162-653: The Savoy-Plaza Hotel was a 33-story hotel overlooking Central Park at Fifth Avenue and East 59th Street in Midtown Manhattan , New York City . It opened in 1927 and was demolished in 1965. The original Savoy Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street opened in June 1892, following the opening of the neighboring Plaza Hotel in 1890. The original 12-story Savoy was designed by architect Ralph S. Townsend, for landowners including New York Supreme Court Justice P. Henry Dugro . The old Savoy continued to expand into
324-404: A design competition for the park with their "Greensward Plan". Construction began in 1857; existing structures, including a majority-Black settlement named Seneca Village , were seized through eminent domain and razed. The park's first areas were opened to the public in late 1858. Additional land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in 1859, and the park was completed in 1876. After
486-544: A 10-year, $ 100 million "Central Park Management and Restoration Plan". The long-closed Belvedere Castle was renovated and reopened in 1983, while the Central Park Zoo closed for a full reconstruction that year. To reduce the maintenance effort, large gatherings such as free concerts were canceled. On completion of the planning stage in 1985, the Conservancy launched its first campaign and mapped out
648-533: A 15-year restoration plan. Over the next several years, the campaign restored landmarks in the southern part of the park, such as Grand Army Plaza and the police station at the 86th Street transverse; while Conservatory Garden in the northeastern corner of the park was restored to a design by Lynden B. Miller . Real estate developer Donald Trump renovated the Wollman Rink in 1987 after plans to renovate it were delayed repeatedly. The following year,
810-457: A Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1914, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics. At the start a committed idealist , Moses developed several plans to rid New York of patronage hiring practices, including authoring a 1919 proposal to reorganize the New York state government, which was ultimately not adopted but drew the attention of Belle Moskowitz ,
972-766: A bridge. He also clashed with the chief engineer of the project, Ole Singstad , who preferred a tunnel instead of a bridge. Only a lack of a key federal approval thwarted the bridge project. President Roosevelt ordered the War Department to assert that bombing a bridge in that location would block East River access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard upstream. Thwarted, Moses dismantled the New York Aquarium on Castle Clinton and moved it to Coney Island in Brooklyn, where it grew much bigger. This
1134-621: A friend and trusted advisor to Governor Al Smith . When the state Secretary of State's position became appointive rather than elective, Smith named Moses. He served from 1927 to 1929. Moses rose to power with Smith, who was elected as governor in 1918, and then again in 1922. With Smith's support, Moses set in motion a sweeping consolidation of the New York State government. During that period Moses began his first foray into large-scale public work initiatives, while drawing on Smith's political power to enact legislation. This helped create
1296-616: A generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across the United States. Never elected to any office, Moses held various positions throughout his more-than-40-year career. He held as many as 12 titles at once, including New York City Parks Commissioner and chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission . By working closely with New York governor Al Smith early in his career, he became expert in writing laws and navigating and manipulating
1458-601: A long period and she may have changed the will of her own accord, and implies that Robert's subsequent treatment of Paul may have been legally justifiable but was morally questionable. During the last years of his life, Moses concentrated on his lifelong love of swimming and was an active member of the Colonie Hill Health Club. Moses died of heart disease on July 29, 1981, at the age of 92 at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York . Moses
1620-576: A member of the Temporary Long Island Railroad Commission, installed after the Richmond Hill train crash on November 22, 1950, that claimed 79 lives. The Commission recommended the state purchase and operation by non-profit public authority of the railway service. Moses had influence outside the New York area as well. Public officials in many smaller American cities hired him to design freeway networks in
1782-471: A minimum 55-yard (50 m) length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials. To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the Streamline Moderne and Classical architectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes. Construction for some of
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#17327658325361944-515: A more picturesque design. It was influenced by the pastoral ideals of landscaped cemeteries such as Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts , and Green-Wood in Brooklyn. The design was also inspired by Olmsted's 1850 visit to Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead , England, which is generally acknowledged as the first publicly funded civil park in the world. According to Olmsted, the park
2106-524: A new executive budget system, and the four-year term limit for the governorship. During the Depression , Moses, along with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia , was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those in Jacob Riis Park , Jones Beach , and Orchard Beach . He devised a list of 23 pools around the city. The pools would be built using funds from
2268-467: A period of decline in the early 20th century, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses started a program to clean up Central Park in the 1930s. The Central Park Conservancy , created in 1980 to combat further deterioration in the late 20th century, refurbished many parts of the park starting in the 1980s. The park's main attractions include the Ramble and Lake , Hallett Nature Sanctuary ,
2430-437: A permanent patrol. The regulations were sometimes strict. For instance, prohibited actions included games of chance , speech-making, large congregations such as picnics , or picking flowers or other parts of plants. These ordinances were effective: by 1866, there had been nearly eight million visits and only 110 arrests in the park's history. In late August 1857, workers began building fences, clearing vegetation, draining
2592-460: A residential complex specifically designed for these veterans, and purportedly trying to make swimming pool water cold in order to drive away potential African American residents in white neighborhoods. People had come to see Moses as a bully who disregarded public input, but until the publication of Caro's book, they had not known many details of his private life—for instance, that his older brother Paul had spent much of his life in poverty. Moses
2754-526: A role in the merged authority, Moses declined to challenge the merger. On March 1, 1968, the TBTA was folded into the MTA and Moses gave up his post as chairman of the TBTA. He eventually became a consultant to the MTA, but its new chairman and the governor froze him out—the promised role did not materialize, and for all practical purposes Moses was out of power. Moses had thought he had convinced Nelson Rockefeller of
2916-547: A similar ratio of park usage: only 14% of visits are by people visiting Central Park for the first time. According to the report, nearly two-thirds of visitors are regular park users who enter the park at least once weekly, and about 70% of visitors live in New York City. Moreover, peak visitation occurred during summer weekends, and most visitors used the park for passive recreational activities such as walking or sightseeing, rather than for active sport. The park
3078-409: A standalone facility at Tompkinsville Pool . Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke , created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums. The pools were to have several common features, such as
3240-498: A tunnel connecting Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan . A 1941 publication from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority claimed that the government had forced them to build a tunnel at "twice the cost, twice the operating fees, twice the difficulty to engineer, and half the traffic," although engineering studies did not support these conclusions, and a tunnel may have held many of the advantages Moses publicly tried to attach to
3402-562: A tunnel. LaGuardia and Lehman as usual had little money to spend, in part due to the Great Depression , while the federal government was running low on funds after recently spending $ 105 million ($ 1.8 billion in 2016) on the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and other City projects and refused to provide any additional funds to New York. Awash in funds from Triborough Bridge tolls, Moses deemed that money could only be spent on
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#17327658325363564-426: A two-thirds interest to British Commercial Property Investments and a one-third interest to London Merchant Securities . Hilton and the hotel's owners agreed to end the chain's management of the hotel in 1964, though the contract continued through 1967. Western International Hotels assumed management on June 2, 1964, renaming the property The Savoy Plaza , without the original hyphen. The owners announced plans for
3726-476: A year. The Authority was thus able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by selling bonds, a method also used by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to fund large public construction projects. Toll revenues rose quickly as traffic on the bridges exceeded all projections. Rather than pay off the bonds, Moses used the revenue to build other toll projects, a cycle that would feed on itself. In
3888-463: Is also a Robert Moses Playground in New York City. There are other signs of the surviving appreciation held for him by some circles of the public. A statue of Moses was erected next to the Village Hall in his long-time hometown, Babylon Village, New York . During his tenure as chief of the state park system, the state's inventory of parks grew to nearly 2,600,000 acres (1,100,000 ha). By
4050-633: Is blamed for having destroyed more than a score of neighborhoods by building 13 expressways across New York City and by building large urban renewal projects with little regard for the urban fabric or for human scale. Yet the author is more neutral in his central premise: the city would have developed much differently without Moses. Other U.S. cities were doing the same thing as New York in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; Boston , San Francisco , and Seattle , for instance, each built highways straight through their downtown areas just as Moses wished to do in New York. The New York City architectural intelligentsia of
4212-604: Is managed and maintained by the Central Park Conservancy , a private, not-for-profit organization, under contract with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks). The president of the Conservancy is the ex officio administrator of Central Park who effectively oversees the work of both the park's private and public employees under the authority of the publicly appointed Central Park Administrator, who reports to both
4374-493: Is much lower; a Central Park Conservancy report conducted in 2011 found that between eight and nine million people visited Central Park, with 37 to 38 million visits between them. By comparison, there were 25 million visitors in 2009, and 12.3 million in 1973. The number of tourists as a proportion of total visitors is much lower: in 2009, one-fifth of the 25 million park visitors recorded that year were estimated to be tourists. The 2011 Conservancy report gave
4536-533: Is near the southwest corner of the park. Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and New York State . The grand scale of his infrastructure projects and his philosophy of urban development influenced
4698-477: Is now SoHo . This plan and the Mid-Manhattan Expressway both failed politically. One of his most vocal critics during this time was the urban activist Jane Jacobs , whose book The Death and Life of Great American Cities was instrumental in turning opinion against Moses's plans; the city government rejected the expressway in 1964. Moses's power was further eroded by his association with
4860-475: The 1964 New York World's Fair . His projections for attendance of 70 million people for this event proved wildly optimistic, and generous contracts for fair executives and contractors made matters worse economically. Moses's repeated and forceful public denials of the fair's considerable financial difficulties in the face of evidence to the contrary eventually provoked press and governmental investigations, which found accounting irregularities. In his organization of
5022-743: The American Museum of Natural History , founded three years before at the Arsenal . A corresponding area on the East Side, originally intended as a playground, would later become the Metropolitan Museum of Art . In the final years of Central Park's construction, Vaux and Mould designed several structures for Central Park. The park's sheepfold (now Tavern on the Green) and Ladies' Meadow were designed by Mould in 1870–1871, followed by
Savoy-Plaza Hotel - Misplaced Pages Continue
5184-469: The Bethesda Terrace and Fountain . By late 1861, the park south of 72nd Street had been completed, except for various fences. Work had begun on the northern section of the park but was complicated by a need to preserve the historic McGowan's Pass . The Upper Reservoir was completed the following year. During this period Central Park began to gain popularity. One of the main attractions
5346-600: The COVID-19 pandemic . A renovation of the Chess and Checkers House was completed in June 2023, and a renovation of the Delacorte Theater began later that year. In addition, pickleball courts were added to Wollman Rink in 2023 and became permanent the next year. The Central Park Conservancy allocated $ 64 million in early 2024 to fix sidewalks on 108 blocks immediately surrounding the park. Later that year,
5508-609: The General Motors Building , completed in 1968. 40°45′50″N 73°58′22″W / 40.7638°N 73.9728°W / 40.7638; -73.9728 Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City that was the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the sixth-largest park in
5670-476: The Great Lawn and Turtle Pond , which was completed in 1997. The Upper Reservoir was decommissioned as a part of the city's water supply system in 1993, and was renamed after former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis the next year. During the mid-1990s, the Conservancy hired additional volunteers and implemented a zone-based system of management throughout the park. The Conservancy assumed much of
5832-782: The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir , and Sheep Meadow ; amusement attractions such as Wollman Rink , Central Park Carousel , and the Central Park Zoo ; formal spaces such as the Central Park Mall and Bethesda Terrace ; and the Delacorte Theater . The biologically diverse ecosystem has several hundred species of flora and fauna. Recreational activities include carriage-horse and bicycle tours, bicycling, sports facilities, and concerts and events such as Shakespeare in
5994-730: The New York Mets , who played at Shea until 2008, when the stadium was demolished and replaced with Citi Field . The NFL's New York Jets also played its home games at Shea from 1964 until 1983, after which the team moved its home games to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey. Moses's reputation began to fade during the 1960s. Around this time, Moses's political acumen began to fail him, as he unwisely picked several controversial political battles he could not possibly win. For example, his campaign against
6156-522: The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge ) opened in 1936, connecting the Bronx , Manhattan , and Queens via three separate spans. Language in its Authority's bond contracts and multi-year Commissioner appointments made it largely impervious to pressure from mayors and governors. While New York City and New York State were perpetually strapped for money, the bridge's toll revenues amounted to tens of millions of dollars
6318-903: The Robert Moses Causeway on Long Island, and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant in Lewiston, New York . The Niagara Scenic Parkway in Niagara Falls, New York was originally named the Robert Moses State Parkway in his honor; its name was changed in 2016. The Moses-Saunders Power Dam in Massena, New York also bears his name. Moses also has a school named after him in North Babylon, New York on Long Island; there
6480-562: The Throgs Neck Bridge , as well as several major highways. These roadways and bridges, alongside urban renewal efforts that destroyed huge swaths of tenement housing and replaced them with large public housing projects , transformed the physical fabric of New York and inspired other cities to undertake similar development endeavors. Moses's reputation declined after the publication of Robert Caro 's Pulitzer Prize -winning biography The Power Broker (1974), which cast doubt on
6642-646: The Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects. Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. These comprised ten pools at Astoria Park , Betsy Head Park , Crotona Park , Hamilton Fish Park , Highbridge Park , Thomas Jefferson Park , McCarren Park , Red Hook Park , Jackie Robinson Park , and Sunset Park , as well as
Savoy-Plaza Hotel - Misplaced Pages Continue
6804-463: The coronavirus pandemic , temporary field hospitals were set up within the park to treat overflow patients from area hospitals. By mid-2023, the New York City government was considering erecting tents in Central Park to temporarily house asylum seekers. This move came after the federal government repealed an order authorizing Title 42 expulsions of migrants, which had been implemented during
6966-433: The federal government found itself with millions of New Deal dollars to spend, yet states and cities had few projects ready. Moses was one of the few local officials who had projects shovel ready . For that reason, New York City was able to obtain significant Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and other Depression-era funding. One of his most influential and longest-lasting positions
7128-630: The gneiss ), do not surface in the park. Fordham gneiss, which consists of metamorphosed igneous rocks , was formed a billion years ago, during the Grenville orogeny that occurred during the creation of an ancient super-continent. Manhattan schist and Hartland schist were formed in the Iapetus Ocean during the Taconic orogeny in the Paleozoic era, about 450 million years ago, when
7290-462: The subway system . Moses opposed this idea and fought to prevent it. Lindsay then removed Moses from his post as the city's chief advocate for federal highway money in Washington. The legislature's vote to fold the TBTA into the newly created Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) could have led to a lawsuit by the TBTA bondholders. Since the bond contracts were written into state law, it
7452-408: The "development scheme" mentality cultivated by Moses even though it was the impoverished Pennsylvania Railroad that was actually responsible for the demolition. This casual destruction of one of New York's greatest architectural landmarks helped prompt many city residents to turn against Moses's plans to build a Lower Manhattan Expressway , which would have gone through Greenwich Village and what
7614-557: The 11 pools began in October 1934. By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week. Combined, the facilities could accommodate 66,000 swimmers. The eleven WPA pools were considered for New York City landmark status in 1990. Ten of the pools were designated as New York City landmarks in 2007 and 2008. Moses allegedly fought to keep African American swimmers out of his pools and beaches. One subordinate remembers Moses saying
7776-514: The 1840s, members of the city's elite were publicly calling for the construction of a new large park in Manhattan. At the time, Manhattan's seventeen squares comprised a combined 165 acres (67 ha) of land, the largest of which was the 10-acre (4 ha) Battery Park at Manhattan island's southern tip. These plans were endorsed in 1844 by New York Evening Post editor William Cullen Bryant , and in 1851 by Andrew Jackson Downing , one of
7938-773: The 1850s and 1860s. It has eight lakes and ponds that were created artificially by damming natural seeps and flows. There are several wooded sections, lawns, meadows, and minor grassy areas. There are 21 children's playgrounds , and 6.1 miles (9.8 km) of drives. Central Park is the sixth-largest park in New York City , behind Pelham Bay Park , the Staten Island Greenbelt , Freshkills Park , Van Cortlandt Park , and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park , with an area of 843 acres (341 ha; 1.317 sq mi; 3.41 km ). Central Park constitutes its own United States census tract , numbered 143. According to American Community Survey five-year estimates,
8100-683: The 1900s and 1910s. These associations advocated against such changes to the park as the construction of a library, sports stadium, a cultural center, and an underground parking lot. A third group, the Central Park Association, was created in 1926. The Central Park Association and the Parks and Playgrounds Association were merged into the Park Association of New York City two years later. The Heckscher Playground —named after philanthropist August Heckscher , who donated
8262-556: The 1920s, and its furnishings were sold in 1925. Harry S. Black, owner of the Plaza, bought the Savoy Hotel, consolidated the block, and demolished it to commission a newer companion to the older establishment from the architects of the Plaza. The 33-story, 420-foot (130 m) skyscraper Savoy-Plaza Hotel was designed by McKim, Mead & White , built at a cost of $ 30 million, and opened on October 1, 1927. Hilton Hotels acquired
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#17327658325368424-700: The 1930s to the 1960s, Robert Moses was responsible for the construction of the Triborough , Marine Parkway , Throgs Neck , Bronx-Whitestone , Henry Hudson , and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridges . His other projects included the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Staten Island Expressway (together constituting most of Interstate 278 ); the Cross-Bronx Expressway ; many New York State parkways ; and other highways. Federal interest had shifted from parkway to freeway systems, and
8586-747: The 1930s to well into the 1960s because the parkways and expressways that were built replaced, at least to some extent, the planned subway lines. The 1968 Program for Action (which was never completed) was hoped to counter that. Other critics charge that he precluded the use of public transit, which would have allowed non-car-owners to enjoy the elaborate recreation facilities he built. Caro's The Power Broker also accused Moses of building low bridges across his parkways to make them inaccessible to public transit buses, thereby restricting "the use of state parks by poor and lower-middle-class families" who did not own cars. Caro also wrote that Moses attempted to discourage Black people in particular from visiting Jones Beach,
8748-408: The 1940s and 1950s, who largely believed in such proponents of the automobile as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe , had supported Moses. Many other cities, like Newark , Chicago , and St. Louis , also built massive, unattractive public housing projects. Caro also points out that Moses demonstrated racist tendencies . These allegedly included opposing black World War II veterans to move into
8910-558: The 1940s and early 1950s. For example, Portland, Oregon hired Moses in 1943; his plan included a loop around the city center , with spurs running through neighborhoods. Of this plan, only I-405 , its links with I-5 , and the Fremont Bridge were built. Moses himself did not know how to drive an automobile. Moses's highways in the first half of the 20th century were parkways—curving, landscaped "ribbon parks" that were intended to be pleasures to travel on, as well as "lungs for
9072-426: The 2010s. Belvedere Castle was closed in 2018 for an extensive renovation, reopening in June 2019. Later in 2018, it was announced that the Delacorte Theater would be closed from 2020 to 2022 for a $ 110 million rebuild. The Central Park Conservancy further announced that Lasker Rink would be closed for a $ 150 million renovation; demolition of the existing rink began in 2021. In March 2020, in response to
9234-701: The Central Park Conservancy began restoring the Ramble and Lake, in a project that was completed in 2012. Bank Rock Bridge was restored, and the Gill, which empties into the lake, was reconstructed to approximate its dramatic original form. The final feature to be restored was the East Meadow, which was rehabilitated in 2011. In 2014, the New York City Council proposed a study on the viability of banning vehicular traffic from
9396-430: The Central Park Conservancy since 1998, under a contract with the municipal government in a public–private partnership . The Conservancy, a non-profit organization, raises Central Park's annual operating budget and is responsible for all basic care of the park. Central Park is bordered by Central Park North at 110th Street; Central Park South at 59th Street; Central Park West at Eighth Avenue; and Fifth Avenue on
9558-625: The Central Park Conservancy sometimes hires seasonal Parks Enforcement Patrol officers to protect certain features such as the Conservatory Garden . A free volunteer medical emergency service, the Central Park Medical Unit , operates within Central Park. The unit operates a rapid-response patrol with bicycles, ambulances , and an all-terrain vehicle . Before the unit was established in 1975, municipal EMS often took over 30 minutes to respond to incidents in
9720-483: The Central Park Conservancy, the park's reclamation began by addressing needs that could not be met within NYC Parks' existing resources. The Conservancy hired interns and a small restoration staff to reconstruct and repair unique rustic features, undertaking horticultural projects, and removing graffiti under the broken windows theory which advocated removing visible signs of decay. The first structure to be renovated
9882-638: The Central Park site, chose it because the Croton Aqueduct's 35-acre (14 ha), 150-million-US-gallon (570 × 10 ^ L) collecting reservoir would be in the geographical center. In July 1853, the New York State Legislature passed the Central Park Act, authorizing the purchase of the present-day site of Central Park. The board of land commissioners conducted property assessments on more than 34,000 lots in
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#173276583253610044-569: The Croton Aqueduct board. Work on the Reservoir started in April 1858. The first major work in Central Park involved grading the driveways and draining the land in the park's southern section. The Lake in Central Park's southwestern section was the first feature to open to the public, in December 1858, followed by the Ramble in June 1859. The same year, the New York State Legislature authorized
10206-452: The Green. The controversy placed Moses, an urban planner known for displacing families for other large projects around the city, against a group of mothers who frequented a wooded hollow at the site of a parking lot. Though opposed by the parents, Moses approved the destruction of part of the hollow. Demolition work commenced after Central Park was closed for the night and was only halted after
10368-431: The Greensward Plan. Based on claims of cost mismanagement, the New York State Senate commissioned the Swiss engineer Julius Kellersberger to write a report on the park. Kellersberger's report, submitted in 1861, stated that the commission's management of the park was a "triumphant success". Olmsted often clashed with the park commissioners, notably with Chief Commissioner Green. Olmsted resigned in June 1862, and Green
10530-440: The Lake. The Tammany Hall political machine, which was the largest political force in New York at the time, was in control of Central Park for a brief period beginning in April 1870. A new charter created by Tammany boss William M. Tweed abolished the old 11-member commission and replaced it with one with five men composed of Green and four other Tammany-connected figures. Subsequently, Olmsted and Vaux resigned again from
10692-431: The Park . Central Park is traversed by a system of roads and walkways and is served by public transportation. Its size and cultural position make it a model for the world's urban parks. Its influence earned Central Park the designations of National Historic Landmark in 1963 and of New York City scenic landmark in 1974. Central Park is owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation but has been managed by
10854-431: The Soviet Union, were all BIE members and they declined to participate, instead reserving their efforts for Expo 67 in Montreal . After the World's Fair debacle, New York City mayor John Lindsay , along with Governor Nelson Rockefeller , sought to direct toll revenues from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority 's (TBTA) bridges and tunnels to cover deficits in the city's then financially ailing agencies, including
11016-411: The Taconic State Park Commission, who favored the prompt construction of a parkway through the Hudson Valley . Moses succeeded in diverting funds to his Long Island parkway projects (the Northern State Parkway , the Southern State Parkway and the Wantagh State Parkway ), although the Taconic State Parkway was later completed as well. Moses helped build Long Island's Meadowbrook State Parkway . It
11178-458: The Tammany administration, and budget cuts demanded by taxpayers, the maintenance expenses for Central Park had reached a nadir by 1879. Olmsted blamed politicians, real estate owners, and park workers for Central Park's decline, though high maintenance costs were also a factor. By the 1890s, the park faced several challenges: cars were becoming commonplace, and with the proliferation of amusements and refreshment stands, people were beginning to see
11340-413: The Tavern on the Green restaurant. Renovations in the 1940s and 1950s include a restoration of the Harlem Meer completed in 1943, and a new boathouse completed in 1954. Moses began construction on several other recreational features in Central Park, such as playgrounds and ball fields. One of the more controversial projects proposed during this time was a 1956 dispute over a parking lot for Tavern in
11502-511: The Upper East Side, as the park's site, as Bryant had advocated for Jones Wood. The acquisition was controversial because of its location, small size relative to other potential uptown tracts, and cost. A bill to acquire Jones's Wood was invalidated as unconstitutional, so attention turned to a second site: a 750-acre (300 ha) area known as "Central Park", bounded by 59th and 106th streets between Fifth and Eighth avenues. Croton Aqueduct Board president Nicholas Dean, who proposed
11664-712: The Zoo reopened after a $ 35 million, four-year renovation. Work on the northern end of the park began in 1989. A$ 51 million campaign, announced in 1993, resulted in the restoration of bridle trails, the Mall, the Harlem Meer, and the North Woods, and the construction of the Dana Discovery Center on the Harlem Meer. This was followed by the Conservancy's overhaul of the 55 acres (22 ha) near
11826-433: The administrative offices on the 86th Street transverse in 1872. Even though Olmsted and Vaux's partnership was dissolved by the end of 1872, the park was not officially completed until 1876. By the 1870s, the park's patrons increasingly came to include the middle and working class, and strict regulations were gradually eased, such as those against public gatherings. Because of the heightened visitor count, neglect by
11988-435: The anti-development sentiment was now insurmountable and in 1973 Rockefeller canceled plans for the bridge. Moses's image suffered a further blow in 1974 with the publication of The Power Broker , a Pulitzer Prize –winning biography by Robert A. Caro . Caro's 1,200-page opus (edited down from 2,000 or so pages) showed Moses generally in a negative light; essayist Phillip Lopate writes that "Moses's satanic reputation with
12150-545: The appointment of both a NYC Parks administrator and a board of citizens. In 1979, Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis established the Office of Central Park Administrator and appointed Elizabeth Barlow , the executive director of the Central Park Task Force, to the position. The Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit organization with a citizen board, was founded the following year. Under the leadership of
12312-404: The area, completing them by July 1855. While the assessments were ongoing, proposals to downsize the plans were vetoed by mayor Fernando Wood . At the time, the site was occupied by free black people and Irish immigrants who had developed a property-owning community there since 1825. Most of the Central Park site's residents lived in small villages, such as Pigtown; Seneca Village ; or in
12474-705: The bridge option. This had not been the first time Moses pressed for a bridge over a tunnel. He had tried to upstage the Tunnel Authority when the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was being planned. He had raised the same arguments, which failed due to their lack of political support. Moses's power increased after World War II after Mayor LaGuardia retired and a series of successors consented to almost all of his proposals. Named city "construction coordinator" in 1946 by Mayor William O'Dwyer , Moses became New York City's de facto representative in Washington . Moses
12636-501: The bridge was opposed by the Regional Plan Association , historical preservationists, Wall Street financial interests, property owners, various high society people, construction unions , the Manhattan borough president , Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia , and governor Herbert H. Lehman . Despite this, Moses favored a bridge, which could both carry more automobile traffic and serve as a higher visibility monument than
12798-556: The builder who can remove ghettos without moving people as I hail the chef who can make omelets without breaking eggs." Additionally, there were allegations that Moses selectively chose locations for recreational facilities based on the racial compositions of a neighborhood, such as when he selected sites for eleven pools that opened in 1936. According to one author, Moses purposely placed some pools in neighborhoods with mainly white populations to deter African Americans from using them, and other pools intended for African Americans, such as
12960-537: The centerpiece of the Long Island state park system, by such measures as making it difficult for Black groups to get permits to park buses, and assigning Black lifeguards to "distant, less developed beaches". While the exclusion of commercial vehicles and the use of low bridges where appropriate were standard on earlier parkways, where they had been instituted for aesthetic reasons, Moses appears to have made greater use of low bridges, which his aide Sidney Shapiro said
13122-429: The city , containing 843 acres (341 ha), and the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016 . It is also one of the most filmed locations in the world. The creation of a large park in Manhattan was first proposed in the 1840s, and a 778-acre (315 ha) park approved in 1853. In 1858, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won
13284-609: The city and removed the Zoning Commissioner from power in the process. Moses was also empowered as the sole authority to negotiate in Washington for New York City projects. By 1959, he had overseen construction of 28,000 apartment units on hundreds of acres of land. In clearing the land for high-rises in accordance with the towers in the park concept, which at that time was seen as innovative and beneficial by leaving more grassy areas between high-rises, Moses sometimes destroyed almost as many housing units as he built. From
13446-554: The city". However, post–World War II economic expansion , and notion of the automotive city , led to the creation of freeways , most notably in the form of the vast, federally funded Interstate Highway network . When the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers , Walter O'Malley , sought to replace the outdated and dilapidated Ebbets Field , he proposed building a new stadium near the Long Island Rail Road on
13608-673: The conservancy announced plans to redesign the park's drives to provide bike lanes and pedestrian paths of consistent width. A report by the conservancy also recommended constructing bike lanes on the 86th Street transverse, as well as removing traffic lights from the park, which served little purpose due to the lack of vehicular traffic. There are four different types of bedrock in Manhattan. In Central Park, Manhattan schist and Hartland schist, which are both metamorphosed sedimentary rock , are exposed in various outcroppings . The other two types, Fordham gneiss (an older deeper layer) and Inwood marble (metamorphosed limestone which overlays
13770-709: The construction of Jones Beach State Park , the most-visited public beach in the United States, and was the primary architect of the New York State Parkway System . As head of the Triborough Bridge Authority , Moses had near-complete control over bridges and tunnels in New York City as well as the tolls collected from them; he built, among others, the Triborough Bridge , the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel , and
13932-541: The consulting board. Thirty-three firms or organizations submitted plans. In April 1858, the park commissioners selected Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux 's "Greensward Plan" as the winning design. Three other plans were designated as runners-up and featured in a city exhibit. Unlike many of the other designs, which effectively integrated Central Park with the surrounding city, Olmsted and Vaux's proposal introduced clear separations with sunken transverse roadways. The plan eschewed symmetry, instead opting for
14094-462: The corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue (next to the present-day Barclays Center , home of the NBA 's Brooklyn Nets ). O'Malley urged Moses to help him secure the property through eminent domain, but Moses refused, having already decided to build a parking garage on the site. Moreover, O'Malley's proposal — to have the city acquire the property for several times as much as he had originally said he
14256-551: The day. O'Malley vehemently opposed that plan, citing the team's Brooklyn identity. Moses refused to budge and, after the 1957 season, the Dodgers left for Los Angeles and the New York Giants left for San Francisco . Moses was later able to build the 55,000-seat multi-purpose Shea Stadium on the site. Construction ran from October 1961 to its delayed completion in April 1964. The stadium attracted an expansion franchise,
14418-491: The development of Jones Beach State Park . Displaying a strong command of law as well as matters of engineering , Moses became known for his skill in drafting legislation, and was called "the best bill drafter in Albany ". At a time when the public was accustomed to Tammany Hall corruption and incompetence, Moses was seen as a savior of government. Shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933,
14580-768: The development of new parks such as the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park . Central Park is patrolled by its own New York City Police Department precinct, the 22nd (Central Park) Precinct, at the 86th Street transverse. The precinct employs both regular police and auxiliary officers. The 22nd Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 81.2% between 1990 and 2023. The precinct saw no murders, three rapes, 23 robberies, nine felony assaults, five burglaries, 48 grand larcenies, and no grand larcenies auto in 2023. The citywide New York City Parks Enforcement Patrol patrols Central Park, and
14742-505: The east. The park is adjacent to the neighborhoods of Harlem to the north, Midtown Manhattan to the south, the Upper West Side to the west, and the Upper East Side to the east. It measures 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from north to south and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from west to east. Central Park is split into three sections: the "North End" extending above the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir ; "Mid-Park", between
14904-762: The estates of the rich, but told owners of the family farms who lost land that it was an unbiased decision based on "engineering considerations." The book also charged that Moses libeled officials who opposed him, attempting to have them removed from office by calling them communists during the Red Scare . The biography further notes that Moses fought against schools and other public needs in favor of his preference for parks. Moses's critics charge that he preferred automobiles over people. They point out that he displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in New York City and destroyed traditional neighborhoods by building multiple expressways through them. The projects contributed to
15066-464: The fair, Moses's reputation was now undermined by the same personal character traits that had worked in his favor in the past: disdain for the opinions of others and high-handed attempts to get his way in moments of conflict by turning to the press. The fact that the fair was not sanctioned by the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), the worldwide body supervising such events, would be devastating to
15228-547: The first American landscape designers. Mayor Ambrose Kingsland , in a message to the New York City Common Council on May 5, 1851, set forth the necessity and benefits of a large new park and proposed the council move to create such a park. Kingsland's proposal was referred to the council's Committee of Lands, which endorsed the proposal. The committee chose Jones's Wood , a 160-acre (65 ha) tract of land between 66th and 75th streets on
15390-546: The first nine years of his life living at 83 Dwight Street in New Haven, two blocks from Yale University . In 1897, the Moses family moved to New York City, where they lived on East 46th Street off Fifth Avenue. Moses's father was a successful department store owner and real estate speculator in New Haven. In order for the family to move to New York City, he sold his real estate holdings and store, then retired. Moses's mother
15552-518: The free Shakespeare in the Park program received much negative publicity, and his effort to destroy a shaded playground in Central Park to make way for a parking lot for the expensive Tavern-on-the-Green restaurant earned him many enemies among the middle-class voters of the Upper West Side . The opposition reached a climax over the demolition of Pennsylvania Station , which many attributed to
15714-694: The hotel in January 1957 through an exchange of stock with Savoy-Plaza, Inc. Hilton opened a Trader Vic's within the hotel on April 14, 1958, in a space formerly occupied by the Red Coach Inn. On December 31, 1958, the full merger of Savoy-Plaza, Inc. and Hilton Hotels Corporation became effective, and the hotel was renamed the Savoy Hilton . Hilton sold the hotel to Webb & Knapp, Inc. in May 1962, for $ 25 million. That November, Webb & Knapp resold
15876-506: The hotel's demolition on August 21, 1964, leading to a significant public outcry and protests. On December 16, 1964, the owners announced that the hotel would be replaced by a 48-story office tower, designed by Edward Durell Stone to house the Eastern headquarters of General Motors . The hotel remained open through the 1964 New York World's Fair , finally closing in October 1965. It was demolished in late 1965 and early 1966 and replaced with
16038-498: The initial funding approved by the New York State legislature, knowing the legislature would eventually have to fund the full project to avoid appearing to have provided ineffective oversight ( fait accompli ). He was also characterized as using his political power to benefit cronies, including a case in which he secretly shifted the planned route of the Northern State Parkway large distances to avoid impinging on
16200-587: The land, and leveling uneven terrain. By the following month, chief engineer Viele reported that the project employed nearly 700 workers. Olmsted employed workers using day labor , hiring men directly without any contracts and paying them by the day. Many of the laborers were Irish immigrants or first-or-second generation Irish Americans , and some Germans and Italians ; there were no black or female laborers. The workers were often underpaid, and workers would often take jobs at other construction projects to supplement their income. A pattern of seasonal hiring
16362-427: The late 1930s a municipal controversy raged over whether an additional vehicular link between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan should be built as a bridge or a tunnel. Bridges can be wider and cheaper to build, but taller and longer bridges use more ramp space at landfall than tunnels do. A "Brooklyn Battery Bridge" would have decimated Battery Park and physically encroached on the financial district, and for this reason,
16524-421: The measuring and constructing architectural features such as paths, roads, and buildings. Waring was one of the engineers working under Grant's leadership and was in charge of land drainage. Central Park was difficult to construct because of the generally rocky and swampy landscape. Around five million cubic feet (140,000 m ) of soil and rocks had to be transported out of the park, and more gunpowder
16686-434: The mid-1970s, managerial neglect resulted in a decline in park conditions. A 1973 report noted that the park suffered from severe erosion and tree decay, and that individual structures were being vandalized or neglected. The Central Park Community Fund was subsequently created based on the recommendation of a report from a Columbia University professor. The Fund then commissioned a study of the park's management and suggested
16848-432: The morning after. Benches lay on their backs, their legs jabbing at the sky..." During the following year, the city's parks department replanted lawns and flowers, replaced dead trees and bushes, sandblasted walls, repaired roads and bridges, and restored statues. The park menagerie was transformed into the modern Central Park Zoo , and a rat extermination program was instituted within the zoo. Another dramatic change
17010-452: The need for one last great bridge project, a span crossing Long Island Sound from Rye to Oyster Bay . Rockefeller did not press for the project in the late 1960s through 1970, fearing public backlash among suburban Republicans would hinder his re-election prospects. A 1972 study found the bridge was fiscally prudent and could be environmentally manageable (according to the comparatively low environmental impact parameters of that period), but
17172-582: The new Long Island State Park Commission and the State Council of Parks. In 1924, Governor Smith appointed Moses chairman of the State Council of Parks and president of the Long Island State Park Commission. This centralization allowed Smith to run a government later used as a model for Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal federal government. Moses also received numerous commissions that he carried out efficiently, such as
17334-482: The new roads mostly conformed to the new vision, lacking the landscaping or the commercial traffic restrictions of the pre-war highways. He was the mover behind Shea Stadium and Lincoln Center , and contributed to the United Nations headquarters . On November 25, 1950, Governor Thomas E. Dewey appointed Moses along with former Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and former Justice Charles C. Lockwood as
17496-444: The nurseries of Central Park in 1886. Parsons closely followed Olmsted's original vision for the park, restoring Central Park's trees while blocking the placement of several large statues in the park. Under Parsons' leadership, two circles (now Duke Ellington and Frederick Douglass Circles ) were constructed at the northern corners of the park. He was removed in May 1911 following a lengthy dispute over whether an expense to replace
17658-543: The one in Colonial Park (now Jackie Robinson Park ), were placed in inconvenient locations. Another author wrote that of 255 playgrounds built in the 1930s under Moses's tenure, only two were in largely Black neighborhoods. Caro wrote that close associates of Moses had claimed they could keep African Americans from using the Thomas Jefferson Pool , in then-predominantly-white East Harlem , by making
17820-459: The outline for Manhattan's modern street grid, included several smaller open spaces but not Central Park. As such, John Randel Jr. had surveyed the grounds for the construction of intersections within the modern-day park site. The only remaining surveying bolt from his survey is embedded in a rock north of the present Dairy and the 66th Street transverse, marking the location where West 65th Street would have intersected Sixth Avenue . By
17982-551: The park as a recreational attraction. The 1904 opening of the New York City Subway displaced Central Park as the city's predominant leisure destination, as New Yorkers could travel to farther destinations such as Coney Island beaches or Broadway theaters for a five-cent fare. In the late 19th century the landscape architect Samuel Parsons took the position of New York City parks superintendent. A onetime apprentice of Calvert Vaux , Parsons helped restore
18144-602: The park in the form of glacial erratics (large boulders dropped by the receding glacier) and north–south glacial striations visible on stone outcroppings. Alignments of glacial erratics, called "boulder trains", are present throughout Central Park. The most notable of these outcroppings is Rat Rock (also known as Umpire Rock), a circular outcropping at the southwestern corner of the park. It measures 55 feet (17 m) wide and 15 feet (4.6 m) tall with different east, west, and north faces. Boulderers sometimes congregate there. A single glacial pothole with yellow clay
18306-425: The park was home to four females with a median age of 19.8. Though the 2010 United States Census recorded 25 residents within the census tract, park officials have rejected the claim of anyone permanently living there. Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States and one of the most visited tourist attractions worldwide, with 42 million visitors in 2016. The number of unique visitors
18468-642: The park which was later converted into a "rugged" woodland and the Harlem Meer waterway. When the American Civil War began in 1861, the park commissioners decided to continue building Central Park, since significant parts of the park had already been completed. Only three major structures were completed during the Civil War: the Music Stand and the Casino restaurant, both later demolished, and
18630-405: The park's drives. The next year, mayor Bill de Blasio announced that West and East drives north of 72nd Street would be closed to vehicular traffic, because the city's data showed that closing the roads did not adversely impact traffic flows. Subsequently, in June 2018, the remaining drives south of 72nd Street were closed to vehicular traffic. Several structures were also renovated in
18792-556: The park's operations in early 1998. Renovations continued through the first decade of the 21st century, and a project to restore the pond was commenced in 2000. Four years later, the Conservancy replaced a chain-link fence with a replica of the original cast-iron fence that surrounded the Upper Reservoir. It started refurbishing the ceiling tiles of the Bethesda Arcade, which was completed in 2007. Soon after,
18954-399: The park. Between 1821 and 1855, New York City's population nearly quadrupled. As the city expanded northward up Manhattan , people were drawn to the few existing open spaces, mainly cemeteries, for passive recreation. These were seen as escapes from the noise and chaotic life in the city, which at the time was almost entirely centered on Lower Manhattan . The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 ,
19116-502: The parks commissioner and the Conservancy's president. The Central Park Conservancy was founded in 1980 as a nonprofit organization with a citizen board to assist with the city's initiatives to clean up and rehabilitate the park. The Conservancy took over the park's management duties from NYC Parks in 1998, though NYC Parks retained ownership of Central Park. The conservancy provides maintenance support and staff training programs for other public parks in New York City, and has assisted with
19278-401: The play equipment—opened near its southern end in 1926, and quickly became popular with poor immigrant families. The following year, Mayor Jimmy Walker commissioned landscape designer Hermann W. Merkel to create a plan to improve Central Park. Merkel's plans would combat vandalism and plant destruction, rehabilitate paths, and add eight new playgrounds, at a cost of $ 1 million. One of
19440-411: The pools should be kept a few degrees colder, allegedly because Moses believed African Americans did not like cold water. Although Moses had power over the construction of all New York City Housing Authority public housing projects and headed many other entities, it was his chairmanship of the Triborough Bridge Authority that gave him the most power. The Triborough Bridge (later officially renamed
19602-414: The price that the United States would pay for Alaska a few years later. In June 1856, Fernando Wood appointed a "consulting board" of seven people, headed by author Washington Irving , to inspire public confidence in the proposed development. Wood hired military engineer Egbert Ludovicus Viele as the park's chief engineer, tasking him with a topographical survey of the site. The following April,
19764-612: The project in November 1870. After Tweed's embezzlement was publicly revealed in 1871, leading to his imprisonment, Olmsted and Vaux were re-hired, and the Central Park Commission appointed new members who were mostly in favor of Olmsted. One of the areas that remained relatively untouched was the underdeveloped western side of Central Park, though some large structures would be erected in the park's remaining empty plots. By 1872, Manhattan Square had been reserved for
19926-682: The public can be traced, in the main, to ... Caro's magnificent biography". For example, Caro describes Moses's lack of sensitivity in the construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway , and how he disfavored public transit . Much of Moses's reputation is attributable to Caro, whose book won both the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1975 and the Francis Parkman Prize (which is awarded by the Society of American Historians ), and
20088-443: The purchase of an additional 65 acres (26 ha) at the northern end of Central Park, from 106th to 110th Streets. The section of Central Park south of 79th Street was mostly completed by 1860. The park commissioners reported in June 1860 that $ 4 million had been spent on the construction to date. As a result of the sharply rising construction costs, the commissioners eliminated or downsized several features in
20250-456: The purported benefits of many of Moses's projects and further cast Moses as racist. In large part because of The Power Broker , Moses is today considered a controversial figure in the history of New York City as well as New York State. Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut , on December 18, 1888, to parents of German Jewish descent, Isabella “Bella” (Cohen) and Emanuel Moses. He spent
20412-631: The reservoir to the north and the Lake and Conservatory Water to the south; and "South End" below the Lake and Conservatory Water. The park has five visitor centers: Charles A. Dana Discovery Center , Belvedere Castle , Chess & Checkers House, the Dairy , and Columbus Circle . The park has been described as the first landscaped park in the United States. It has natural-looking plantings and landforms , having been almost entirely landscaped when built in
20574-614: The ruin of the South Bronx and the amusement parks of Coney Island , caused the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants Major League baseball teams to relocate to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively, and precipitated the decline of public transport from disinvestment and neglect. His building of expressways also hindered the proposed expansion of the New York City Subway from
20736-423: The scale of works with the high cost and the slow speed of public works in the decades following his era. The peak of Moses's construction occurred during the economic duress of the Great Depression , and despite the era's woes, Moses's projects were completed in a timely fashion and have been reliable public works since then, which compares favorably to the delays that New York City officials have had in redeveloping
20898-411: The school and convent at Mount St. Vincent's Academy . Clearing began shortly after the land commission's report was released in October 1855, and approximately 1,600 residents were evicted under eminent domain . Though supporters claimed that the park would cost just $ 1.7 million, the total cost of the land ended up being $ 7.39 million (equivalent to $ 242 million in 2023), more than
21060-494: The soil in the park was unnecessary. A succession of Tammany-affiliated Democratic mayors were indifferent toward Central Park. Several park advocacy groups were formed in the early 20th century. To preserve the park's character, the citywide Parks and Playground Association, and a consortium of multiple Central Park civic groups operating under the Parks Conservation Association, were formed in
21222-548: The state legislature passed a bill to authorize the appointment of four Democratic and seven Republican commissioners, who had exclusive control over the planning and construction process. Though Viele had already devised a plan for the park, the commissioners disregarded it and retained him to complete only the topographical surveys. The Central Park Commission began hosting a landscape design contest shortly after its creation. The commission specified that each entry contain extremely detailed specifications, as mandated by
21384-576: The success of the event. Moses refused to accept BIE requirements, including a restriction against charging ground rents to exhibitors, and the BIE in turn instructed its member nations not to participate. The United States had already staged the sanctioned Century 21 Exposition in Seattle in 1962. According to the rules of the organization, no one nation could host more than one fair in a decade. The major European democracies, as well as Canada, Australia, and
21546-457: The suggested modifications, underground irrigation pipes, were installed soon after Merkel's report was submitted. The other improvements outlined in the report, such as fences to mitigate plant destruction, were postponed due to the Great Depression . In 1934, Republican Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor of New York City . He unified the five park-related departments then in existence. Newly appointed city parks commissioner Robert Moses
21708-518: The tectonic plates began to merge to form the supercontinent Pangaea . Cameron's Line , a fault zone that traverses Central Park on an east–west axis, divides the outcroppings of Hartland schist to the south and Manhattan schist to the north. Various glaciers have covered the area of Central Park in the past, with the most recent being the Wisconsin glacier which receded about 12,000 years ago. Evidence of past glaciers can be seen throughout
21870-479: The threat of a lawsuit. Moses left his position in May 1960. No park commissioner since then has been able to exercise the same degree of power, nor did NYC Parks remain in as stable a position in the aftermath of his departure. Eight commissioners held the office in the twenty years following his departure. The city experienced economic and social changes, with some residents moving to the suburbs. Interest in Central Park's landscape had long since declined, and it
22032-633: The time he left office, he had built 658 playgrounds in New York City alone, plus 416 miles (669 km) of parkways and 13 bridges. The proportion of public benefit corporations is greater in New York than in any other U.S. state , however, making them the prime mode of infrastructure building and maintenance in New York and accounting for 90% of the state's debt. Moses's life was most famously characterized in Robert Caro 's 1974 award-winning biography The Power Broker . The book highlighted his practice of starting projects certain to cost more than
22194-618: The water too cold. Nonetheless, no other source has corroborated the claim that heaters in any particular pool were deactivated or not included in the pool's design. In addition, Moses took a favorable view of the British Empire and a racism much broader than solely towards the African-American community, speaking of Empire as useful in stemming the "rise of the lesser breeds without the law". Some scholars have attempted to rehabilitate Moses's reputation by contrasting
22356-549: The work of unskilled laborers. In total, over 20,000 individuals helped construct Central Park. Because of extreme precautions taken to minimize collateral damage, five laborers died during the project, at a time when fatality rates were generally much higher. During the development of Central Park, Superintendent Olmsted hired several dozen mounted police officers, who were classified into two types of "keepers": park keepers and gate keepers. The mounted police were viewed favorably by park patrons and were later incorporated into
22518-421: The workings of state government. He created and led numerous semi-autonomous public authorities , through which he controlled millions of dollars in revenue and directly issued bonds to fund new ventures with little outside input or oversight. Moses's projects transformed the New York area and revolutionized the way cities in the U.S. were designed and built. As Long Island State Park Commissioner, Moses oversaw
22680-440: Was "of great importance as the first real Park made in this country—a democratic development of the highest significance". Construction of Central Park's design was executed by a gamut of professionals. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were the primary designers, assisted by board member Andrew Haswell Green , architect Jacob Wrey Mould , master gardener Ignaz Anton Pilat , and engineer George E. Waring Jr. Olmsted
22842-514: Was Moses' removal of the " Hoover valley " shantytown at the north end of Turtle Pond, which became the 30-acre (12 ha) Great Lawn. The western part of the Pond at the park's southeast corner became an ice skating rink called Wollman Rink , roads were improved or widened, and twenty-one playgrounds were added. These projects used funds from the New Deal program, and donations from the public. Moses removed Sheep Meadow 's sheep to make way for
23004-525: Was able to participate in sports such as ice-skating or rowing, or listen to concerts at the Mall's bandstand. Olmsted and Vaux were re-hired in mid-1865. Several structures were erected, including the Children's District, the Ballplayers House , and the Dairy in the southern part of Central Park. Construction commenced on Belvedere Castle, Harlem Meer, and structures on Conservatory Water and
23166-535: Was active in the settlement movement , with her own love of building. Robert Moses and his brother Paul attended several schools for their elementary and secondary education , the Dwight School and the Mohegan Lake School , a military academy near Peekskill . After graduating from Yale College (B.A., 1909) and Wadham College , Oxford (B.A., Jurisprudence, 1911; M.A., 1913), and earning
23328-483: Was also given powers over public housing that had eluded him under LaGuardia. When O'Dwyer was forced to resign in disgrace and was succeeded by Vincent R. Impellitteri , Moses was able to assume even greater behind-the-scenes control over infrastructure projects. One of Moses's first steps after Impellitteri took office was halting the creation of a citywide Comprehensive Zoning Plan underway since 1938 that would have curtailed his nearly unlimited power to build within
23490-430: Was appointed to Olmsted's position. Vaux resigned in 1863 because of what he saw as pressure from Green. As superintendent of the park, Green accelerated construction, though having little experience in architecture. He implemented a style of micromanagement , keeping records of the smallest transactions in an effort to reduce costs. Green finalized the negotiations to purchase the northernmost 65 acres (26 ha) of
23652-519: Was done to make it more difficult for future legislatures to allow access for commercial vehicles. Woolgar and Cooper refer to the claim about bridges as an "urban legend". Moses vocally opposed allowing Black war veterans to move into Stuyvesant Town , a Manhattan residential development complex created to house World War II veterans. In response to the biography, Moses defended his forced displacement of poor and minority communities as an inevitable part of urban revitalization: "I raise my stein to
23814-412: Was established, wherein more workers would be hired and paid at higher rates during the summers. For several months, the park commissioners faced funding issues, and a dedicated workforce and funding stream was not secured until June 1858. The landscaped Upper Reservoir was the only part of the park that the commissioners were not responsible for constructing; instead, the Reservoir would be built by
23976-467: Was given the task of cleaning up the park, and he summarily fired many of the Tammany-era staff. At the time, the lawns were filled with weeds and dust patches, while many trees were dying or already dead. Monuments had been vandalized, equipment and walkways were broken, and ironwork was rusted. Moses's biographer Robert Caro later said, "The once beautiful Mall looked like a scene of a wild party
24138-543: Was in apparent retaliation, based on specious claims that the proposed tunnel would undermine Castle Clinton's foundation. He also attempted to raze Castle Clinton itself, the historic fort surviving only after being transferred to the federal government. Moses now had no other option for a trans-river crossing than to build a tunnel. He commissioned the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (now officially the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel ),
24300-660: Was named one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books of the twentieth century by the Modern Library . Upon its publication, Moses denounced the biography in a 23-page statement, to which Caro replied to defend his work's integrity. Caro's depiction of Moses's life gives him full credit for his early achievements, showing, for example, how he conceived and created Jones Beach and the New York State Park system, but also shows how Moses's desire for power came to be more important to him than his earlier dreams. Moses
24462-415: Was now mostly being used for recreation. Several unrealized additions were proposed for Central Park in that decade, such as a public housing development, a golf course, and a "revolving world's fair". The 1960s marked the beginning of an "Events Era" in Central Park that reflected the widespread cultural and political trends of the period. The Public Theater 's annual Shakespeare in the Park festival
24624-819: Was of Jewish origin and raised in a secularist manner inspired by the Ethical Culture movement of the late 19th century. He was a convert to Christianity and was interred in a crypt in an outdoor community mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City following services at St. Peter's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Bay Shore, New York . Various locations and roadways in New York State bear Moses's name. These include two state parks, Robert Moses State Park – Thousand Islands in Massena, New York and Robert Moses State Park – Long Island ,
24786-587: Was responsible for the overall plan, while Vaux designed some of the finer details. Mould, who worked frequently with Vaux, designed the Central Park Esplanade and the Tavern on the Green building. Pilat was the park's chief landscape architect, whose primary responsibility was the importation and placement of plants within the park. A "corps" of construction engineers and foremen, managed by superintending engineer William H. Grant, were tasked with
24948-465: Was said to have blocked Paul, an engineer, from being hired for any public service jobs including major infrastructure projects that Moses himself had spearheaded. Paul, whom Caro interviewed shortly before the former's death, claimed Robert had exerted undue influence on their mother to change her will in Robert's favor shortly before her death. Caro notes that Paul was on bad terms with their mother over
25110-770: Was settled in the Delacorte Theater , and summer performances were instituted on the Sheep Meadow and the Great Lawn by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera . During the late 1960s, the park became the venue for rallies and cultural events such as the "love-ins" and "be-ins" of the period. The same year, Lasker Rink opened in the northern part of the park; the facility served as an ice rink in winter and Central Park's only swimming pool in summer. By
25272-514: Was that of Parks Commissioner of New York City, a role he served from January 18, 1934, to May 23, 1960. The many offices and professional titles that Moses held gave him unusually broad power to shape urban development in the New York metropolitan region. These include, according to the New York Preservation Archive Project: During the 1920s, Moses sparred with Franklin D. Roosevelt , then head of
25434-418: Was the "Carriage Parade", a daily display of horse-drawn carriages that traversed the park. Park patronage grew steadily: by 1867, Central Park accommodated nearly three million pedestrians, 85,000 horses, and 1.38 million vehicles annually. The park had activities for New Yorkers of all social classes. While the wealthy could ride horses on bridle paths or travel in horse-drawn carriages, almost everyone
25596-555: Was the Dairy, which reopened as the park's first visitor center in 1979. The Sheep Meadow, which reopened the following year, was the first landscape to be restored. Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, the USS Maine National Monument , and the Bow Bridge were also rehabilitated. By then, the Conservancy was engaged in design efforts and long-term restoration planning, and in 1981, Davis and Barlow announced
25758-429: Was the first fully divided limited access highway in the world. Moses was a highly influential figure in the initiation of many of the reforms that restructured New York state's government during the 1920s. A 'Reconstruction Commission' headed by Moses produced a highly influential report that provided recommendations that would largely be adopted, including the consolidation of 187 existing agencies under 18 departments,
25920-470: Was unconstitutional to impair existing contractual obligations, as the bondholders had the right of approval over such actions. The largest holder of TBTA bonds, and thus agent for all the others, was the Chase Manhattan Bank , headed then by David Rockefeller , the governor's brother. No suit was filed. Moses could have directed TBTA to go to court against the action, but having been promised
26082-605: Was used to clear the area than was used at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War . More than 18,500 cubic yards (14,100 m ) of topsoil were transported from Long Island and New Jersey , because the original soil was neither fertile nor sufficiently substantial to sustain the flora specified in the Greensward Plan. Modern steam-powered equipment and custom tree-moving machines augmented
26244-514: Was willing to pay — was rejected by both pro- and anti-Moses officials, newspapers, and the public, as an unacceptable government subsidy of a private business enterprise. Moses envisioned New York's newest stadium being built in Queens' Flushing Meadows on the former (and as it turned out, future) site of the World's Fair , where it would eventually host all three of the city's major league teams of
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