FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2020 LET’S TAKE A FERRY RIDE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2020
The
136th Edition
From Our Archives
A DIRECT FERRY RIDE TO
90th STREET
STARTING
THIS SATURDAY
ALL ABOARD NYC FERRY
NEW ROUTE OF ASTORIA FERRY STARTING SATURDAY
GOOD NEWS!
As of this Saturday, August 22nd you can get there from here. The NYC Ferry will extend the Astoria route to go 90th Street, Manhattan. This is great news on those wanting to get to the Upper East Side.
The ferry docks just north of the park at 90th Street and the FDR Drive.
Carl Schurz Park is a 14.9-acre (6.0 ha) public park in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, named for German-born Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz in 1910, at the edge of what was then the solidly German-American community of Yorkville.
The park contains Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the Mayor of New Carl Schurz Park overlooks the waters of Hell Gate and Wards Island in the East River, and is the site of Gracie Mansion (built for Archibald Gracie, 1799, enlarged c. 1811), the official residence of the Mayor of New York since 1942. There are tours of the restored building every Wednesday. The park’s waterfront promenade is a deck built over the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, enclosing the roadway except on the side facing the East River.
The park is bordered on the west by East End Avenue and on the south by Gracie Square, the extension of East 84th Street to the river. The East River Greenway, part of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, passes along the promenade platform. The park contains winding, shady paths, green lawns, waterfront views, basketball courts, a large playground for children, and two dog runs: one designated for larger dogs and one for smaller dogs. The park is maintained by Carl Schurz Park Conservancy, the oldest park conservancy in New York City, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
PETER PAN STATUE IN THE PARK
Carl Schurz Park Carl Schurz Park This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.
What was here before? The Algonquins were the earliest inhabitants of this land, which was valued for its strategic location overlooking turbulent waters of the Hell Gate at this bend in the East River. The first known European owner of the land was Dutchman Sybout Claessen, who was granted the property in 1646 by the Dutch West India Company. Jacob Walton, a subsequent owner, built the first house on the site in 1770. During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Army built a fort surrounding the Walton residence to guard the strategic shipping passage of Hell Gate.
After a British attack on September 8, 1776, the house was destroyed and the Americans were forced to retreat from the fort, which the British retained until the end of the war in 1783. In 1799, a prosperous New York hant named Archibald Gracie built a country house on the land. .Bankruptcy forced Gracie to sell his house to Joseph Foulke in 1823. Foulke later subdivided the land, selling the mansion and some of the land to Noah Wheaton in 1857.
How did this site become a park? In 1896, the City of New York seized the estate from Wheaton due to non-payment of taxes, incorporating its 11 acres of grounds into East River Park. It was renamed in 1910 for the German-American statesman Carl Schurz.
The first home of the Museum of the City of New York (1924-32), the mansion has served as the official residence of New York’s mayors since Fiorello La Guardia moved there in 1942.
Illustrious landscape architects Calvert Vaux (1824-1895) and Samuel Parsons (1844-1923) completed a new landscape design for the park in 1902. Maud Sargent (1899-1992) re-designed the park in 1939 when the East River Drive underpass, now Franklin Delano Roosevelt Drive, was under construction. Sargent’s functional design used strategically placed boulders, plantings, and hardscaped plazas and walkways to obscure the new roadway below.
The park’s waterfront promenade, built over the FDR’s roof deck, was named after City College president and New York State Commissioner of Education John H. Finley. In 1975 Charles Andrew Hafner’s (1889-1960) sculpture of Peter Pan, originally created in 1928 for the old Paramount Theater’s lobby, was installed in one of the park’s cloistered gardens. Recent improvements include rebuilding of the stairs, the complete restoration of the playground and the opening of Carl’s Dog Run.
These and other projects, including the planting of flowers, have been accomplished through a partnership between NYC Parks and the Carl Schurz Park Conservancy, which has demonstrated the community’s commitment to restoring, maintaining, and preserving this park since it formed in 1974. Who is this park named for?
The Board of Aldermen named the park for the soldier, statesman, and journalist Carl Schurz (1829-1906) in 1910. Schurz was a native of Cologne, Germany, and the renaming was strongly supported by the large German adjacent community, Yorkville. After immigrating to the United States in 1852, Schurz quickly made his reputation as a skilled orator and proved to be instrumental to Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 election campaign. His most significant political offices were that of United States Senator from Missouri (1869-1875), and Secretary of the Interior (1877-81) during the Hayes administration. In his later years, Schurz was editor of the New York Tribune and an editorial writer for Harper’s Weekly. Schurz is also honored by Karl Bitter’s statue of 1913, located at Morningside Drive and 116th.
FRIDAY IMAGE OF THE DAY
WHAT AND WHERE IS THIS?
SEND SUBMISSIONS TO: ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
WINNER GETS A KIOSK TRINKET
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
Octagon Cat Shelter
Wildlife Freedom Foundation
Jay Jacobson came closest.
CLARIFICATION
WE ARE HAPPY TO GIVE WINNERS OF OUR DAILY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION A TRINKET FROM THE VISITOR CENTER
. ONLY THE PERSON IDENTIFYING THE PHOTO FIRST WILL GET A PRIZE.
WE HAVE A SPECIAL GROUP OF ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM. WE CANNOT GIVE AWAY ALL OUR ITEMS,.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, WE MUST LIMIT GIVE-AWAYS. THANK YOU
ITEMS OF THE DAY
FROM THE KIOSK
GREAT STUFF FOR ALL OCCASIONS
SOFT TOTES IN LOTS OF DESIGNS $12-
EDITORIAL
This e-mail popped up last evening…………..and what good news. From out of the blue news that we can now get to East 90th Street by Ferry.
We can connect at 90th Street to take the Soundview Ferry to the Bronx.
The Soundview Ferry is a great ride through historic islands and now we can do it easier from here.
Yipppee!!
Judith Berdy
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
PHOTOS AND TEXT COURTESY OF NYC PARKS DEPT. AND WIKIPEDIA
All image are copyrighted (c)
Roosevelt Island Historical Society
unless otherwise indicated
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS
CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
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rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
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