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Central Park

Although Central Park was created in the 1850s from plans by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, many of the features we see there today are New Deal projects:

• Renovation of the entirety of Central Park in 1934, thousands of men working in three shifts around the clock in all weather on the construction of walls, new park entrances; removal of dead trees; plowing, seeding, planting, pruning, landscaping; installing footpaths and trails, drinking fountains, drainage, lighting, plus standardized benches, wastebaskets, and fences to be used throughout the Parks system. [1] [2,pp.368-372] [3].
• The Central Park Zoo. In 1934, the original Central Park Menagerie, which was just wooden sheds and some cages, was torn down and replaced by nine brick and concrete buildings and with landscaping and seal pool, designed by CWA-paid Parks Department architects [11] [12] [15,p.352], the materials paid for by the CWA [2,pp.383-385], and the labor also[3]. The Zoo was renovated in 1988; this page shows the the original parts that still remain, including two buildings and the Dancing Bear and Dancing Goat statues by Frederick Roth[13], plus numerous friezes. By the way, the Delacorte Clock, which was added in 1965... one of its designers was Edward Coe Embury, son of lead architect Aymar Embury, who designed the 1934 Zoo and hundreds of other WPA projects.
• The Great Lawn, previous site of the Lower Reservoir that had been drained and in the early 1930s was a "Hooverville" of people left unemployed and homeless by the Great Depression.[3]
• Destruction of the Central Park Casino, an exclusive club for the rich and powerful[2,pp.397-401], and conversion of the Sheep Fold (a fancy sheep barn; real sheep used to graze on the Sheep Meadow) into Tavern On The Green, a moderately-priced public restaurant for ordinary people.[3]
• Design and construction of the Conservatory Garden at 105th Street and Fifth Avenue[6].
• 21 new playgrounds and numerous baseball fields[1]. Previously Heckscher Playground was the only playground in the whole park, and it was remodeled in 1935[7].
• Reconstruction of the entire Harlem Meer area; construction of the promenade around the lake and of the Harlem Meer boathouse (now the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center) [8].
• The Mother Goose statue statue by FrederickRoth[13], plus refurbishing and remounting of the Still Hunt (crouching panther) statue by Edward Kemeys[9].
• WPA murals in the lobby of the Arsenal[14], and renovation of the Arsenal itself (prior to Moses' appointment, when the five borough parks departments were consolidated into a single one, and the Arsenal was chosen as its headquarters, remodeled by CWA and TERA workers already on hand before Moses signed on)[17].
• The Sophie Loeb Fountain by Frederick Roth, originally in Heckscher Park, later moved to the Levin Plaground in Central Park (near the "other" Alice in Wonderland statue).

References:

1. Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Blackmar, The Park and the People: A History of Central Park, Cornell University Press (1992) [website].
2. Caro, Robert A., The Power Broker - Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Vintage Books (1974).
3. The Report of the Department of Parks to August 1934: Memorandum on 1935 Budget Request of the Department of Parks, NYC Department of Parks archive. “Since January 19th of this of year the Department of Parks has spent $26,000,000.00 on new construction from Work Relief funds ... New construction projects include ... Complete new zoos will be finished in Central Park... The sheepfold in Central Park has been converted into a modern tavern ... The lower reservoir area in Central Park will be rebuilt and opened to the public...”
4. Central Park Zoo at the NYC Parks Department website, gallery of pictures and some information (incorrectly identifies the WPA as the New Deal Agency that built the new Zoo in 1934; in fact it was the CWA).
5. Moses, Robert, Memorandum on Organization of Work Relief Projects under the Supervision of the Department of Parks, NYC Parks Department press release, October 29, 1934.
6. Williams, Mason B. City of Ambition, W.W. Norton & Company (2013): ”Using WPA labor, the Parks Department built ... Central Park's Conservatory Gardens...”.
7. NYC Parks Department press releases of March 24, 1935 and December 30, 1936 (Heckscher Playground).
8. NYC Parks Department press release, March 13, 1943 (Harlem Meer).
9. Still Hunt History, NYC Parks Department website.
10. WPA Does Its Bit to Make Central Park a Hodgepodge, Chicago Daily Tribune, March 21, 1939, p.10.
11. Aymar Embury, Wikepedia. He was the chief or consulting architect for the Central Park and Prospect Zoos, the Prospect Park Bandshell, the Corona Park Pool and Bathhouse (and three others), the New York Pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair (now the Queens Museum of Art) and the Argentine Pavilion, the Triborough Bridge, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, the Little Hell Gate Bridge, Orchard Beach, Bryant Park, the Hofstra University campus, Jacob Riis Park, and nobody even knows how many more New Deal projects.
12. Aymar Embury II Papers, Syracuse University.
13. Central Park: Mother Goose, NYC Parks Department website: "In 1934, Roth was hired through the Works Progress Administration as the chief sculptor for Parks. In that year, the new Central Park Zoo opened, and Roth oversaw a team of artisans who carved the limestone animal reliefs that adorn the animal houses. The following year the same team worked on the sculptural embellishments for the Prospect Park Zoo, and in 1936 Roth completed the granite statues of figures from Alice in Wonderland which stand at the center of the Sophie Irene Loeb fountain in Central Park's James Michael Levin Playground. In the spring of 1937 Roth's Dancing Goat and Dancing Bear sculptures were placed in basins which flanked Kelly's Cafeteria at the western terrace of the Central Park Zoo, and now stand in niches near the north and south entrances to the zoo.
14. Central Park: Mother Goose, NYC Parks Department website: "In 1934, Roth was hired through the Works Progress Administration as the chief sculptor for Parks. In that year, the new Central Park Zoo opened, and Roth oversaw a team of artisans who carved the limestone animal reliefs that adorn the animal houses. The following year the same team worked on the sculptural embellishments for the Prospect Park Zoo, and in 1936 Roth completed the granite statues of figures from Alice in Wonderland which stand at the center of the Sophie Irene Loeb fountain in Central Park's James Michael Levin Playground. In the spring of 1937 Roth's Dancing Goat and Dancing Bear sculptures were placed in basins which flanked Kelly's Cafeteria at the western terrace of the Central Park Zoo, and now stand in niches near the north and south entrances to the zoo.
15. The Arsenal at the NYC Parks Department Website.
16. Federal Writers' Project, The WPA Guide to New York City, Random House (1939).
17. Robert Moses and the Modern Park System (1929-1965), timeline, NYC Parks Department website.
18. Thomas Jefferson Play Center, Landmarks Preservation Commission, July 24, 2007 Designation List 394 LP-2236: ”When Moses took over the Parks Department, it was already employing 69,000 relief workers funded mainly by the federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA).”
19. History of the Arsenal, New York City Parks Department website. ”Having served off and on as the borough park offices, the Arsenal underwent another complete renovation in 1934 as the first and only headquarters of a citywide unified Parks Department. From his command posts at the Arsenal and at Randall's Island, Commissioner Robert Moses set about directing an unprecedented expansion of the parks system and the modernization of New York City's public facilities. In 1935-36 the Arsenal lobby murals were painted under the direction of Allen Saalburg. Saalburg depicted a series of scenes depicting recreational activities, notable park structures, and flagship parks. The project was funded by the Federal Works Progress Administration. Also at this time, a new entryway was designed for the front of the Arsenal, including military drums over the doorway and cast-iron musket replicas as supports for the banisters.”
20. The 1934 Zoo at cpzbook.com/.

Riverside and Fort Washington Parks

Riverside Park Construction 1934. Photo: NYC Parks Department Archive. Click to enlarge.

Prior to the New Deal, the New York Central Railroad ran along the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan, not only cutting residents off from the river, but also spewing coal smoke and soot into the residential areas. A project was launched in 1929 to bury the railroad tracks under parkland but it never got off the ground due to lack of funding, and by 1934 what we know as Riverside Park today was a "wasteland ..." stretching from 72nd Street to 181st Street ... "a vast low-lying mass of dirt of and mud ... unpainted, rusting, jagged wire fences along the tracks barred the city from its waterfront; in the whole six miles, there were exactly three bridges on which the tracks could be crossed, and they let only to private boating clubs ... [a] stench [hung] over Riverside Drive endlessly after each passage of a train carrying south to the slaughterhouses ... carload after carload of cattle and pigs..."[1, pp. 65-67]  Plus "fifty-two shacks comprising the veterans' camp between 72nd and 79th Street ... [and] eighty-three other shacks along Riverside Drive on the Hudson River ... [plus] a reinforced coal hopper at the foot of 96th Street... [plus] old docks [plus] eleven shacks built around the piling tinder [at] the dock at 96th Street ... these wharf dwellers are literally clinging to the underpinnings of the rotting dock structure"[2].

West Side Improvement 1937. Photo: NYC Parks Department Archive. Click to enlarge.

In 1934 Robert Moses launched the West Side Improvement Project to create from this a mess a 5½-mile-long park, an express highway, and two boat basins. He obtained funding from “many sources ... Governor Lehman approved a loan of grade-crossing-elimination money to the New York Central. Federal, state, and City grade-crossing moneys, City street and park funds raised by assessment, railroad funds, money obtained through the sale of bonds of a municipal authority, Federal and state highway money and relief funds were also included.”[3] Moses is (as always) deliberately vague about the funding, and doesn't even mention the labor. But this was a massive work project and Moses commanded an army of as many as 80,000 relief workers during this period: if they didn't build it, who did?

Robert Caro, as usual, to the rescue [1,pp.526-540]:  Moses calculated that he had to find $109 million for the project, and Caro recounts how he did it; it's the kind of feat only Moses could pull off and Caro's pages are worth a read if you want to make your head spin. But as far as New Deal alphabet soup is concerned, Moses characterized the 79th Street Boat Basin as a "grade crossing elimination" and received $1,7660,000 for the materials from a PWA fund designated for that purpose, and then since he had the materials covered, the CWA gave him $3,000,000 to pay for labor, and then on the strength of that another $20,000,000 for labor to build the rest of Riverside Park, because the Henry Hudson Parkway was in it and Moses told them it was a "park access road". Or maybe it was $30,000,000, it's hard to tell but who's counting.

Today Riverside and Fort Washington Parks are an essential fixture of Manhattan's West Side. They include not only parkland, but a mall overlooking the Hudson River; baseball, football, and soccer fields, playgrounds, sprinklers, wading pools, running tracks, volleyball courts, tennis courts, bicycle paths, skate parks, and boat basins. It's really one big long park from 72nd Street to 181st Street, but there is an invisible boundary at 155th Street with Riverside Park to the south and Fort Washington Park to the north (where the Dominican population of Washington Heights stages massive cookout parties every weekend during the summer).

References:

1. Caro, Robert A., The Power Broker - Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Vintage Books (1974).
2. NYC Parks Dept press release of April 27, 1934.
3. Moses, Robert, Public Works, McGraw Hill (1970), p.183-188.
4. NYC Parks Dept press release archive for July-December 1934: numerous documents regarding the Columbia University Yacht Club in Riverside Park, which Moses demolished.
5. The Columbia Yacht Club (gallery), Tours by Gary at blogspot.com.
6. NYC Parks Dept press release of July 31, 1934, "West Side Improvement", the first phase of the construction of Riverside Park, which states that after the retaining walls for the railroad are built, "it will be possible to proceed with the landscaping work wilth relief labor."
7. NYC Parks Dept press release of April 27, 1934, announcing commencement of work on the extension of Riverside Park along the west side of the New York Central Railroad tracks as part of the West Side Improvement Project using relief labor.
8. NYC Parks Dept press release of October 11, 1937, announcing the opening of the West Side Improvement in Riverside and Fort Washington Parks, a $24,340,000 project.
9. NYC Parks Dept press release of March 2, 1940, announcing the opening of the 79th Street Boat Basin.
10. Riverside Park Construction 1934-37 (gallery), New York City Department of Records at nycma.lunaimaging.com.
11. Klein, Milton M., The Empire State: A History of New York, Cornell University Press (2005). "...and [Moses] strung together federal and state grants for New York State's largest public work, the $205 million West Side Improvement which extended Riverside Park over the New York Central Tracks and built the Henry Hudson Parkway to connect with the Saw Mill River Parkway." (Obviously there were cost overruns after his original $109 million estimate.)
12. New York City Parks Department press release, July 15, 1941, Hudson River overlook at 149-150 Street "which was built by the Works Projects Administration".