Big Apple History . Building the Big Apple . Whose Park Is It Anyway?


	Skaters in Central Park, 1890

On a freezing December Sunday in 1858, several hundred people arrived at the half-finished Central Park Lake and put on their ice skates. Records show that they were the first to play in the new park. A year later, 50,000 showed up for the "skating carnival" on Christmas Day. In 1860, the park registered 2.5 million visits showing that it was a great success from the start!

Or was it? In the first decade, over half the visitors came by carriage. But carriage owners represented only the richest five percent of the city. This was no accident. Far uptown, the park was miles from working class neighborhoods. Yet, as the years progressed, working class New Yorkers found ways to make the long trip uptown to find an escape from the crowded and hectic city.


	Carriages in Central Park

Park rules at first tried to discourage behavior that elite New Yorkers might have considered rowdy activity. Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted believed most New Yorkers "need to be trained to the proper use of it." To that end, popular pastimes were banned: no parades, no group picnics, and no public speeches. Children needed a principal's note to play ball. Only quiet contemplation of nature was permitted.

Not surprisingly, the rules set off a debate: Who did the park belong to? What was it for? This debate hasn't stopped since. It continues in parks around America as well.

Top illustration: Skaters in Central Park, courtesy of Roger Whitehouse and the Museum of the City of New York.

Illustration at bottom: Coaching scene in Central Park, May 7, 1910, courtesy of the New-York Historical Society.