Great Lawn and Turtle Pond, Central Park
Encyclopedia
The Great Lawn and Turtle Pond, Central Park, are inseparable features of New York City
's Central Park
.
as it was first designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
and Calvert Vaux
. Within its schist walling, the reservoir filled the space between the 79th Street and 86th Street Transverse Roads. The Belvedere Castle
, built in 1869, overlooked it from its southwest corner.
As the Croton-Catskill Reservoir system was completed, to satisfy New York City
's need for water, the Lower Reservoir came to be redundant. In spite of years of prodding, the commissioners of the Catskill Aqueduct
were loath to make over their real estate to the city; a number of projects in the City Beautiful manner were suggested for the site, epitomized by the Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Committee's commission of a design from the prominent Beaux-Arts "society" architect Thomas Hastings
, who would have provided a grand formal space like a partly flooded version of the Paris Trocadéro
, featuring a bronze casting of Frederick MacMonnies' Columbia in the Ship of State, the familiar fountain centerpiece of the lagoon at the World's Columbian Exposition
of Chicago, 1893. Henry Fairfield Osborn
lobbied instead for a formal carriage drive that would link his American Museum of Natural History
with the Metropolitan Museum of Art
. After the war Hastings recast his plan as a memorial to the soldiers of World War I
.
These plans were decried as intrusions by park preservationists protecting the Olmstedian rustic plan on the one hand, and as elitist
by populist champions of organized recreation facilities, who envisaged playing fields and bath houses for the city's urban poor. During the 1920s all projects were stymied as the issue became politicized during the land boom that filled Fifth Avenue
and Central Park West
with luxury apartment towers for the rich. The reservoir began to be drained 23 January 1930. In June 1930 the city adopted a plan presented by the American Society of Landscape Architects
for a great oval of turf, its edges softened by trees planted in clumps within and outside the encircling pedestrian walkway. Two fenced playgrounds at the northern end were to be screened by shrubs and trees. The drainage was collected in a small pond at the south end, the predecessor of the present Turtle Pond, which revealed its essentially rectangular shape, in spite of mild waggles in its concrete curbing. Along its southern shore, the steep gradient that had impounded the reservoir was regraded and planted with trees and shrubs to mask its regularity.
In the meantime, however, the city teetered on the edge of insolvency as the Great Depression
put an end to grand plans. A "Hooverville
" of improvised shacks developed in the dry bed of the reservoir, as the city began dumping fill. Robert Moses
, who would see the ASLA Great Lawn to completion, took office with mayor Fiorello La Guardia in January 1934, and two years later the Great Lawn was essentially completed and planted with pin oaks and European lindens, in the reduced range of trees in the current repertory.
had been restored in 1979. Eroded topsoil that washed into Turtle Pond resulted in eutrophication
that turned it to algal soup each summer. In October 1995 the Central Park Conservancy took up the joint project of rehabilitating fifty-five acres of the lawn and its surroundings, with improved tilefield drainage and sprinkler systems, and completely draining, re-excavating and reconfiguring Turtle Pond, which had received its official name change in 1987. The reconfigured Turtle Pond, completed in 1997, was designed so that at no position can a viewer take in all its perimeter. Shoreline plants such as lizard's tail, bulrush
es, turtlehead (Chelone glabra)
, and blueflag iris
were planted in submerged concrete shelving designed to offer each group of wetland plants their ideal water coverage. A small island provides sunning spots and secure egg-laying sites for the turtles. Sightings of numerous species of dragon fly
not previously noted in Central Park have been made.
The King Jagiello Monument
stands at Turtle Pond's east end, the Delacorte Theater
on its west end.
On October 7, 1995, Pope John Paul II
held open-air mass for 125,000 on the Great Lawn. Earlier that year, it was also the site for the New York opening of the Disney movie Pocahontas
.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
.
History
The lawn and pond occupy the almost flat site of the rectangular, thirty-five-acre Lower Reservoir constructed in 1842, which was an unalterable fixture of the location of Central ParkCentral Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
as it was first designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
and Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux , was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer , of New York's Central Park....
. Within its schist walling, the reservoir filled the space between the 79th Street and 86th Street Transverse Roads. The Belvedere Castle
Belvedere Castle
Belvedere Castle is a building in Central Park in New York, New York, that contains exhibit rooms and an observation deck.-Early history:Built as a Victorian folly in 1869, the castle caps Vista Rock, the park's second-highest natural elevation Constructed of Manhattan schist quarried in the park...
, built in 1869, overlooked it from its southwest corner.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's need for water, the Lower Reservoir came to be redundant. In spite of years of prodding, the commissioners of the Catskill Aqueduct
Catskill Aqueduct
The Catskill Aqueduct, part of the New York City water supply system, brings water from the Catskill Mountains to Yonkers where it connects to other parts of the system.-History:Construction commenced in 1907...
were loath to make over their real estate to the city; a number of projects in the City Beautiful manner were suggested for the site, epitomized by the Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Committee's commission of a design from the prominent Beaux-Arts "society" architect Thomas Hastings
Thomas Hastings (architect)
Thomas Hastings was an American architect.- Biography :He was born in New York City to Thomas Samuel Hastings, a Presbyterian minister, and Fanny de Groot. Hastings came from a colonial Yankee background, his ancestor Thomas Hastings having come from the East Anglia region of England to the...
, who would have provided a grand formal space like a partly flooded version of the Paris Trocadéro
Trocadéro
The Trocadéro, , site of the Palais de Chaillot, , is an area of Paris, France, in the 16th arrondissement, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. The hill of the Trocadéro is the hill of Chaillot, a former village.- Origin of the name :...
, featuring a bronze casting of Frederick MacMonnies' Columbia in the Ship of State, the familiar fountain centerpiece of the lagoon at the World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
of Chicago, 1893. Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. ForMemRS was an American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenicist.-Early life and career:...
lobbied instead for a formal carriage drive that would link his American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
with the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
. After the war Hastings recast his plan as a memorial to the soldiers of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
These plans were decried as intrusions by park preservationists protecting the Olmstedian rustic plan on the one hand, and as elitist
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
by populist champions of organized recreation facilities, who envisaged playing fields and bath houses for the city's urban poor. During the 1920s all projects were stymied as the issue became politicized during the land boom that filled Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue (Manhattan)
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among...
and Central Park West
Central Park West
Central Park West is an avenue that runs north-south in the New York City borough of Manhattan, in the United States....
with luxury apartment towers for the rich. The reservoir began to be drained 23 January 1930. In June 1930 the city adopted a plan presented by the American Society of Landscape Architects
American Society of Landscape Architects
The American Society of Landscape Architects is the national professional association representing landscape architects, with more than 17,000 members in 48 chapters, representing all 50 states, U.S. territories, and 42 countries around the world, plus 68 student chapters...
for a great oval of turf, its edges softened by trees planted in clumps within and outside the encircling pedestrian walkway. Two fenced playgrounds at the northern end were to be screened by shrubs and trees. The drainage was collected in a small pond at the south end, the predecessor of the present Turtle Pond, which revealed its essentially rectangular shape, in spite of mild waggles in its concrete curbing. Along its southern shore, the steep gradient that had impounded the reservoir was regraded and planted with trees and shrubs to mask its regularity.
In the meantime, however, the city teetered on the edge of insolvency as the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
put an end to grand plans. A "Hooverville
Hooverville
A 'Hooverville' was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were named after the President of the United States at the time, Herbert Hoover, because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression...
" of improvised shacks developed in the dry bed of the reservoir, as the city began dumping fill. Robert Moses
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
, who would see the ASLA Great Lawn to completion, took office with mayor Fiorello La Guardia in January 1934, and two years later the Great Lawn was essentially completed and planted with pin oaks and European lindens, in the reduced range of trees in the current repertory.
Degradation and restoration
With heavy use over the years, the Great Lawn, which received eight baseball diamonds constructed in the 1950s, had been irretrievably compacted and threatened to turn to a dustbowl; its degradation was aggravated by its use for outdoor concerts once the Sheep MeadowSheep Meadow, Central Park
The preserve known as Sheep Meadow has a long history as a gathering place for large scale demonstrations and political movements. It is currently a favorite spot for families, sunbathers, picnickers, kite flyers, and other visitors to come relax and admire the New York City skyline...
had been restored in 1979. Eroded topsoil that washed into Turtle Pond resulted in eutrophication
Eutrophication
Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...
that turned it to algal soup each summer. In October 1995 the Central Park Conservancy took up the joint project of rehabilitating fifty-five acres of the lawn and its surroundings, with improved tilefield drainage and sprinkler systems, and completely draining, re-excavating and reconfiguring Turtle Pond, which had received its official name change in 1987. The reconfigured Turtle Pond, completed in 1997, was designed so that at no position can a viewer take in all its perimeter. Shoreline plants such as lizard's tail, bulrush
Schoenoplectus
Schoenoplectus is a genus of about 80 species of sedges with a cosmopolitan distribution. Note that the name bulrush is also applied to species in the unrelated genus Typha...
es, turtlehead (Chelone glabra)
Chelone glabra
Chelone glabra is a plant in the family Plantaginaceae .-Description:Chelone glabra is a herbaceous plant found in wetlands and riparian forests of eastern North America with opposite, simple leaves, on stout, upright stems. The flowers are white, borne in late summer and early fall...
, and blueflag iris
Iris (plant)
Iris is a genus of 260-300species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species...
were planted in submerged concrete shelving designed to offer each group of wetland plants their ideal water coverage. A small island provides sunning spots and secure egg-laying sites for the turtles. Sightings of numerous species of dragon fly
Dragon Fly
- Personnel :*Grace Slick – vocals, piano on "Be Young You"*Paul Kantner – vocals, rhythm guitar*John Barbata – drums, percussion*Craig Chaquico – lead guitar*Papa John Creach – electric violin...
not previously noted in Central Park have been made.
The King Jagiello Monument
King Jagiello Monument
The King Jagiello Monument is an equestrian monument of king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Władysław II Jagiełło, located in Central Park, New York City. Raised on its grand plinth it is one of the most prominently-sited and impressive of twenty-nine sculptures located in Central Park...
stands at Turtle Pond's east end, the Delacorte Theater
Delacorte Theater
The Delacorte Theater, established in 1962, is an open-air theater located in Manhattan's Central Park and has a seating capacity of 1,800. The Delacorte is owned by the City of New York and operated by The Public Theater. It is an open-air amphitheater, with the Turtle Pond and Belvedere Castle...
on its west end.
On October 7, 1995, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
held open-air mass for 125,000 on the Great Lawn. Earlier that year, it was also the site for the New York opening of the Disney movie Pocahontas
Pocahontas (1995 film)
Pocahontas is the 33rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to selected theaters on June 16, 1995 by Walt Disney Pictures...
.