Morningside Park is a public park in Upper Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The park is bounded by 110th Street to the south, 123rd Street to the north, Morningside Avenue to the east, and Morningside Drive to the west. A cliff made of Manhattan schist runs through the park and separates Morningside Heights, above the cliff to the west, from Harlem. The park includes other rock outcroppings; a human-made ornamental pond and waterfall; three sculptures; several athletic fields; playgrounds; and an arboretum. Morningside Park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, although the group Friends of Morningside Park helps maintain it.
The area near Morningside Park was originally known as by the Lenape Native Americans in the Delaware languages. A park in this location was first proposed by the Central Park commissioners in 1867, and the city commissioned Central Park's designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux to produce a design for the park in 1873. Jacob Wrey Mould was hired to design new plans in 1880, but little progress occurred until Olmsted and Vaux were asked to modify the plans following Mould's death in 1886. The Lafayette and Washington, Carl Schurz Monument, and Seligman Fountain sculptures were installed after the park was completed in 1895.
After a period of neglect in the early 20th century, the park received sporting fields and playgrounds between the 1930s and the 1950s. Columbia University proposed constructing a gym in the southern end of the park in the early 1960s; the plan was abandoned after students organized protests against the gym in 1968, citing concerns over racial segregation. In the late 20th century, Morningside Park gained a reputation for high crime rates, and several groups devised plans to renovate the park. The site of the unbuilt Columbia gym was turned into a waterfall and pond in 1990, and the park's arboretum was added in 1998. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Morningside Park as a scenic landmark in 2008.
History
Site
Morningside Park straddles the more-than- cliff between the high terrain of Morningside Heights to the west and the lowlands of Harlem to the east. The cliff was created through fault movement and smoothed during several glacial periods in the last several million years. Before the 17th century, when modern-day Manhattan was settled by Europeans, the region had been occupied by the Lenape Native Americans for several thousand years. The Lenape referred to the area near the park as or , meaning 'place of rushes'.See: * * *
Dutch settlers occupied Manhattan in the early 17th century and called the area around Morningside Park , meaning 'peaceful dale'. The lowlands to the east were called by the Dutch, and were later translated to "Flats" in English. The land to the east was not settled initially because of its marshy topography. The area became known as Montagne's (or Montayne's) Flat after Johannes de la Montagne, who was among the first European settlers of New Harlem in 1658; he owned about between what is now 109th and 124th Streets. The western boundary of the area was the cliff, while the eastern boundary was a creek that emptied east into the East River. Montagne's Flat was subdivided into lots in 1662, and four years later a new charter for New Harlem was given to the English, who had seized New Netherland, renaming it New York. Through the 17th and 18th centuries, the cliff formed a geopolitical boundary between Harlem to the east and the heights to the west.
The western boundary of New Harlem was drawn through the present-day Morningside Park in 1666, running from 74th Street at the East River to 124th Street at the North River (now the Hudson River). To the west of the line were the common lands of the Province of New York, which were sold to Jacob De Key in 1701. Following Harman Vandewater's acquisition of part of the De Key farm by 1735, it was called Vandewater Heights by 1738. Vandewater Heights would then be sold by 1785 to James W. De Peyster. There were disputes over the De Key farm throughout the 18th century, disputes which eventually resulted in the cliffside's being named as the farm's eastern boundary. Meanwhile, Montagne's Flat was owned by several families in the 17th and 18th centuries, some of whom were slaveholders, according to censuses taken in 1790, 1800, and 1810. British Army colonial forces used a road on the farm to retreat during the September 16, 1776, Battle of Harlem Heights, one of the battles of the American Revolutionary War.
In the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which laid out a grid system for Manhattan island, little regard was given to the topography of the area. Shortly afterward, during the War of 1812, several blockhouse fortifications were built in the area. The first such fort was built in what is now Central Park, and three other blockhouses numbered 2, 3, and 4 were erected within present-day Morningside Park. The blockhouses at Morningside Park were along the cliff and were numbered from north to south: No. 2 at 113th–114th Streets, No. 3 at 121st Street, and No. 4 at 123rd Street. These would not be used in battle and were left to deteriorate. Morningside Heights would remain sparsely developed for the next half-century except for the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum and the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum.
Design and construction
Initial plans
By 1866, the state legislature had given the Central Park commissioners the authority to construct streets on Manhattan's west side from 67th to 155th Streets. In 1867, lead Central Park commissioner Andrew Haswell Green proposed that a park be built in Morningside Heights to avoid the expense of expanding the Manhattan street grid across extremely steep terrain. Green enclosed a map by John J. Serrell that modified the Commissioners' Plan to this extent. The Central Park commissioners passed an act on March 26, 1868, allowing the acquisition of lands for parks. Under this act, the commissioners purchased , and seized another through eminent domain, at a total cost of US$1.33 million.
In April 1870, the Central Park commission was dissolved and the City of New York obtained jurisdiction over the property. That September, Department of Public Parks (DPP) chief engineer Montgomery A. Kellogg was asked to create a plan for Morningside Park. Over the next year, the city would spend $5,500 to conduct surveys of the proposed parkland. Kellogg presented a design for the park in October 1871. The New York Times said that the park's name was apt for it would "[possess] a sunny exposure in the early morning hours," and described the planned park as having "handsome walks, flower-beds, jetting fountains, [and] a play-ground" among other things. The Times predicted that the planned Morningside Park "will doubtless be a favorite resort for children and invalids." Kellogg's plan was rejected by the Board of Commissioners for Public Parks.
In April 1872, the DPP created a committee to discuss possible upgrades to the street to the park's west side, and Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who had designed Central Park's Greensward Plan, were commissioned to produce a design for the park. In a September 1872 article, the Times predicted that the construction of Morningside Park and its proximity to Broadway and Central Park would raise property values nearby. Talk of a preliminary study and map began circulating in March 1873. By that September, Olmsted was assigned to work exclusively on Morningside Park, and he was dropped from his position as superintendent of other parks. Olmsted and Vaux presented their plan, "A Preliminary Report on the Improvement of Morningside Park", to the DPP on October 11, 1873. Because of the limitations of the terrain, the proposed design would emphasize scenery, with balconies, a planted lagoon, a lawn at the north end of the park, and a retaining wall with stairways. The design also took into consideration the site's proximity to Central Park, one block away from the southern end of the proposed Morningside Park.See: * * * * The work would cost about $816,000. Five days after the plan was presented, the DPP approved it "in principle".
Beginning of construction
Owing to several factors, including work stoppages following the economic depression after the Panic of 1873, construction on Morningside Park stagnated for 14 years. Nevertheless, work began in 1873, construction progressing on the walks and perimeter walls, as well as on the sewers and lagoon. When work was halted in October 1874, the sewer, pond, walks, and embankments were under construction. A Times article in April 1875 noted that the city's Department of Public Works was laying roads and sidewalks west and east of the park.
Little work was performed in the next five years, except for the construction of roads. On June 16, 1880, the Legislature passed a law allowing the city's Department of Public Works to finish the roads, sidewalks, and retaining walls near Morningside Park. That September, the Legislature appointed Jacob Wrey Mould, who had previously been involved in Central Park's design, as the new architect of Morningside Park. Mould submitted a plan for the streets in April 1881. The proposal, which was to cost $234,000, called for eleven entrances; granite stairs; a retaining wall at Morningside Drive, made of gneiss and ashlar; overlook balconies; and railings of granite and cast-and wrought-iron. The plans were approved in August 1881. Mould's final plans for the western side of the park were submitted in September 1882 and plans for the northern, eastern, and southern sides were approved the next month.
In January 1883, Julius Munckwitz was asked to create plans for Morningside Park, and Mould was named as his assistant. After Munckwitz's plans were submitted that March, Montgomery A. Kelloggthe DPP chief engineer who had been promoted to engineer of constructionworked on completing the measurements. Contracts for the foundations were awarded in April, while contracts for the western side's entrances and overlooks were awarded to Charles Jones that July. Jones began work on the western border in November 1883 and completed his contract nearly a year later. Meanwhile, in January 1884, Munckwitz began preparing plans for the western steps and entrances, which were approved that October. The Times reported in December 1884 that over $71,000 was needed for the park. Though Munckwitz quit the DPP in mid-1885, he continued working with the project as a consultant.
By February 1885, the stairways on the western border at 110th, 116th, and 120th Streets were being built. That May, Michael McGrath won a contract to build granite steps, brick arches, and other ornamentation at the 110th and 116th Street entrances on the western border and at four intermediate overlook bays. The park was still in a rural state, as indicated in the Times that same year, which reported that police were capturing cows for illegally grazing in the park and fining local dairymen for pasturing their herds. Following this, the DPP ordered that all signs and other "defacements" be removed from the park site. By mid-1886, several local entities were expressing frustration at the lack of progress at Morningside Park. For instance, the Morningside Park Association twice requested that action be taken to complete the park. After Mould died in 1886, the DPP needed to hire a new architect for Morningside Park. Kellogg submitted new plans for $250,000 worth of park improvements in February 1887, at which point the Times reported that only the 116th Street staircase and part of the retaining wall had been completed over the previous fourteen years. These plans were ultimately approved.
Final plans and completion