Meaghan & Erik: Scavenger Hunt: Central Park

Now that I’ve had several people come in town to visit, I’ve realized what a terrible tour guide I have been. I knew absolutely nothing about the history of the buildings and just took them to the stereotypical NYC sights. We hit many of the highlights but missed some big ones like the fountain in Bethesda Terrace (big angel fountain in Central Park where tons of movies have scenes and Law & Order finds dead bodies), the Mall (also in CP), Carnegie Hall (in my defense, it’s currently obscured by scaffolding) among other things.

So, to remedy that, I bought a book called “Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City”. Now, they should totally have books like this for every city if they don’t already. I have found it so interesting and am treating it as a scavenger hunt of sorts. It will be something that’s cheap, fun and time-consuming for the weekends when I’m here without work (need to take advantage!) and without Erik. (Side note: While finding the link for the book title above, I found out that the writers have a BLOG!! Adding it to my GoogleReader NOW).

So this is the beginning of what I’ll call the “Scavenger Hunt” series of blogposts. I’ll start with Central Park. I took these photos after my ill-fated Sunday run. It’s so crazy that this is where I live!

Anyway, some photos and a little history.

This is Columbus Circle at 59th Street and at the southern tip of the park. According to chapter 98, this statute was built in honor of the Christopher Columbus Quadricentennial. Before 1892, Columbus Circle was just called “the Circle”—just not the same, is it?

This statue is called “The Angel of the Waters” and is actually the first work of public art in New York City by a female artist, Emma Stebbins. It was installed in 1873 (Ch. 72). It looks more picturesque with water, so I’ll probably take more pictures and update with a later post. The terrace is also called “Navy Terrace” and the angel was dedicated to those who died serving in the Union Navy (Ch. 72). She comes at the end of “The Mall” (see below for photos).

Bethesda Terrace is said to be the “formal heart” of CP (Ch. 68) and work on it continued during the Civil War.

There are stone carvings at the top of the stairs to get to the terrace, representing the times of day. Here are a few:

Go Jackets!

Knowledge (lamp and book)

The most interesting one to me by far is the carving of a flying witch with a jack-o-latern (Ch. 68). Apparently at the time this was made, Halloween symbols were new to America and this carving may have been a compliment to Irish Americans, whose Catholicism was thought to be akin to paganism—Halloween just being one of the many examples of such behavior.