-ridden city. The local people were
undereducated, overworked and in need of recreation. 31 After the opening of Central Park,
Olmsted frequently compared the Park to a European park of the West. He argued that Western
Europeans, upon visiting the Park, decided to become naturalized citizens and live in the city.
The Park was also credited with improving the lives of the poor and the rich alike. 32 According
to the Sanitary Commission, the lives of women and children of New York City greatly improved
because they were spending time in the Park. 33
Olmsted wrote “There is no doubt that the Ppark has added years to the lives of many of
the most valued citizens and many have remarked that is has much increased their working
30 John H. Rauch, M.D., Public Parks: Their Effect upon the Moral, Physical and Sanitary
Conditions of the Inhabitants of Large Cities, with Special reference to the City of Chicago. (Chicago:
S.C. Griggs, 1869),. 83.
31 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 440.
32
33 Taylor 447
.
capacity.”34 Olmsted referred to reports from doctors explaining: “As to the effect [of Central
Park] on public health, there is no question that it is already great. The testimony of the older
physicians of the city will be found unanimous on this points. Says one, ‘Where I formerly
ordered patients of a certain class to give up their business altogether and go out of town, I now
often advise simply moderation, and prescribe a ride in the Park before going to their offices, and
again a drive with their families before dinner.” 35’ The lives of women and children who were
too poor to leave the islWith the completion of Central Park, Vaux and Olmsted were able to
market the Park’s importance by arguing it served four different purposes: (a) as a work of art,
(b) as a tool of social control, (c) as an environment to improve physical and mental health, (d) as
a means of producing better workers. 36 These four purposes kept residents from leaving the
island. By the late nineteenth century, Manhattanites and now had a new option of going to the
Park to escape the congestion of the City. 37 Central Park secured the future of residents on the
island as they no longer needed to leave the island to find rejuvenating naturalistic landscapes.
34 Taylor
35 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 441.
36 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 450.
37 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 448.
.
Rejuvenatng landscape in Central Park. Available through Central Park Conservancy.
.
By Taylor McCue
Origins of The Park
Of all the wonders of New York City, Central Park is ranks the first of spectacular sites as
it is arguablyone of the most important man-made public space instructures in the United States
as it is the first established green space open to the public.1 Up until the Park’s opening in 1857,
any resident of Manhattan who
wanted to experience a pastoral
landscape had to retreat to the
countryside. 2 W However, what
is most remarkable about the
landscape is its size; its 843 acre
span takes up 6% of Manhattan’s
total acreage.3 On an island with
Aerial View of Central Park, 2008. Available through centralpark.com
limited space, one must wonder
what made the Park worthy to
inhabit the great mMetropolis. In
the wake of the Industrial Revolution, Evening Post editor William Cullen Bryant suggested that
a “Cause of regret that in laying out New York, no preparation was made, while it was yet
1 Sarah Cedar Miller, Central Park: , An American Masterpiece. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,
2003), 7.
2 Dorceta E. Taylor, “Central Park as a model for social control: Urban parks, social class and leisure
behavior in nineteenth-century America.” Journal of Leisure Research 31. no. 4 (1999): 429.
3 “FAQ,” Central Park Conservancy, accessed November 19, 2013,
http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/generalinfo/faq/http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
.
practical, for a range of parks and public gardens along the central part of the island.” He
believed public parks were necessary to escape the din of city life as, in the context of the mid
nineteenth century, “The advancing populations of the city are sweeping over them [the available
land] and covering them from our reach.”4 As Frederick Law Olmsted, the primary architect of
Central Park, explained, “The primary purpose of the Park is to provide the best practicable
means of healthful recreation, for the inhabitants of the city, of all classes... It should... present to
the eye a charming rural landscape, such as, unless produced by art, is never found within the
limits of a large town.” 5 UUrban parks were constructed as a with special significance to serve
meaningful functionsresponse to Bryant’s widespread through that the fast-developing city was
swallowing up the island. Among these included: to ease. Park supporters believed a park should
be built in order to: ease congestion by providing a breathing space, act as an urban resorts for
peoplepeople with no access to the countryside, e and allow for the structure and growth of the
city, and protect the urban water supply.6 Urban troubles caused by industrial life, a rapidly
growing population, sanitation problems, and limited space contributed to the need for
Manhattanites for such a retreatto have an easily assessable place to retreat.
The original idea to build the Park sprouted from elite New Yorkers who were inspired by
the formal gardens they saw in London, and Paris, and Vienna. However, as word spread about a
park, ambitions for the Park’s construction grew far beyond that. The Park was built based off
three motivationsSupporters of the Park were motivated by three main goals: to establish the first
American urban landscape on Manhattan, use the Park as a tool of social control, and createas a
recreational space away from the turmoil’sturmoil of industrial life. These three primary reasons
4 W.C. Bryant. A New Park. New York Evening Post. July 3, 1844.
5 Charles E. Beveridge and David Schuyler, Volume III: Central Park (Baltimore and London: The John
Hopkins University Press, 1983), 91
6 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control,s, 427,
.
Congeston in the Five Points in 1827.; painted by George Catlin. Available through Wikipedia.org
were extremely
important because
they werealike in that
they shaped by
theresponded to the
special spatial
limitations of the
island.
Columbus Circle in the late nineteenth century. Available through archpaper.com/wordpressarchive.
.
.
Landscape Architecture in Mmid-Nineteenth 19th Century America as Social Control
In the years leading up to the Civil War, urban landscape design emerged in commercial
capital cities such as Washington DC and New York City. Early landscape architects sought to
establish the United States as “Nature’s Nation”. 7 The constructions of rural cemeteries were
early attempts of urban landscapers’ to combine nature and culture. Formally designed landscape
eventually combined the country and the city in the form of urban landscape (which included
parks, suburbs, and parkways). 8 Experimentation with this new design was centered primarily
on the outer perimeters of large scale cities.
9
This was becausewas due to the fact that the the
cost of acquiring park lands was expensive; officials planned parks in the cheapest and most
7 Gunther Barth, “Book Reviews,” review of The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Form
in Nineteenth-Century America, by David Schuyler. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography , July 1988, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20092251?
seq=1
8 Gunther Barth, “Book Reviews,” review of The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Form
in Nineteenth-Century America, by David Schuyler. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography , July 1988, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20092251?
seq=1
9 David Schuyler, “The New Urban Landscape: The Redefinition of City Form in Nineteenth-Century
Nineteenth century illustraton of Manhattan’s waterfront. Available through untappedcites.com
America.”
(:John Hopkins University Press, 1988). .
.
inconvenient locations, which was were usually located on the outskirts of town. or rocks, or
unusable terrain10 However, the issue with implementing the same park design on the waterfront
in ManhattanManhattan’s waterfront was the island’s that the perimeter was reserved for industry
and commerce, thus making the perimeter off limits for construction of the Park.infernal
perimeter. The waterfront, by the 1870’s, was condemned by the New York Times as full of
“rotten structures” where , the abode of rats and the hiding places of river thieves…” where
political ambition came before cultural or societal needs. 11 The Park could not be built on the
waterfront because the perimeter was crucial to industry in the nineteenth century.
10 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 440.
11Roy Rosenzweig, and Elizabeth Blackmar. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park ( Ithaca
and London: Cornell University Press, 1992). 17. On the Irish Waterfont
.
Popularity of Parks
In the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, parks became a
highlight feature of cities in wWestern
citiesEurope. In London, the previously
private royal lands of the royals were
opening up to the public. In
London’s Hyde Park, built in 1637. Available through true-london.com
.
In GermanyGermany towns, old fortifications were reconstructed as public gardens. 12 Parks
became an important infrastructures in wWestern European cities as the leading landscape
architects believed parks to
operate asbe as instruments of social control and the enlightenment. Urban parks were not
merely a physical space, but also a socially-constructed area. 13 By the early nineteenth century,
municipal and national governments established landscaped public parks in response to the
widespread romantic ideal of rus in urbe—country in the city. 14
12 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 4Rosenzweig, and Blackmar. The Park and the
People, 4.
13 Dorceta E. Taylor, “Central Park as a Mmodel for Ssocial Cocontrol,: Urban parks, social class and
leisure behavior in nineteeth-century America.” Journal of Leisure Research 31 (1999): 420.
14 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 4.
.
Under Pressure from Europe
The well-traveled elite of New York
found themselves running into harsh
criticisms from wWestern European men
who were accustomed to formal and ly visually
pleasing established gardens in the midnineteenth century. These New Yorkers
found themselves increasingly fixated on
the inferiority they felt when comparing
Manhattanites who could not afford to leave the City spent their tme in the
Battery. Available through The Park and the People.
American public green spaces to the likes of London and Paris. One noted T“they discussed “the
difference between our country and city, and those abroad; and the remark was made that there
was no want of our city so great as a large park for walking and driving.”15 The elite of
Manhattan found themselves battling affluent critics from abroad. Alexis de Tocqueville upon
visiting the United States in the 1830’s, noted “few of the civilized nations of our time have
made less progress” in the arts, literature, or science. 16 The elite of New York city were key
actors in the construction of urban parks in accordance to middle class tastes and values. 17 As
the island became more crowded and industrial, Adding to the stress from Europe, the elite New
Yorkers found themselves in the context of an increasingly growing hostile environment on the
island. thus, the need for the Park shifted outside of the homes of these elite and into the city
streets.
15 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 16.Robert Brown Minturn, Jr.,Memoir of Robert
Brown Minturn (1871) 65-146
16 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America(. Garden City, NY:J.P. Mayer, 1969)., 454.
17 Taylor, Central Park as a Mmodel for Ssocial Ccontrol ,421.
.
Growing Tensions
.
The poet and editor of the New York Post, William Cullen Bryant , voiced the first
documented need for a park: “Commerce is devouring inch by inch the coast of the island.”18
The trade lines, factory production, railroads, banks, and insurance houses made Manhattan into
a financial, national trade, and industrial center. 19 The growing Growing population and crowded
city streets left the middle of the island untouched because business and commerce were
concentrated along the waterfront.. Thus, the middle strip of the island was a plausible place to
build the Park.
At the time that the construction of Central Park was being discussed, over 20,000
immigrants were arriving to
the City each year500,000
people lived in Manhattan with
20,000 immigrants arriving
each year. By 1850, half of the
island’s the City residents were
recent immigrants.20 Thus the
middle strip of the island was a
plausible natural place for a
possible location for the Park.
City street of Manhattan in the mid-nineteenth century. Available through jpmag.com.
American landscape architect, Andrew Jackson Downing, wrote in 1849 that a public park would
“refine the national character, foster the love of rural beauty…The true policy of publics is to
18 Berenson, Barnes and Noble Complete Illustrated Map and Guidebook to Central Park.9 Richard J.
Berenson, Barnes and Noble Complete Illustrated Map and Guidebook to Central Park. (New York:
Silver Linings Books, 1999, 2003), 9.
19 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 22.
20 “The History of Central Park,” Central Park Conservancy.
.
foster the taste for great public libraries, parks and gardens which all may enjoy.” In the cry for
reform, the Park takes took on a new dimension as park supporters suggested the Park would
solve problems in sanitation, government, transportation and leadership.
Escaping the Island
However, arguments for the Park “intersected with concerns about the city’s competitive
position within its own emerging metropolitan area.”. 21 Many residents of Manhattan’s former
residents took to fleeing the city and settling down in growing establishments such as Brooklyn
and New Jersey. Arguments in support of building the large-scale Park become ever the more
prevalent in order to “prevent this the drawing away of theour population.”22 In addition, the
booming economy and rapid population growth had created health and sanitation problems, thus
compromising the appeal of the city to settle, visit, or do business in. Malnutrition,
contaminated water, disease, contagion and polluted air all contributed to the growing toxicity of
the city. All of which was due to the congestion the waterfront traffic created. Industry
contaminated the island’s perimeter. In the 1830’s and 184’0’s, Park supporters argued the Park
21 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 24.
22
.
New York City in 1873. Available through boweryboys.blogspot.com
would act as “lungs for the city” and serveact as anecdotes to the “ills of industrial society”
caused by the commerce which was devouring the island’s perimeter. 23
The Park Gives the People Lungs
In an increasingly growing commercial city, it is clear why the elite of Manhattan felt the
need for a Park considering the geographical limits New York had as an island. As garbage filled
the streets and congestion made living uncomfortabletight., the island, completely
circumnavigated by water, limited spatial movement. There was nowhere to escape the
harshness of city life, except in the form of retreat to the surrounding lands across from o other
burrows of the island. New York politicians utilized the
23 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 24
.
mMetaphor that the Park served as
New York’s lungs in order to
promote the benefits of the Park as a
place for rejuvenation, reflection,
and exercise. 24 Though politicians
and planners had other commercial
and business-based intentions for the
Sketch of Central Park from 1860. Available through Time Photos.
Park, their greatest argument came in
the formpromoting the Park as a
space of this space for fresh air amidst the polluted air of the island city. 25
The Park as Refuge for New Yorkers in Manhattan
n
In many ways, theThe construction of Central Park saved the islandstopped the island’s
inhabitants from leaving. To solve the problem of congestion, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law
Olmsted, the Park’s primary designers, opted to “pant out” the city from within the park. They
blocked out city congestion by planting trees and shrubs along the park’s perimeter. 26 As the
elite began to leave and take refuge in more spacious areas, they were again drawn back to the
24 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 24
25 Rosenzweig and Blackmar, The Park and the People, 24-25.
26 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control , 440.
.
The Patrician Landscape. Illustraton of Central Park in the 1870’s, which by then served as the primary
escape for New Yorkers from the congeston of the island. Available through Time Photos.
island due to the
allure of the Park
and its many water
work creations
which stood as
artificial
replacements for
water [link to my
essay “The
Waterworks of
Central Park]. 27 It created an escape on the island itself, thus keeping people from leaving. Due
to the fact that Manhattan isAs an island and because the waterfront was reserved for industry,
ManhattanNew York’s urban planners were limited in free space available for landscape
developmente. Though parametric expansion created more land space for construction28, this was
limited to the commercial atmosphere of the waterfront. A public green space which would allow
high culture was essential a crucial response to the growing congestion of the island, because it
provided a more comfortable environment for people to continue to live on the island. As soon as
the Park opened to the public in 1857, “it was renowned as an island of solitude in the midst of a
throbbing metropolis.”29 The boundaries which Manhattan as an island prevented New Yorkers to
easily retreat form the brutality of Industrial life
27 See essay “Aesthetics of Central Park” by Taylor McCue
28 See essay… Maya’s Perimeter
29 Miller, Central Park, An American Masterpiece, 7Miller, Central Park, 7.
.
. A great number of middle- and upper-class New YorkersManhattanites became
increasingly affection afeected?affected by the claustrophobic feeling implemented by the
limited space of the island and as industrial life and population continued to grow. They began to
take note of the public health dangers the pollution of the city created. Thus, the appeal of the
Park became all the prominent prevalent as a way to remain on the island with theas it
promisedes a naturalized retreatof natural escape and space. As Nnew YorkersManhattanites
were brought into contact with nature, though artificial, it still provided the escape from the
artificial life style created by the industry of the waterfront. 30
Drawing the People Back to the Island
Landscape architects described the Park as a serene, contemplative space intended to
improve the lives of peoples living in the noisy, filthy, disease-ridden city. The local people were
undereducated, overworked and in need of recreation. 31 After the opening of Central Park,
Olmsted frequently compared the Park to a European park of the West. He argued that Western
Europeans, upon visiting the Park, decided to become naturalized citizens and live in the city.
The Park was also credited with improving the lives of the poor and the rich alike. 32 According
to the Sanitary Commission, the lives of women and children of New York City greatly improved
because they were spending time in the Park. 33
Olmsted wrote “There is no doubt that the Ppark has added years to the lives of many of
the most valued citizens and many have remarked that is has much increased their working
30 John H. Rauch, M.D., Public Parks: Their Effect upon the Moral, Physical and Sanitary
Conditions of the Inhabitants of Large Cities, with Special reference to the City of Chicago. (Chicago:
S.C. Griggs, 1869),. 83.
31 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 440.
32
33 Taylor 447
.
capacity.”34 Olmsted referred to reports from doctors explaining: “As to the effect [of Central
Park] on public health, there is no question that it is already great. The testimony of the older
physicians of the city will be found unanimous on this points. Says one, ‘Where I formerly
ordered patients of a certain class to give up their business altogether and go out of town, I now
often advise simply moderation, and prescribe a ride in the Park before going to their offices, and
again a drive with their families before dinner.” 35’ The lives of women and children who were
too poor to leave the islWith the completion of Central Park, Vaux and Olmsted were able to
market the Park’s importance by arguing it served four different purposes: (a) as a work of art,
(b) as a tool of social control, (c) as an environment to improve physical and mental health, (d) as
a means of producing better workers. 36 These four purposes kept residents from leaving the
island. By the late nineteenth century, Manhattanites and now had a new option of going to the
Park to escape the congestion of the City. 37 Central Park secured the future of residents on the
island as they no longer needed to leave the island to find rejuvenating naturalistic landscapes.
34 Taylor
35 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 441.
36 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 450.
37 Taylor, Central Park as a Model for Social Control, 448.
.
Rejuvenatng landscape in Central Park. Available through Central Park Conservancy.
.