New York offers up any number of priceless gems. If gives us Broadway, Lincoln Center, and The Museum of Modern Art. For comfort and a touch of class we have The Carlyle Hotel and for our eating pleasure we have La Grenouille. However, all of these establishments do come with a hefty price tag. As an example, to take in a Broadway show for two with a dinner beforehand you will spend at least $1,000.
But there is one gem that is free to all and that is Central Park, created in 1858 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and designed to offer a truly democratic experience for all New Yorkers and a place where all the classes intermingle. By 1970, the park had decayed due to neglect, but thanks to the Central Park Conservancy, which has invested over $1 billion to restore the park, it is now visited by 43 million tourists and Manhattanites every year.
The park is almost entirely man-made and contains many lakes, open meadows, rambling tree-lined pathways and important sculptures. Central Park represents the beautiful heart of New York.
Many people are first introduced to Central Park by going to Tavern on the Green, a structure originally designed by Jacob Mould and built to house the flock of Southdown sheep used to mow Sheep Meadow. The interior of Tavern on the Green once contained a magical stain glass passage that led to the restaurant and the famed chandelier-ed Crystal Room, but has since been redesigned.
Directly adjacent to Tavern on the Green is the Sheep Meadow of “The Commons,” which is a huge a lawn used for sunbathing and the occasional concert.
Just south of Sheep Meadow you will find “The Children’s District,” which has a carousel rivaling the one in Rome’s Borghese Gardens.
My favorite part of Central Park is “The Mall,” which is a formal promenade lined with American elms carefully tended to by the Conservancy. The mall evokes a religious-ike experience with the elms acting like columns and the branches intertwining above like the vaulting of cathedral ceilings (see photo.)
There is also the Central Park zoo and the charming Delacorte Clock featuring a group of animal musicians that rotate every hour and half hour to nursery rhymes and popular tunes.
Further north around 74th street on the east side of the park is the Sailboat Pond made famous in 1945 when E. B. White wrote “Stuart Little” about the little mouse who sailed his ship “the Wasp” on this very same pond. Further along in the park you come to Loeb’s Boathouse, where you can rent a boat, get a gondola ride or simply have brunch in their lovely restaurant and watch the boats go by.
After brunch you can head west by crossing the low-slung Bow Bridge, which resembles the subtler curve of an archer’s bow, and you enter “The Ramble,” one of the greatest landscape sequences ever created by Olmsted and Vaux. “The Ramble” is like going into a dark forest and is filled with mystery, surprise and adventure, including hidden caves and Azalea Pond.
As I said, Manhattan is a treasure to behold and Central Park is the heart of New York, offering history, beauty and a chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of New York. And it won’t cost you a single penny.
