On April 22, and 23, 2022, the Department of Records and Information Services will commemorate the 200th birthday of Central Park architect Frederick Law Olmsted with a pop-up exhibition featuring the original Greensward plan. Submitted by Olmsted and co-designer Calvert Vaux, the master plan won the Central Park design competition in 1858.
Rarely seen in public, the Greensward plan is considered a masterpiece of 19th-century landscape architecture. The story of its creation begins in 1852 when the city’s Board of Aldermen formed a Special Committee on Parks. The Committee proposed to build “The Central Park” in the rectangle bounded by Fifth Avenue, Eighth Avenue, Fifty-Ninth Street, and 106th Street.
Map from Greensward Presentation board no. 2., 1858. Department of Parks and Recreation Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives
The two-mile-long by half-mile-wide 778-acre plot, with its rocky outcrops of Manhattan schist rising above stagnant bogs, and home to nearly 1,600 people, was a challenging site for a park. On June 21, 1853, the State Legislature authorized the mayor to issue stock, known as the Central Park Fund, to compensate the 561 owners of the more than seven thousand lots that comprised the future park.
Delays arising from purchasing the property and political wrangling over a plan for the park delayed further action until October 1857, when a new state-appointed Board of Commissioners announced a formal design competition. All planners were instructed to incorporate specific requirements into their presentations: at least four transverse roads, a parade ground for military drills, a two-to-three-acre formal flower garden, three playgrounds for “healthful exercise,” a site for concerts and exhibitions, a prominent fountain, an observation tower, and a winter skating area, as well as “at least one institution of cultural uplift or practical knowledge.” The budget was $1.5 million. The March 1, 1858 deadline for submissions was moved back a month when the requirements were expanded to include specifications and costs for building roads and preparing the land.
Greensward Presentation board no. 5., (view of the Lake from Vista Rock),1858. Department of Parks and Recreation Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Well-connected English-born architect, Calvert Vaux, and the Connecticut-born writer, surveyor, clerk, and farmer, Frederick Law Olmsted were casual acquaintances but shared a belief that nature had the power to uplift and refine the human spirit. Vaux suggested they collaborate on a design. The new partners worked nights and weekends through the fall and winter of 1857-58. Vaux’ son, Downing, remembered that the drawings needed “a great deal of grass to be put in by the usual small dots and dashes, and it became the friendly thing for callers to help in the work by joining in and adding some grass to Central Park.”
Preparations continued to the last possible moment. Arriving at the Arsenal Building late in the evening of March 31, 1858, Olmsted and Vaux had to wake a caretaker to deliver their proposal, only minutes before the deadline for entries. Logged in under the name “Greensward” as Entry #33, it was brilliant in presentation and bold in design. Their large-scale master plan was executed on high-quality paper mounted on linen; their two texts, the Description of a Plan for the Improvement of the Central Park “Greensward” and Particulars of Construction and Estimate, were professionally printed by William Cullen Bryant & Co.; and their twelve presentation boards featured a mix of graphite drawings, albumen prints and oil sketches related to particular views, some accompanied by a lithograph of a map to show its location.
Presentation board no. 4, detail, (view across the Lake toward Vista Rock). The “present outlines” view, attributed to the studio of photographer Matthew Brady, shows fields bordered by a stone wall, with Vista Rock rising in the background to a lookout tower. Department of Parks and Recreation Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Presentation board no. 4, detail, (view across the Lake toward Vista Rock). The “effect proposed” view, painted by Vaux’s brother-in-law (Hudson River School artist Jervis McEntee), shows the fields have been replaced by the Lake, rising to a landscaped hill topped by an early version of Belvedere Castle. Department of Parks and Recreation Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
With monetary prizes being awarded to the top four entrants, the commissioners were hopeful that proposals would arrive from leading European experts in park design, but they received only two foreign entries and those were of little distinction. The entries were arranged for viewing in rented offices at 637 Broadway, along with summaries of the written components of the submissions. On April 28, 1858, the commissioners made their selections. The grand prize of $2,000 went to Vaux and Olmsted.
Olmsted and Vaux believed in creating “scenery” that appeared to be natural, and that the park “should present an aspect of spaciousness and tranquility, with variety and intricacy of arrangement, thereby affording the most agreeable contrast to the confinement, bustle, and monotonous street-division of the city.”
They named their plan “Greensward,” a word that means ground covered with green grass. Visitors today can easily observe how the designers reserved large areas of the park for pastoral scenery with open greenswards bordered by shrubberies and groves of trees, often with nearby open water to reflect foliage and give a feeling of depth to the landscape.
Presentation board no. 9, detail. The “effect proposed” shows Bogardus Hill (now known as the Great Hill) with a Monumental Tower. Department of Parks and Recreation Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The Greensward plan has long been recognized as a work of genius. The Olmsted and Vaux traffic circulation system separating walkers, horseback riders, and carriages, and the sunken transverse roads, are often considered their most innovative concepts. The plan is also notable for its inclusion of lakes and ponds. The successful installation of these features proved their mastery of landscape design on a grand scale.
The Greensward plan accepted by the board was seen through to completion, with one significant change. As the design competition played out, a consensus developed among the commissioners to extend the park to 110th Street. The additional area, filled with steep rock formations, spring-fed swampland, and thick vegetation, seemed a natural part of the park, and the cost of grading the rocky terrain to incorporate it into the city street grid would have been exorbitant. In April 1859, the board requested that the state legislature approve the purchase of the additional sixty-five acres, along with a budget to provide for construction. It took until 1863 to settle the eminent domain disputes over the property valuations.
Presentation board no. 2, detail, (view toward ball field and Umpire Rock). The “effect proposed” shows a pavilion for visiting spectators (never built) sits on Umpire Rock, while ballplayers take the field in the foreground. Department of Parks and Recreation Drawings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The Department of Parks displayed the Greensward plan in the Arsenal, their headquarters in Central Park, for many years. In 2015, the original plan was transferred to the Municipal Archives and a high-quality replica took its place in the Arsenal.
Read the full story of the Olmsted and Vaux collaboration and creation of the Greensward plan in The Central Park, Original Drawings for New York’s Greatest Treasure, by Cynthia Brenwall, and plan a visit to the Municipal Archives on April 22 or 23 to examine this extraordinary artifact.
Open for public viewing, free timed tickets are required to ensure safety. Tickets are available for 30-minute visits on the following dates: April 22, 2022 - 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and April 23, 2022 - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Use this link to sign up for your free tickets: