Part I: Southern Section Through Bethesda TerraceBy Laurie Lewis Central Park is filled with many surprises, including some secrets that are hidden in plain sight. The Park has so many secrets that it will take several issues of this newsletter to reveal them. In this installment, we’ll look at some unexpected findings in the southernmost part of the Park. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Central Park is almost entirely man-made. Before it became a park in the middle of the nineteenth century, this land was a rocky, swampy area without much desirable vegetation. The designers of the Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, planned every inch of the landscape to look like a work of Nature. It has been modified over time, but the basic blueprint of Olmsted and Vaux remains mostly intact.  Photo credit: Global Citizen Festival, Central Park. From NYonAir. Note that I said the Park is mostly man-made. The designers liked the rock that filled the area, Manhattan mica schist, and left many outcroppings in place. (Plus, it was hard to move without blasting material like dynamite.) Schist is the bedrock of most of Manhattan. The rock is beyond ancient, 500 million years old, give or take 50 million. It is so old that the receding glaciers of the Ice Age etched striations on the rock. What’s that object sticking out of the rock in the photo below? That is a survey bolt, positioned in the rock in the early nineteenth century to mark an intersection in the Manhattan grid---the system of numbered streets and avenues. Concerns about vandalism mandate that the exact location of this relic of New York City history not be widely publicized. Suffice it to say that it’s in the southern part of the Park (and maybe you can find a clue to the location in the photo).  Manhattan mica schist. Striations marked the rock during the Ice Age. The upright object is a survey bolt from creation of the city grid in 1811. Photo by Cris Gleicher. As you walk through Central Park, you might notice that almost all the paths are curved. Olmsted and Vaux intentionally curved the paths to entice strollers to keep walking and see beyond the bend. Besides, the Park is supposed to look natural, and how often have you seen a natural path that is a straight line? The Mall, however, is a straight path. It's in the middle of the Park between 66th and 72nd Streets. Rows of American elm trees line both sides of the walk. What most people do not realize, unless they look at the surrounding lawns from particular spots, is that all the trees in the area are planted in straight lines. In the language of the landscape artists who created Central Park, the Mall area is a formal landscape, characterized by geometric patterns like lines.  Trees parallel to the Mall were planted in straight lines. The walking path of the Mall, near center left in this photo, is one of the few straight paths in the Park. The southern section of the Mall is known as Literary Walk because of the statues of famous writers, including William Shakespeare, Robert Burns, and Sir Walter Scott. Until recently, only one statue was of an American, the satiric poet Fitz-Greene Halleck. Don’t be embarrassed if you never heard of him. He’s largely forgotten now, but his works were popular in the mid-nineteenth century.  Statue of American satirical poet Fitz-Greene Halleck on Literary Walk. Right opposite the Halleck statue is the newest permanent sculpture in Central Park. It’s actually well known because of the publicity surrounding it, which revealed what many people viewed not as a secret but as a serious oversight that needed to be corrected: the lack of statues commemorating real women. (Several statues in the Park depict female figures, like Angel of the Waters atop Bethesda Fountain and Alice in Wonderland, but they are fanciful creations, not people who once lived.) Unveiled on August 26, 2020---the centennial of ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote---the Women’s Rights Pioneers monument presents three Americans active in the suffrage movement of the early twentieth century: Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  A recent addition to the Park, a statue honoring three pioneers of the women’s rights movement. East of the Mall and south of the bandshell is what appears to be a graveyard. No bodies are buried here! Rather, the markers list the soldiers who died in World War I. Officially called the 307th Infantry Regiment Memorial Grove, many of the trees that were part of the grove have gone the way of the soldiers.  Not a cemetery but a memorial to soldiers who died in World War I. This past weekend was the New York City Marathon. Every year since the city's first marathon in 1970, Central Park has been in the marathon route, and the event has always ended here. If you want to see the finish line year-round, head west of the Mall but don't cross West Drive. On the ground at 67th Street is a plaque marking the finish line. Until a few years ago, the only marker was black paint on the curb; its faded remains appear in the picture below, taken about six weeks before this year's marathon.  Finish line of the New York City Marathon. The black stain to the left of the plaque used to be the only permanent marker. Back at the Mall, between the bandshell and 72nd Street, is the beginning of Bethesda Terrace. The iconic fountain in the center of the Park across 72nd Street also is part of Bethesda Terrace, a two-tier structure that straddles both sides of the street (here called Olmsted and Vaux Way---the only place in the Park honoring the duo). On the south side, a single staircase connects the upper and lower levels of the Terrace. On the north side, two staircases connect the tiers. The designers of the Park considered Bethesda Terrace the artistic and architectural center of their creation. Much of the artistic splendor is at the staircases. Ornamented with designs by Jacob Wrey Mould, the staircase areas harbor secrets, hidden in plain sight, reflecting the theme of time. With two sides, the single staircase at the southern end of the Terrace depicts a time division that comes in twos: night and day. The western balustrade at the top of this staircase has carvings associated with nighttime; the eastern side has carvings associated with daytime. An owl, the bird of the night, appears on the west (where the sun sets), whereas a rooster graces the east side (where the sun rises). I don’t want to give away all the secrets of Central Park, so I urge you to visit the Terrace to find another surprise on the western side. Carvings at the top of the stairs on the southern side of Bethesda Terrace. The Terrace is made of sandstone, a fragile material that often requires repair, as can be seen in the different colors of the sculptures. Left, owl and bat, creatures of the night, on the west side of the stairs. Right, rooster, the bird associated with morning, on the east side of the stairs. Across 72nd Street, two staircases connect the upper and lower Terrace. Each staircase has two sides, providing four areas to decorate. What is a common time division that comes in fours? The seasons! The easternmost banister of this pair of staircases illustrates spring, and across from it are carvings representative of summer. The other staircase continues with illustrations of autumn and concludes with winter on the opposite side of those steps. My favorite carving is at the bottom of the eastern stairs, on the side illustrating spring. What can be more emblematic of spring than birds hatching in a nest? An apt illustration for autumn, at the bottom of the other staircase, is a deer, an animal associated with fall hunting. Left, a nest with eggs and a hatchling at the bottom of a staircase at Bethesda Terrace, illustrating spring. Right, a deer head at the bottom of the other staircase on the northern side of Bethesda Terrace. The leaves and fruit provide additional evidence that this is an illustration of autumn. All of the carvings on the staircases depict elements of nature, with one exception. It’s on the "winter" staircase. See if you can find it when you visit the Park. Would you like to know more secrets of Central Park? Look for future issues of this newsletter. Or see them with your own eyes when you visit the Park or take a tour with me. I’ll be glad to show you these secrets of Central Park and many more. To book a tour, email [email protected]. Photos are by the author unless otherwise specified. New York City Firsts: Big Apple Innovations That Changed the Nation and the World by Laurie Lewis tells about more than 300 New York originals. Read about the birth of the safety pin, the Oreo, the rock musical, Central Park, and hundreds of other New York creations. Find out more about the book, including links to buy it, at www.nycfirsts.com.  Tours We are no longer scheduling public tours that are open to anyone, but we are available for private tours. If you would like ideas for private tours, please see the Tours section of this website. Central Park is a favorite year-round. Please send an email to [email protected] to discuss a custom tour of some of its best-kept secrets. |
