Unique To NYC: Central Park

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Arsenal: 5th Ave and 64th St

Muralist Allen Saalburg painting front lobby in 1936

I've walked by the Arsenal in Central Park numerous times and never really gave it much thought until yesterday, when I attended a class there. The Arsenal has a diverse past and has numerous present functions (check out Arsenal History for more info).

As you might imagine from the name, the Arsenal was first built (overseen by then-comptroller and later President Millard Fillmore) as a repository for munitions in the early 1850s by the State of New York. Within a few years of completion, it was taken over by the City as an administrative building. Over the years, the Arsenal functioned as, among other things, a police precinct, the American Museum of Natural History (before that was constructed on the Upper West Side), a menagerie (with gifts/loans from the likes of P.T. Barnum and General William Tecumseh Sherman (whose bust is at Grant's Tomb--see my prior post on Grant's Tomb for a photo)), and weather bureau (now at Belvedere Castle--see my prior post on Central Park for more info).

Lobby Mural at Present

But by the early 1920s the Arsenal was in disrepair and considered a blight on the City and Central Park. After a 2 year renovation, which was followed by another in the mid 1930s (see photo above and at right--then and now), the Arsenal became command central to Commissioner Robert Moses who expanded the parks system to an unprecedented level (parks acreage increased 3 fold during his terms, which ended in 1960).

The Arsenal is currently the home to the City of New York/Parks & Recreation, the City Parks Foundation, the Historic House Trust, the New York Wildlife Conservation Society, the Parks Library, and the Arsenal Gallery. Whew! That's a lot of functions. Unfortunately, the Arsenal is looking a little "administratively seedy" again, but hopefully it will get more visitors and folks will feel inspired to restore it (like the Armory just a few blocks away--please see my prior post on the Armory)

Since the early 1980s, the central room on the third floor of the building has been used as an austere gallery. Eight to ten exhibitions of art or photography are mounted annually. Currently there is a photo exhibit of Chinese artist/dissident, Ai Weiwei, who was incarcerated on April 3, 2011 for questioning accepted national beliefs. See photo at left of the artist with his Dog Head sculpture, part of his "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" that questions the differences between what is real and what is fake and subtly questions China's national identity. I haven't gotten a chance to go by there yet, but the sculptures are supposed to be at the Pulitzer Fountain 5 blocks south of the Arsenal (in front of the Plaza Hotel). I'm looking forward to getting a chance to see this art up close. Another benefit of living in NYC...amazing art accessible to the public everywhere!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Central Park

The Pond with peek a boo view of Gapstow Bridge

A Central Park audio tour is available for free download from http://www.centralpark.com/guide/tours/walking/self-guided/download-audio.html. There is a short ad for the Jumeirah Essex House Hotel at the start (they funded the creation of the audio tour), but other than that, the whole tour is really an interesting detailed description of the history and highlights of Central Park (originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux) from Central Park South up to about 79th Street and back down.

I have enjoyed the Park innumerable times (I used to live a couple of blocks from the Park back in the late 90s) but this tour taught me about many of the sights that I had previously not thought much about and taken for granted. For instance, there are magnificent statues at Artists' Gate, which is at Central Park South and 6th Avenue/Avenue of the Americas of three great liberators of South America (appropriately at the head of Avenue of the Americas), Jose de San Martin, Simon Bolivar (above right), and Jose Julian Marti Perez (above left). With the weather unseasonably warm yesterday (reaching the low 60s), I jumped at the chance to take this 2+ hour tour (there is a shorter family version available as well).

I was amazed to find that the 5+ acre zoo houses over 130 species ranging from polar bears and California seals (see right) to tarantulas. I was also lucky to catch the playing of the Delacorte Musical Clock (which plays one of 26 tunes every half and whole hour from 8 am to 5 pm); granted this is not much of a show for adults, but may be fun for young kids (whose special area of the zoo lies just beyond).

I followed the tour next to the famous statue of Balto, the Siberian Husky that led the final leg of the relay of sled dog teams that saved Nome, AK from a diphtheria epidemic in 1925 by traveling almost a thousand miles through white-out blizzard conditions. Once can see various portions of the statue are well worn and shiny from the innumerable hands that have petted this dog or rode on his back for a photo.

I won't go on in too much more detail, except to provide photos (and identifying captions) several other highlights of the Park that the audio tour explained. If you have the time and stamina, (and the weather is cooperative), I would recommend you take the tour and learn about things like like the 121 countries endorsing Strawberry Fields as a garden of peace in honor of John Lennon, who was shot outside his home at the Dakota (just west of the Park); the obelisk (the oldest object in the Park with a questionable acquisition); the dairy (established to provide safe milk for the children of NYC); and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain (which commemorates the completion of the Croton Aqueduct, which was hoped would prevent the continued spread of infectious diseases that was plaguing the City) (see right).