![Central Park May 2019 31](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Central_Park_May_2019_31.jpg)
North Woods and North Meadow are two interconnected features in the northern section of
Central Park,
New York City, close to the neighborhoods of the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
and
Harlem in
Manhattan. The North Woods, in the northwestern corner of the park, is a rugged woodland that contains a forest called the Ravine, as well as two water features called the Loch and the Pool. The western portion of the North Woods also includes Great Hill, the third highest point in Central Park. North Meadow, a recreation center and sports complex, is immediately southeast of the North Woods. Completed in the 1860s, North Woods and North Meadow were among the last parts of Central Park to be built.
History
Construction
North Woods and North Meadow, located between
97th and
110th Streets in Central Park, were among the last parts of the park to be built.
While construction on the southern part of the park started in 1857,
the northernmost four blocks between
106th and 110th Streets were not even purchased until 1859.
At the time, the northwestern corner of the park was a rocky forest, while the northeastern corner (now the
Harlem Meer) was a swamp.
The Pool and Loch in the North Woods were proposed by Central Park commissioner Robert J. Dillon, who included it as one of seventeen amendments to the
Greensward Plan
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 42 ...
,
Frederick Law Olmsted and
Calvert Vaux's original design for Central Park.
Work had started on the northern section of the park by 1864, but was complicated by a need to preserve the historic
McGowan's Pass on the northeastern corner of the park.
The topography in the northern section of Central Park was not altered as much as that in the southern section of the park: workers created drives and paths, as well as the Pool, Loch, and Harlem Meer, but did not modify much of the landscape.
North Woods and North Meadow were completed by the late 1860s.
![1868mcgowansmap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/1868mcgowansmap.jpg)
In 1870–1871, the
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
political machine, which was the largest political force in New York at the time, took control of Central Park for a brief period.
They proposed building a
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological g ...
at the site of the current North Woods, but the proposal was not implemented.
Olmsted and Vaux also proposed an observation tower atop Great Hill, though this was never completed, either.
Late 19th and early 20th centuries
For the first few decades of Central Park's existence, it was forbidden to play most sports in Central Park, because Olmsted and Vaux believed that the park should be used for scenic enjoyment rather than recreation.
However, because of growing recreational pressures, the Central Park commission opened North Meadow to sports by the late 19th century.
The first recorded
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
matches were played in North Meadow by 1885, and immigrant families began hosting picnics in North Meadow by the 1920s.
In addition, there was a proposal to move the
Central Park Zoo
The Central Park Zoo is a zoo located at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York City. It is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In conjunction with the Central ...
to the North Meadow in the 1890s, though this was controversial and largely opposed. In 1902, the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company excavated a
subway
Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to:
Transportation
* Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems
* Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle
* Subway (George Bush Interconti ...
tunnel at a deep level underneath the Great Hill, North Woods and North Meadow, as part of its
Lenox Avenue Line (present-day ).
In 1910, in conjunction with Central Park's growing recreational use,
New York City Board of Aldermen president
John Purroy Mitchel
John Purroy Mitchel (July 19, 1879 – July 6, 1918) was the 95th mayor of New York, from 1914 to 1917. At 34, he was the second-youngest mayor and he is sometimes referred to as "The Boy Mayor of New York." Mitchel is remembered for his sho ...
suggested placing a swimming pool and recreational center in the North Meadow. However, parks commissioner
Charles Stover
Charles Livingston Stover (July 9, 1866 – May 5, 1927) was an American football player and coach. He served as a player-coach at Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, M ...
opposed the plan, and it was ultimately dropped.
After the plan was cancelled, another proposal was made that would replace the "comfort station", refreshment stand, and storage shed in North Meadow with a single recreational center.
Around this time, in 1911, North Meadow was temporarily closed for reseeding, to mitigate damage caused by heavy usage.
During the project, North Meadow was fenced in, and new trees and shrubs were added.
The work took about four years.
Another plan in the 1920s called for a playground in the northern section of Central Park, near the North Woods. Ultimately, the West 110th Street Playground was built at the site.
Under NYC Parks commissioner
Robert Moses
Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid 20th century. Despite never being elected to any office, Moses is regarded ...
, athletic fields were constructed in the North Meadow in the 1930s,
and
bocce,
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
, and
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
facilities for adults were installed in the Great Hill.
The North Meadow was thus designated as an adults' play area, while the
Great Lawn
The Great Lawn and Turtle Pond are two connected features of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The lawn and pond are located on the site of a former reservoir for the Croton Aqueduct system which was infilled during the ...
further south was reserved for children.
In 1962, the city announced that
Lasker Rink would be built above the mouth of the Loch. When completed in 1966, the facility served as an ice rink in winter and Central Park's only swimming pool in summer.
Restoration
![Central Park North Meadow td (2019-04-18) 024](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Central_Park_North_Meadow_td_%282019-04-18%29_024.jpg)
By the late 1960s, the Loch had deteriorated to such an extent that the
cascades along its route had dried up, and the stream was jokingly referred to as "the Trickle".
The Great Hill was also rundown,
as was the North Woods.
By 1987, the Central Park Conservancy had raised $2.5 million to build a tennis house, the current recreation center, in the North Meadow. However, these plans were opposed by some tennis players, who stated that the existing tennis house on the southern edge of the meadow was located on a hill that afforded better views of the surrounding area, while the proposed tennis house would be located in a depression.
The area gained notoriety in April 1989 due to the
Central Park jogger case
The Central Park jogger case (events also referenced as the Central Park Five Case) was a criminal case over the aggravated assault and rape of a white woman in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, on April 19, 1989, occurring at the same time a ...
. A white female jogger was badly beaten and raped at night in the North Woods, when 30-32 youths from East Harlem were known to have been roaming through the park, and accosting and sometimes assaulting eight other persons. According to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the attack was "one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s". A group of four black and one Hispanic teenagers, who became known as the "
Central Park Five
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
", were convicted of this and another assault, and sentenced to years in prison. Their convictions were vacated after another man confessed to the crime in 2002, his DNA matched that found in semen at the scene, and the DA's office conducted an investigation of other elements of the evidence.
Following the female jogger attack and other assaults in the park that night, the
Central Park Conservancy organized the Citizens Task Force on the Use and Security of Central Park. The task force published a report that suggested reverting the North Meadow's baseball fields to a lawn, though this was strongly opposed by athletes who used these ball fields.
In 1990, the Conservancy announced recreational programs and restoration projects to attract more people to the North Woods and, by extension, reduce crime. Improvements to the northern end of the park began around this time. Areas of the North Woods was cleared and replanted, and programs to minimize erosion were set up.
In 1994, the Conservancy announced a $71.5 million program to restore several portions of the park. The projects included adding drainage systems and reseeding the North Woods and North Meadow. The North Meadow Recreation Center was renovated again from 1998 to 2000.
The West 110th Street playground was restored in 2006.
A major storm destroyed more than one hundred trees in the northern section of the park in 2009, which represented the single greatest loss to the park's trees in thirty years.
JPMorgan Chase later donated $1 million to replace the trees.
A $150 million renovation of Lasker Rink was officially announced in 2018, requiring that the rink be closed between late 2021 and 2024.
As part of the plan, the portion of the Loch and Harlem Meer under the lake would be restored to a more natural state, and a
boardwalk would be added along the newly restored Loch. A new rink would be built to the east of the Loch and would be set within a slope, containing a new pool that would be located at a lower elevation than the existing pool. During winters, ice skaters would be allowed to skate on the boardwalk and the Loch by means of synthetic ice placed on the boardwalk.
North Woods
![Central Park May 2019 80](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Central_Park_May_2019_80.jpg)
North Woods is the largest of Central Park's three woodlands, and is located at the lightly-used northwestern corner of Central Park.
It covers about adjacent to North Meadow.
The name sometimes also applies to other attractions in the park's northern end; if these adjacent features are included, the area of North Woods can be .
North Woods contains the Ravine, a forest with
deciduous trees on its northwestern slope, as well as the Loch, a small stream that winds through North Woods diagonally.
The southeastern part of the Ravine contains oak, elms, and maple trees, while the area further east contains oak, hickory, maple, and ash trees.
The Woods also includes
Blockhouse No. 1
Blockhouse No. 1, colloquially known as The Blockhouse, is a small fort in the North Woods section of Central Park, Manhattan, New York City. Finished in 1814, the Blockhouse is the second-oldest structure in the park, after Cleopatra's Needle, ...
,
a historic fortification from the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
.
The northwestern corner contains a
playground
A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...
called West 110th Street Playground. The playground has a children's play structure as well as spray fountains.
The surrounding area also contains several tall rocks, popular among
boulderers.
Great Hill
The western portion of North Woods contains Great Hill, the third-highest point in Central Park, rising to above sea level. Great Hill contains a
picnic
A picnic is a meal taken outdoors ( ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding ...
area with tables. Near the top of the hill, a walking path encircles a green lawn.
North Meadow
North Meadow, one of Central Park's lawns, measures and is bounded by North Woods (at approximately 102nd Street) to the north and west, Harlem Meer to the northeast, East Meadow to the east, and
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir
The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, also known as Central Park Reservoir, is a decommissioned reservoir in Central Park in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, stretching from 86th to 96th Streets. It covers and holds over 10⁹ US ...
to the south.
Samuel Parsons
Samuel Bowne Parsons Jr. (8 February 1844 – 3 February 1923), was an American landscape architect. He is remembered as being a founder of the American Society of Landscape Architects, helping to establish the profession.
Early years
Parsons wa ...
, the superintendent of Central Park during the 1880s through 1910s, once wrote of the North Meadow: "It is genuine park scenery that the eye is tempted to linger upon and the foot to walk upon, and presents, if viewed as a single feature, one of the best examples we have of good park work."
North Meadow contains twelve
baseball field
A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...
s,
as well as six non-regulation
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
fields overlapping with the North Meadow ballfields.
A series of
butterfly gardens are also located on the northeastern edge of North Meadow. The space has sometimes been used for concerts, such as
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the co ...
's 1997 event
Garth: Live from Central Park, which drew an estimated crowd of up to 980,000.
In the middle of North Meadow is the North Meadow Recreation Center.
The main building in the complex was converted to a recreation facility in the 1990s.
The building contains twelve
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
courts and four
basketball courts outdoors.
In addition, a
rock-climbing
Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...
wall is located inside the recreation center building.
In 2007, the center started offering
horseback riding in conjunction with the
Riverdale Equestrian Center Riverdale may refer to:
Buildings
*Riverdale Centre, former name for Lewisham Shopping Centre, London, England
*Riverdale House, a Victorian mansion in Sheffield, England
* Riverdale (Selma, Alabama), a historic plantation house in Dallas County, A ...
, which operates near
Van Cortlandt Park
Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. The park, the city's third-lar ...
in
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
. Additionally, the North Meadow includes a security center, installed in 1984.
The Pool and Loch
![Central Park May 2019 23](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Central_Park_May_2019_23.jpg)
North Woods contains the Loch, which drains into Harlem Meer in the northeastern corner of the park; the Loch is fed by the Pool, whose mouth is the waterfall at its eastern end that is the source of the Loch, just west of the arch called
Glen Span.
The Loch and Pool are adapted from a single watercourse called Montayne's Rivulet, originally fed from a natural spring but now replenished by the city's water system.
The Loch is the only stream in Central Park where an existing watercourse was left aboveground, rather than placed in a
culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...
underground.
The Pool is located near 101st Street and Central Park West.
It was once surrounded by
lilies and contained a rocky island in the center.
The water for the Pool comes from a
grotto
A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...
that hides a
water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...
pipe.
Originally, the Pool was fed by a
drainage basin of inside the park as well as to the west of the park boundary.
The Loch originates at the Pool before winding through the North Woods and the Ravine.
Its name is likely influenced from the trips that Central Park designer
Frederick Law Olmsted made to the United Kingdom during the 1850s.
The Loch, formerly an actual lake, was whittled down over time into a small stream.
Originally, there were two waterfalls on the Loch: a drop at the Pool, and a smaller drop further east.
Paths also lined either
bank of the Loch. A diverse selection of plant species was located along the Loch, though before the 1990s restoration, this had been reduced to a few
invasive species
An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...
.
The Loch enters a culvert between Huddlestone Arch to the west
and the
Lasker Rink (at the Harlem Meer) to the east.
The tall-grass meadow adjacent to the Loch is the park's only woodland meadow.
Bridges
North Woods contains four ornamental spans. Glen Span, a light-gray
gneiss-and-
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
span, crosses the Loch as well as the adjacent walkway.
Further east, Huddlestone Arch carries the East Drive above a pedestrian path and the Loch. It is made of boulders, some weighing nearly . It is the only one in the park whose boulders are held together solely
by gravity.
South of both of those, the Springbanks Arch carries a bridle path and a former segment of carriage road across a pedestrian path and a stream of the Loch.
Finally, the gneiss-and-ashlar Mountcliff Arch, near the
Frederick Douglass Circle entrance to the park at 110th Street and Eighth Avenue, is the tallest span in the park at high.
In addition, there are three unadorned "rustic bridges" in North Woods: the Cascade and Loch Bridges, as well as a third unnamed bridge.
References
External links
*
{{Harlem
Central Park
Forests of New York (state)
Urban forests in the United States
Trees of New York City