Cynthia Brenwall shares the incredible visual story of the creation of our 840-acre wonder. You’ll be amazed at the history Cynthia has unearthed: we’ll view the original winning competition entry with its meticulously detailed plans, maps, elevations, hand-colored lithographs, photographs, and mechanical drawings of a wide range of elements and features—many built, and others never […]
O, n Zoom LW! Members FREE! Join us for this continuing journey through scenic landmark Central Park and the creative mind of one of its unheralded creators. Ron Korcak helps us get to know Vaux: the architect, the engineer, the protégé and the mentor. We’ll meet his influences (Cottingham, Truefitt, Downing) and follow his journeys. […]
Ever wonder what lies below the Upper West Side? Landmark West dives into the hidden waters bubbling (or that once bubbled) beneath our boots, basements, and ball fields. Sergey Kadinsky, author of Hidden Waters of New York City, takes us to the river, literally. We'll (virtually) visit streams, ponds, brooks, a rivulet, and even a bay that early residents […]
Monumental Women is an all-volunteer, not for profit organization working to break the "bronze ceiling" and populate Central Park with statues of real women. Their first monument has been approved! Monumental Women is unveiling their statue of Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Literary Walk at the Mall in Central Park […]
Central Park guide Ron Korcak introduces us to Ignatz Anton Pilat, selected in 1857 as the park’s first chief gardener. This was no “guy with a shovel”. Pilat came to the U.S. from the Botanical Gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. He brought with him a knowledge few in that era could have on the selection of […]
Do statues "belong" in historically important landscapes like Central Park? Did Vaux and Olmsted expect statues in the park? NYC public art and monuments expert Michele Bogart says "Yes!" To prove it, she takes us inside the social and financial networks of the late 19th century to meet some of the players of the day—August Belmont, […]
LW! is excited to welcome back one of our favorite guides to all things Central Park: Ron Korcak. Ron, a tremendously popular guide-of-guides and fount of knowledge about the park, will share--in one fun-filled evening-- his unique trove of Central Park secrets. Hidden messages, secrets of the sculptures, winks from the past, little known heros, […]
LW! is doing a little time traveling to explore the darker side of the development of Central Park. It is somewhat miraculous that the park even exists, as back in the 1850s real estate developers and politicians were just as cozy as today. Add in the nefarious reign of William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, notorious leader […]
Incredibly, much of what we all think of as quintessential New York City–Central Park, the NY Public Library, the Zoo, the American Museum of Natural History–is due to the Herculean efforts of one practically unknown man: Andrew Haswell Green. A. H. Green is best known (if he is recognized at all today) as the “Father […]
What was in Central Park before it became our Central Park? Sara Cedar Miller, historian emerita of the Central Park Conservancy and author of "Before Central Park" offers a glimpse. We'll learn about the 17th and 18th c. Dutch and English landowners; the land divisions of the 19th century; New York’s Common Lands; the early […]
