Editing Central Park (section)

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[[File:Map of Seneca Village.jpg|thumb|alt=Egbert Viele's survey of Central Park |Map of the former [[Seneca Village]] from [[Egbert Ludovicus Viele]]'s survey for Central Park]]
By the 1840s, members of the city's elite were publicly calling for the construction of a new large park in Manhattan.{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=23, 25}}<ref name="Reynolds pp. 320-321">{{harvnb|Reynolds|1994|ps=.|pp=320–321}}</ref> At the time, Manhattan's seventeen squares comprised a combined {{convert|165|acre|ha|abbr=}} of land, the largest of which was the {{convert|10|acre|ha|0|abbr=|adj=on}} [[The Battery (Manhattan)|Battery Park]] at Manhattan island's southern tip.{{sfn|Rosenzweig| Blackmar|1992|pp=18–19}} These plans were endorsed in 1844 by ''[[New York Post|New York Evening Post]]'' editor [[William Cullen Bryant]], and in 1851 by [[Andrew Jackson Downing]], one of the first American landscape designers.<ref name="Reynolds pp. 320-321" />{{sfn|Heckscher|2008|pp=11–12}}{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=15, 29–30}}

Mayor [[Ambrose Kingsland]], in a message to the [[New York City Common Council]] on May 5, 1851, set forth the necessity and benefits of a large new park and proposed the council move to create such a park. Kingsland's proposal was referred to the council's Committee of Lands, which endorsed the proposal. The committee chose [[Jones's Wood]], a {{convert|160|acre|ha|abbr=|adj=on}} tract of land between 66th&nbsp;and 75th&nbsp;streets on the Upper East Side, as the park's site, as Bryant had advocated for Jones Wood. The acquisition was controversial because of its location, small size relative to other potential uptown tracts, and cost.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W0AbAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA458|title=Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York|last=New York State Assembly|year=1911|volume=29|pages=451–453|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405050610/https://books.google.com/books?id=W0AbAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA458|archive-date=April 5, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Taylor|2009|p=258}}{{sfn|Berman|2003|p=17}} A bill to acquire Jones's Wood was invalidated as unconstitutional,{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|p=45}}{{sfn|Taylor|2009|p=259}} so attention turned to a second site: a {{convert|750|acre|ha|adj=on}} area known as "Central Park", bounded by 59th&nbsp;and 106th&nbsp;streets between Fifth and Eighth avenues.{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|p=45}}{{sfn|Heckscher|2008|pp=12, 14}} [[Croton Aqueduct]] Board president Nicholas Dean, who proposed the Central Park site, chose it because the Croton Aqueduct's {{convert|35|acre|ha|abbr=|adj=on}}, {{convert|150|e6gal|e6L|abbr=|adj=on}} collecting reservoir would be in the geographical center.{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|p=45}}{{sfn|Heckscher|2008|pp=12, 14}} In July 1853, the New York State Legislature passed the Central Park Act, authorizing the purchase of the present-day site of Central Park.{{sfn|Kinkead|1990|p=16}}{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=51–53}}

The board of land commissioners conducted property assessments on more than 34,000 lots in the area,{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=81–83}} completing them by July 1855.{{sfn|Heckscher|2008|p=17}} While the assessments were ongoing, proposals to downsize the plans were vetoed by mayor [[Fernando Wood]].{{sfn|Heckscher|2008|p=17}}{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=55–56}}{{sfn|Taylor|2009|pp=261–262}} At the time, the site was occupied by free black people and Irish immigrants who had developed a property-owning community there since 1825.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/nyregion/uncovering-the-ruins-of-new-yorks-first-free-black-settlement.html |title=Uncovering the Ruins of an Early Black Settlement in New York|last=Williams|first=Keith|date=February 7, 2018|work=The New York Times|access-date=March 31, 2019|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331042658/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/nyregion/uncovering-the-ruins-of-new-yorks-first-free-black-settlement.html|archive-date=March 31, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/seneca-village-black-town-razed-central-park-article-1.2639611|title=A look at Seneca Village, the early black settlement obliterated by the creation of Central Park |last=Blakinger|first=Keri|date=May 17, 2016|work=New York Daily News|access-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518101320/https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/seneca-village-black-town-razed-central-park-article-1.2639611|archive-date=May 18, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Most of the Central Park site's residents lived in small villages, such as Pigtown;{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=73–74}}<ref>{{cite magazine |date=1903|editor-last=Rines|editor-first=George Edwin|title=Central City – Central Park|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h2lMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PT388|publisher=The Americana Company|volume=4|journal=The Encyclopedia Americana |editor-last2=Beach|editor-first2=Frederick Converse}}</ref> [[Seneca Village]];<ref name="Martin 1997">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/31/arts/a-village-dies-a-park-is-born.html |title=A Village Dies, A Park Is Born |last=Martin|first=Douglas|date=January 31, 1997|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 11, 2019|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426202041/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/31/arts/a-village-dies-a-park-is-born.html|archive-date=April 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> or in the school and convent at [[College of Mount Saint Vincent|Mount St. Vincent's Academy]].{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=89–90}} Clearing began shortly after the land commission's report was released in October 1855,{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=81–83}}<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Central Park—The Assessment Completed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1855/10/04/archives/the-central-parkthe-assessment-completed.html |date=October 4, 1855|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 1, 2019|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401013259/https://www.nytimes.com/1855/10/04/archives/the-central-parkthe-assessment-completed.html|archive-date=April 1, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> and approximately 1,600 residents were evicted under [[eminent domain]].<ref name="Martin 1997"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Seneca Village |url=http://maap.columbia.edu/place/32.html|publisher=[[Columbia University]]|access-date=September 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222051213/http://maap.columbia.edu/place/32.html|archive-date=February 22, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Berman|2003|p=19}} Though supporters claimed that the park would cost just $1.7&nbsp;million,{{sfn|Rosenzweig|Blackmar|1992|pp=46–47}} the total cost of the land ended up being $7.39&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|7390000|1855|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|USD}}), more than the price that [[Alaska Purchase|the United States would pay for Alaska]] a few years later.{{sfn|Kinkead|1990|p=17}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.echonyc.com/~parks/books/bridges.html |title=Bridges of Central Park |last1=Reed|first1=Henry Hope|last2=McGee|first2=Robert M.|last3=Mipaas |first3=Esther|date=1990|publisher=Greensward Foundation |isbn=978-0-93131-106-2|access-date=May 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913214334/http://www.echonyc.com/~parks/books/bridges.html |archive-date=September 13, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska |publisher=Library of Congress|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Alaska.html |access-date=August 30, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329025653/http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Alaska.html |archive-date=March 29, 2015}}</ref>