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Urban Society: Central Park and Social Reform
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The creation of Central Park was undoubtedly a triumph for New York City. But it was a tragedy for those who were displaced to create the park. The creation of Central Park was a form of "urban imperialism" representing the "manifest destiny" of a merchant class vision of urban society.
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Respond to this statement, specifying whether you partly or entirely agree or disagree. Use your knowledge of the time period and the sources provided to support your arguments.
Whatever position you take, be sure to construct an original thesis that addresses the who, what, when, and especially the why. Be sure to consider the counterargument, what historians might say in opposition to your thesis, and to support your argument with material from Professor Jackson's lecture and other sources. Remember that "triumph" and "tragedy" are relative terms, so be sure to define them carefully. Do not forget to consider the point of view of the sources you employ, especially in the areas of class, race, ethnicity, and party affiliation.
Please address the question discussing at least three of the following:
1. party conflicts between Republican reformers and Democratic machines
2. paternalistic attempts to reform the residents of Five Points
the Irish and African Americans
3. the movement of development up Manhattan Island
4. competition with European cultural capitals
5. the romantic / transcendentalist understanding of recreation and nature
6. contemporary artistic and literary movements
(transcendentalism and the Hudson River School)
7. race and ethnicity in nineteenth-century New York City
Primary source: William Cullen Bryant, "A New Public Park," editorial, 1844.
Background information: American poet and editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) in 1844 published in this editorial the first call for the creation of a large public park in New York City.
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On the road to Harlem, between Sixty-eighth street on the south, and Seventy-seventh on the north, and extending from the Third Avenue to the East River, is a tract of beautiful woodland, comprising sixty or seventy acres, thickly covered with old trees, intermingled with a variety of shrubs. The surface is varied in a very striking and picturesque manner, with craggy eminences, and hollows, and a little stream runs through the midst. . . . There never was a finer situation for the public garden of a great city. Nothing is wanted but to cut winding paths through it, leaving the woods as they now are, and introducing here and there a jet from the Croton aqueduct, the streams from which would make their own waterfalls over the rocks, and keep the brook running through the place always fresh and full. . . Commerce is devouring inch by inch the coast of the island, and if we would rescue any part of it for health and recreation it must be done now.
All large cities have their extensive public grounds and gardens, Madrid and Mexico their Alamedas, London its Regent's Park, Paris its Champs Elysées, and Vienna its Prater. There are none of them, we believe, which have the same natural advantages of the picturesque and beautiful which belong to this spot. It would be of easy access to the citizens, and the public carriages which now rattle in almost every street in this city, would take them to its gates. The only objection which we can see to the place would be the difficulty of persuading the owners of the soil to part with it. . .
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William Cullen Bryant, "A New Public Park," New York Evening Post, vol. 42 (3 July 1844).
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Primary source: Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits, oil painting, 1849.
Background information: In Kindred Spirits, Asher B. Durand (1796–1886), a member of the Hudson River School of painting, depicts his two close friends, the painter Thomas Cole and publisher William Cullen Bryant, on a ledge in the Catskills of New York.
Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits, oil painting, 1849.
Collections of The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
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Primary source: "Irish road construction crew," newspaper illustration, 1871.
Background information: Irish laborers made up a large proportion of the work force in antebellum New York City, constructing all manner of public works and buildings, including Central Park.
"Irish road construction crew," Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 31, No. 799, 21 January 1871 (Supplement), 322.
Courtesy of the American Social History Project.
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Primary source: Newspaper editorial, 1856.
Background information: This editorial in the forerunner to the New York Times presented its critique of the first proposed location for Central Park on the east side of Manhattan.
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There are hardly any trees in the whole Park, though there are several orchards. In the southern portion of the Park limits, there are several swamps and pools of stagnated water, from which a nauseous odor arises. The expense of draining these low lands will be felt by the taxpayers. If some of the hogs, goats, and other inmates of the shanties in this vicinity do not die of the yellow fever this Summer, it will only be because Death himself hesitates to enter such dirty hovels.
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Editorial, New-York Daily Times, 9 July 1856.
Courtesy of the Seneca Village Web site.
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Primary source: "Laying of a Corner-Stone," newspaper article, 1856.
Background information: This newspaper article describes the laying of the cornerstone of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church on Manhattan's present-day Upper West Side.
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Laying of a Corner–Stone—The corner–stone of the First African Methodis Episcopal Church of Yorkville, was laid yesterday afternoon. It is a situated in Eighty–fifth st., between Seventh and Eighth avs. The sermon on the occasion was preached by Rev. Christopher Rush. Superintendent of the African Churches, who also laid the corner–stone. His text was a part of the 6th vers of the first chapter of the First Epistle of Peter. The boc which was deposited in the corner–stone contained a copy of the Bible, a copy of the Hymn–book of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America, a copy of the Discipline of the same Church, a letter with the names of the five trustees of this Church, and a copy of The Tribune and one of The Sun. The building will be 22x40 in size, will be built of wood, and painted white. The basement of it will be a school–room for the education of colored children. Toward fifty colored families reside in the neighborhood of this Church. There are thirty members in this Society, and the congregation usually numbers about 100 persons. Circuit preachers of the African Methodist Church, will supply the pulpit.
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"Laying of a Corner-Stone," New-York Daily Tribune, 9 July 1856.
Collection of The New-York Historical Society.
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Primary source: "The Present Look of our Great Central Park," newspaper editorial, 1856.
Background information: This article reports on the reaction of Seneca Village residents to the evacuation order issued by city officials in the summer of 1856.
"The Present Look of our Great Central Park," New-York Daily Times, 9 July 1856, at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4999/.
Collection of The New-York Historical Society.
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Primary source: Andrew Williams, Affidavit of Petition, 1853.
Background information: One of Seneca Village's first property owners, African American Andrew Williams appealed to the State Supreme Court of New York for a reconsideration of the assessment of his property, which was to be seized by the city for the construction of Central Park.
Andrew Williams the owner of Lots number 22, 23, and 43 in Block number 786 on Commissioners Map—lying between 85th and 86th Street Seventh and Eighth Avenues—objects to the report of the Com[missioners] on the ground that the Com[missioners] have not allowed to said Williams a sufficient sum for the aforesaid lots—they having allowed him the sum of $2335. When he Williams declares said lots with the house at $4000—and said Williams further says that he has been offered the sum of $3500—for said lots and that he refused the same.
X [his mark]
Andrew Williams
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Andrew Williams, Affadavit of Petition, at http://projects.ilt.columbia.edu/seneca/affidavit1.html.
Courtesy of the Seneca Village Web site.
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Primary source: Central Park, map.
Background information: This proposal, known as the Greensward Plan, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead (1822–95) and Calvert Vaux (1824–95), was the winning entry for the design of Central Park.
Courtesy of American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850–1920, in American Memory.
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Primary source: "Central Park Will Be a Beer-Garden," editorial, 1858.
Background information: This editorial appeared in the New-York Herald in 1858, speculating on the social implications of the proposed Central Park.
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It is all folly to expect in this country to have parks like those in old aristocratic countries. When we open a public park Sam will air himself in it. He will take his friends whether from Church street, or elsewhere. He will knock down any better dressed man who remonstrates with him. He will talk and sing, and fill his share of the bench, and flirt with the nursery-maids in his coarse way. Now we ask what chance have William B. Astor [wealthy landowner] and Edward Everett [president of Harvard and later Secretary of State] against this fellow-citizen of theirs. Can they and he enjoy the same place? Is it not obvious that he will turn them out, and that the great Central Park will be nothing but a bear-garden for the lowest denizens of the city, of which we shall yet pray litanies to be delivered.
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"Central Park Will Be a Beer-Garden," editorial, The New York Herald, (1858), in Elizabeth Stevenson, Park Maker: A Life of Frederick Law Olmsted (New York: Macmillan, 1977), 179.
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Primary source: George Loring Brown, View of Central Park, oil on canvas, 1862.
Background information: George Loring Brown, a painter of the Hudson River School, painted this idyllic view of Central Park during the American Civil War.
Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Miss Lillian Draper.
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Primary source: John H. Rauch, M.D., Public Parks: Their Effects upon the Moral, Physical and Sanitary Condition of the Inhabitants of Large Cities, with special reference to the City of Chicago, 1869.
Background information: As greater numbers of middle- and upper-class New Yorkers became aware of the public health dangers posed by slum neighborhoods, their spokesmen argued for the salubrious benefits of public parks.
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The moral influence of parks is decided. Man is brought in contact with nature,—is taken away from the artificial conditions in which he lives in cities; and such associations exercise a vast influence for good. In the Central Park, only 568 arrests have been made, and these of a trivial character, out of 30,731,847 visitors . . . By creating them, we take many away from other and worse places, and thus do much toward encouraging the young in habits of sobriety and temperance. . . .
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John H. Rauch, M.D., Public Parks: Their Effects upon the Moral, Physical and Sanitary Condition of the Inhabitants of Large Cities, with special reference to the City of Chicago (Chicago: S.C Griggs, 1869), 83.
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Primary source: Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, 1873.
Background information: The Bethesda Fountain, showing Angel of the Waters by sculptor Emma Stebbins, was unveiled in Central Park in 1873. The angel holds a lily in one hand, the symbol of purity. The figures beneath her represent Peace, Health, Purity, and Temperance.
Alajos L. Schuszler, "Bethesda Fountain," 27 September 1934, New York City Parks Photo Archive, neg. 4077.
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Primary source: Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: The Pastoral or Arcadian State, oil painting, 1834.
Background information: The American painter Thomas Cole (1801–48) founded the Hudson River School of painting, which celebrated the majesty of America's wilderness and pastoral landscapes as evidence of its virtue.
Courtesy of The New-York Historical Society.
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