Hi friends. This won’t take long, but I’ve had something of a revelation of late and wanted to share just in case it’s helpful.
For those who follow along on our crazy adventures, you’ll be familiar with our mantra that, while the cities of the world are neat to explore, we’re big fans of getting out of the city. At least for us, that’s where we find a truer sense of the local culture and people, which is what we’re usually after on our travels. It really is hard to replicate the experience of wandering into the rural local pub and just experiencing an evening out in whatever part of the world your journey has taken you to.
The other thing we like about getting out of town is that cities are just so friggin’ crowded and busy. There’s hardly even any of those puffy, leafy green things the rest of the world recognizes as trees. Know what we mean? Or…are there?
On a recent trip to New York City, you know…the city of all cities…we had that familiar feeling that borders on a mix of claustrophobia and suffocation. It’s not that the buildings and city life aren’t interesting or fun to explore, because they are both of those things. And yes, those tall towers give some of the most spectacular city views and vantage points. Truly something you should explore. But with limited real estate and growing populations, it seems the only way to add new space is either to build up or to cram new buildings into ever-smaller spaces. Seriously, have you seen some of those ‘apartments’ for rent in the Big Apple? Ridiculous.
So, you can imagine our surprise when, while out for a rather brisk walk through the City with his brother, Jason stumbled across…wait for it…a park. Compete with trees and everything. Sadly, there wasn’t enough time to explore the park because they were on a very important mission, but at least we can confirm such things exist. In hindsight, this is probably obvious as we’ve all heard of Central Park…a park…right? Still, the thought of green space isn’t what immediately comes to mind when thinking about the City that Never Sleeps.
This particular park is the City Hall Park and dates back to somewhere around the mid-17th century. Neat! Here’s the small of it: Originally, the Park was a communal pasture for livestock (remember, New York City wasn’t always the city we know it as today), but by the middle of the 18th century, it had two facilities to help the poor. Around that time (we’re at approximately 1757) there was a debtors’ prison and soldiers’ barracks built at one end of the Park (the North, if you can find the directions in NYC). In 1803 construction was started on City Hall – hence the name of the park – which was completed eight years later in 1812. Later that century (around 1867) part of the park was sold to the feds to build a post office (incidentally it was torn down in 1939 and never replaced), and in 1903 the City replaced the gas streetlights with electric updates. In 1993, after discovering an African burial ground in the park, the park was designated as a City landmark and National Historic site. By 1999 they completed a nearly $35 million project to restore the park to what we can see it as today. And throughout all of this, the park continued serving as a place for regular people to hang out, a concert venue, a site for official public meetings, and so on.
Surprisingly, there are over 100 parks in the City’s five boroughs (the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island), each with its own unique history and things to see. So, the next time you’re in The City, or even a city, it might be worth taking a few minutes to look up the parks in the area and go out for a stroll. If nothing else, it’ll be a nice change of scenery and what will probably be a much-needed breath of fresh air. Literally.
