Swedish Cottage, Central Park, New York City 2018

The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre is a building in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, southeast of the Delacorte Theater near

West Drive Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

and 79th Street. It was imported to the U.S. in 1876 as Sweden’s exhibit for the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

in Philadelphia. The Swedish architecture and craftsmanship of the structure, suggestive of a model schoolhouse, caught the eye of

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

, who brought it to Central Park in 1877. Beginning in 1947, the cottage served as the home of a marionette theater troupe that traveled across the city performing on playgrounds and school auditoriums. Under the direction of

City Parks Foundation The City Parks Foundation is the only independent, nonprofit organization to offer programs in parks throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The organization works in over 750 parks citywide, presenting a broad range of free arts, sport ...

, citywide puppet shows in parks continue to this day through the CityParks PuppetMobile, the oldest continually operating company of its kind in the country, which presents free performances and puppet-making workshops in neighborhood parks, recreation centers and schools throughout New York City. In 1973 a permanent theater was constructed inside the cottage designed for marionette performances. Since then, hundreds of thousands of children and families from around the world have enjoyed its original marionette productions. The cottage is a member of the

Historic House Trust of New York City The Historic House Trust of New York City was formed in 1989 as a public-private partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to preserve the historic houses located within New York City parks, although most of the houses ...

Marionette performances

The Swedish Cottage and its performances are managed and presented by the

. Master puppet makers and puppeteers create and present the marionette productions, which have included "Hansel and Gretel", "Gulliver's Travels", "Sleeping Beauty", "Alice in Wonderland", "Jack and the Beanstalk", “The Secret History of the Swedish Cottage" and many others.

References

External links

City Parks Foundation
Official website
Press release
2011 show announcement {{Central Park Central Park Puppet theaters Schoolhouses in the United States World's fair architecture in New York City Centennial Exposition Theatres in Manhattan World's fair architecture in Pennsylvania Swedish-American culture in New York (state)