I recently met Doug Blonsky, the president and
administrator of the Central Park Conservancy, at
the Loeb Boathouse, the park's idyllic lakeside
restaurant, for a park tour. His megawatt enthusiasm
stokes the park engines.
We headed north along the East Drive, and a few
minutes later he slowed in front of a bronze panther
crouching on a boulder.
"The park is full of marvelous animal sculptures,
even though most people only know Balto," he said.
"I love this one — it's called 'Still Hunt.'"
We walked past the reservoir and into the park's
northern reaches to one of its crowning glories: the
Conservatory Garden at 105th Street and Fifth
Avenue. It's actually three floral landscapes in
distinct styles — Italian, English and French — in
continuous bloom from early spring through late
October. The six-acre gardens and filigreed
wrought-iron Vanderbilt Gate are beloved backdrops
for wedding ceremonies and photographs, as are
several other bucolic spots around the park (permits
required for both). Every month of the year
something is blooming somewhere; a park bloom
schedule notes where and when.
Just north of the garden we slipped into a time
warp of American history. This rugged terrain is
where the Brits camped out during the American
Revolution, monitoring George Washington in nearby
Harlem, and almost 40 years later the Americans
rebuilt their fortifications in the War of 1812.
McGown's Pass, Fort Clinton and Nutter's Battery
were all defenses against the British, who never did
invade the area. The stone shell of Block House
No.1, near 110th Street, is the only remnant left.
The craggy landscape overlooks the Harlem Meer,
once a swamp and now a tranquil lake for fishing.
The Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, one of four
activity centers, provides free poles, unbarbed
hooks, and bait for catch-and-release fishing.
"Our three other centers also lend game
equipment," Blonsky said. "At Belvedere Castle we
give out a backpack with binoculars and bird guides
for self-guided birding in the Ramble. At the North
Meadow Recreation Center it's bats, balls and other
sports equipment for play around North Meadow
fields. And at the Chess and Checkers House, game
pieces for the 24 game-board tables."
Looping south on the West Drive the landscape
opens up to wide meadows, with dozens of ball
fields. Blonsky stopped at a particularly barren
stretch.
"This used to be dense forest before a freak
storm last August roared across the park, uprooting
more than 500 trees," he said. "The devastation was
brutal, but we're looking on it as an opportunity to
clear out some long-neglected tree stands and make
meadows for people to picnic and new habitats for
bird life."
Most of the downed trees have been turned into
mountains of wood chips for mulch, but one huge
fallen trunk is still there as a reminder of the
park's worst day.
Most people know the park best for its public
events — the Shakespeare Festival in summer, New
Year's Eve fireworks and midnight run, the Great
Lawn performances of the New York Philharmonic and
the Metropolitan Opera — but creating a place for
small pleasures is exactly what its two designers,
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, had in mind
when they won the 1858 design competition to turn
843 city acres of swamps and rocky schist into the
first public park built in America. Their vision, as
Olmstead put it, was to create "long spaces that you
could dream away in" and provide separate spaces for
walkers, horseback riders, birders, ball players,
picnickers and cars. Their solution was a
brilliantly interlocking design: They sank
through-traffic transverses below ground (and eye)
level and discreetly set 36 distinctively designed
bridges across ponds and lakes and over the drives
and bridle paths that loop around the park.
This Greensward Plan was a monumental effort that
took 15 years and more than $14 million (roughly
$200 million today). To begin with, Olmstead and
Vaux had to relocated 1,600 residents who were
living in several small villages; move nearly 5
million cubic yards of stone, earth and topsoil; and
transport flocks of sheep upstate from the Sheep
Meadow (lest they be used for food by Depression-era
New Yorkers).
Today Central Park is the model for urban parks
worldwide and a National Historic Landmark since
1963. Its lakes and woodlands, gardens and trails,
rocky schists and dense rambles are the heart of the
city and, with 30 million visitors a year, New
York's second most popular attraction after Times
Square.
It is run by the Central Park Conservancy, a
private, not-for-profit organization that provides
85 percent of Central Park's $27 million annual
operating budget; the rest comes from the city. The
stats are staggering: 250 acres of lawns, ball
fields and playgrounds; 150 acres of lakes and
streams; 69 miles of roads and paths; 6,000 trees,
including 1,700 prized and endangered American elms
— not to mention monuments, bridges and buildings.
All this is in the care of 250 staff and a few
thousand volunteers. It's no surprise that
volunteering is one of the ingenious ways the park
solicits support. You can endow a tree ($5,000),
donate daffodils or tulips ($1 per bulb) or work (35
gardeners help the Conservatory Garden staff of
five).
A favorite way is to adopt one of the 9,000
benches ($7,500). Their bronze plaques tell moving
tales of love and loss: "Michelle, Will you marry
me? Love, John" and "To My Knight in Shining Armor;
the Love of My Life, Mouse."
Central Park is the front yard for half a million
people who live within a 10-minute walk. Some days
it seems every one of them is there, usually with a
dog or a camera. And it isn't long before someone
asks me to take their picture by a tree — or astride
Balto.
IF YOU GO
"Seeing Central Park" is the official map for all
the walks and sights, the location of cafe/snack
bars and restrooms. Pick it up at a kiosk or visitor
center near main park entrances, or visit
www.centralparaknyc.org.
Loeb Boathouse serves American food every day at
lunch or weekend brunch, and at dinner from April
through November. Its casual cafe is open from 8
a.m. to 8 p.m., winter to 4:30 p.m.
Joan Scobey is a freelance travel writer. To read
features by other Creators Syndicate writers and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at
www.creators.com.
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