Central Park in 1894 THE NEW YORK TIMES called it the "Sunday concert war." Should public concerts be allowed on the Sabbath? City elites said no. They wanted to keep the park for themselves. They knew Sundays were the only day off for working people, who might swarm to the concerts. But in 1884, the elites lost. It wasn't the first time - the new city charter of 1870 had put the park under local control because commissioners were appointed by the mayor and the mayor answered to the voters. The new commissioners built a carousel, bicycle lanes, and -- most popular of all -- a zoo! By 1900, the park attracted 500,000 people on a Sunday afternoon. In the 1930s, Commissioner Robert Moses put thousands of unemployed persons to work building playgrounds and athletic fields. In 1957, the New York Shakespeare Festival came to the park. In 1982, two million people came to protest nuclear weapons in the largest demonstration in American history. In 1996, more than 100,000 people gathered for a multi-screen showing of the Disney movie POCAHONTAS. Today, baseball players, roller-bladers, bicyclists, and street musicians mingle with other New Yorkers and tourists from all walks of life. A mid-19th-century park for the elite has become park of the people. Top illustration: the Central Park Mall, c. 1894, courtesy of the Collection of the New-York Historical Society.
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