![]() This meandering style formed the basis for how the park looks today and is largely responsible for the park’s sense of seclusion from the surrounding city.ĭuring the Gilded Age, Madison Square Park would become the centerpiece of the neighborhood growing around it. Originally, the park was laid out in street-grid fashion similar to the streets around it, but in the 1870s, park designers Ignatz Pilat and William Grant redesigned the park with winding, curved walkways, deliberately avoiding any direct route across the grounds. ![]() Shortly after, park planners officially opened the park as a public city space. In 1844, again in response to NYC’s rapid expansion, Madison Square Park was reduced to 6.2 acres, the park’s current size. Public Unveiling and the Gilded Age (Mid-Late 1800s) Nearly 20 years later, the old military arsenal on the grounds was converted to serve as the nation’s first home for juvenile delinquents. Shortly after the war, in the face of increasing population demands, the public land was reduced from 238.7 acres to 89.2 acres and named Madison Square after President James Madison. military set up a Parade Grounds of 238.7 acres in the area, on which to practice maneuvers-a function the land served through the War of 1812. It is believed that some victims are still buried beneath the park’s soil, although most of the bodies were eventually moved to the Washington Square area. When Bellevue Hospital needed a “potter’s field” for the dead, the relatively close old hunting grounds became the obvious choice. Nearly two decades after the colonies declared their independence from Britain, a yellow fever epidemic swept through the mid-Atlantic region, starting in Philadelphia and making its way to New York City in the mid 1790s, killing thousands in its wake. In 1686, several decades after Britain had taken over the colony and renamed it New York, the Royal Governor of New York designated this area a public hunting ground.Ī Burial Ground, then Military Parade Grounds (Late 1700s – Early 1800s) The land was undeveloped, with a swampy creek winding through it on its way to the East River. It’s hard today to imagine NoMad as swampland, but when the Dutch first settled New Amsterdam at the lower tip of Manhattan in the early 1600s, that’s exactly what this area was. So rich is its history that we can’t cover it in a single article, but let’s look at a few of the more significant highlights. The park becomes even more rewarding if we are mindful of all that has happened there…and all it caused to happen there. Luckily, our forebears recognized the important respite a green space provides, and caring generations over the past 150 years have delivered this magical place to us. In fact, it it is hard to imagine how things would be if it were not there. Whether we ease our minds by just looking across the street at it, eat lunch there, or enjoy its latest art installation, Madison Square Park is an indispensable part of our life in NoMad.
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