11/15/10

Touring Central Park's Seneca Village

Over the weekend I had the time of my life touring some well-known and lesser well-known parts of Central Park. I learned about some free tours given by the Central Park Conservancy through their website and ventured out on Saturday and Sunday to attend the following:

Seneca Village tour
The Castle and its Kingdom tour
Tavern and its Green tour

First up was the Seneca Village tour. We met inside the Park at 85th Street and Central Park West. The tour description is as follows: Seneca Village was Manhattan's first known community of African-American property owners, on land that would become Central Park. Learn about the history of the village, the property owners, and what New York City was like at the time.

On this tour we visited Summit Rock, the highest natural point in the park, viewed pathways and archways around the area and learned some of the history of Central Park. In the early 1850's it was realized that people living and working in Manhattan needed a place for leisure on their one day during the work week, other than a cemetery in Brooklyn that they frequented. So construction of the park began in the late 1850's and was completed in the early 1870's.

What's interesting is that construction of the park meant that Seneca Village, which lied on a plot of land between 81st and 89th streets and 7th & 8th Avenue (now Central Park West), would be taken down. The City did not mind though because it had become home to too many squatters and thanks to eminent domain  (seizing of private property for public use), authorization to do so took place on July 21, 1853.

While on this tour, the colors of the trees captured my attention the most, and I struggled to pay attention to the rest of the information learned on the tour amid all of the reds, greens and bright yellows surrounding me. Here are two of my favorite pictures taken while on the tour.

Fall colors in Seneca Village
Marrying colors

Beautiful green tree in Seneca Village
Green tree in Seneca Village

More on Seneca Village here.

More posts on these tours to come as well!

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