NEW YORK CITY.- The Museum of the City of New York presents today "Central Park in Blue," on view through September 28, 2003. The original Gapstow Bridge, at the northeast end of the Pond, was constructed of wood and cast iron. Attributed to Jacob Wrey Mould (1825-1886), it was built in 1874 and replaced with a stone arch in 1898.
In the early summer of 1853, after much political maneuvering and the consideration of alternate sites, the New York State Legislature authorized New York City to acquire the land between 59th and 106th Streets from Fifth to Eighth Avenues. This was the first of many steps towards the creation of Central Park. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) and Calvert Vaux (1824-1895), Central Park was the first landscaped public park and the first major urban park in the United States. Though the park now seems a natural landscape, as Olmsted wrote, "Every foot of the park’s surface, every tree and bush, as well as every arch, roadway, and walk has been fixed where it is with a purpose."
The original Boathouse was located on the southeastern shore of the Lake. A sprawling Victorian wooden structure with second-story terraces and balustrades, it was designed by Calvert Vaux, with the assistance of Jacob Wrey Mould, and completed in 1873. It was replaced by the current Loeb Boathouse in 1954.
A small portion of Central Park opened to the public late in 1858, although the landscaping of the park was not yet completed. Many of its significant structures were not to be built for more than a decade. Over the next fifteen years more than four million trees, shrubs, and vines were planted. In 1863 the park was expanded to include the land between 106th and 110th Streets, site of some of the park’s most impressive landscape features, including the Loch (with four manmade waterfalls), the Ravine, and the Harlem Meer. The park was immediately popular. In 1865 it received more than seven million visitors.
A major impetus behind the creation of Central Park was the desire of many influential New Yorkers to have a public space that could compare with the great urban parks of Europe. Although New York had emerged as a leading commercial center by the middle of the nineteenth century, it lacked the cultural attractions and refinements expected of a world-class metropolis. A grand municipal park, it was argued, could change the city’s Philistine image. Perhaps this explains the assignment, more than a quarter century later, that led to the creation of a large group of the photographs shown here.
Featured among the late nineteenth-century cyanotypes in this exhibition is the work of Augustus Hepp, a landscape gardener for Central Park and one of the entrants in the 1857 design competition for the park. In 1879 Hepp was commissioned by the U. S. Secretary of State, William Evarts, to make photographs of the park to be presented as a gift to the French government. By then the park was considered completed - all of the major structures had been built, and trees, shrubs and other landscape elements planted over the previous two decades had had time to grow and acquire a natural appearance. It was time for the city to proclaim its magnificent civic achievement to the world. In addition to images of highlights of the picturesque landscape, Hepp’s photographs show then newly-built Park features, such as Bethesda Terrace and Belvedere Castle, as well as several others that no longer exist, including the Mineral Springs Pavilion and the original Boathouse.
Offering an uncommon perspective on a familiar landscape, the cyanotypes in this exhibition, by Hepp and others, give a glimpse of a world that has since been transformed and yet endures in Central Park’s timeless beauty.
The Museum of the City of New York is grateful to Sara Cedar Miller of the Central Park Conservancy for her generous assistance with the preparation of this exhibition.