Before Central Park became a model for city parks worldwide, the land was the site of farms, businesses, churches, wars, and burial grounds – and home to many different kinds of New Yorkers.
In her book Before Central Park, historian emerita of the Central Park Conservancy Sara Cedar Miller chronicles two and half centuries of history, she tells the stories of a secret Revolutionary War meeting of George Washington and his generals, the Dutch taverns in Harlem, the personalities of Seneca Village, the unique Bloomingdale Black community of landowners, and the farm of James Amory now the Mall, Bethesda Terrace, and Sheep Meadow and more. [Read more…] about Before Central Park: Farms, Businesses, Churches, Wars and Burial Grounds