Before Central Park became a park, the 843 rocky, hilly acres in the middle of Manhattan were not empty of human life.
About 1,600 residents clustered there in tiny settlements. Seneca Village was one, an African-American and Irish enclave of tiny houses and churches near Seventh Avenues in the 80s.
Pigtown, near the southeastern end, “was home to about 14 households, roughly three-quarters of them Irish,” wrote Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar in The Park and Its People.
Small groups of Irish as well as Germans dotted other parts. These residents were poor, but they worked in the service trades or ran businesses, kept animals, and some owned the land beneath their homes.
Still, when the idea of a city park was taking shape in the 1850s, they were described in newspaper editorials as squatters and thieves who plundered natural resources.
Their days were numbered, of course.
“First came the orders in the late spring of 1856 that they would henceforth have to pay rent to the city if they wanted to remain even temporarily in the houses and on the lots they long occupied,” stated Rosenzweig and Blackmar.
Next, the new Central Park police hassled them about the businesses they ran, the firewood they chopped, even a dance hall at the northern end.
Piggery owners were given eviction orders in summer 1856. In October 1857, two years before Central Park opened, all residents were kicked out for good (though some simply went to shantytowns just outside the park).
In the 1930s, Central Park became home to another group of squatters: the residents of a Depression-era Hooverville.
[First and third images: from the NYPL Digital Collection]
Tags: African-American New York, building Central Park, Central Park before it was a park, Central Park Shantytowns, Central Park Squatters, Central Park villages, People who live in Central Park, Pigtown Central Park, Seneca Village
June 10, 2013 at 5:54 am |
So if “some owned the land beneath their homes”, were they compensated when the park was cleared? Under eminent domain, would they have been entitled to something?
June 10, 2013 at 6:02 am |
Yes. According to one source, the city set aside $5 million to pay off the residents for their land.
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/12106
Another source specifies that residents of Seneca Village got $700 each:
http://www.ny.com/articles/centralpark.html
June 10, 2013 at 5:01 pm |
I became interested in Seneca Village years ago after I noticed the remnants of a stone foundation in the park near the 85th St./CPW entrance. Shortly after my discovery the New York Historical Society held an exhibition on Seneca Village showing maps of known buildings that existed there and also mentioned that the village had at least one (possibly more than one) cemetery. In preparation for the creation of the CP these villages were razed and then just covered over with land fill, so what do you think happened to the cemetery/s of Seneca Village?
June 10, 2013 at 8:41 pm |
That’s so interesting about the cemetery. If an archeological dig was done, they would probably unearth it.
June 10, 2013 at 10:07 pm
I wish I’d seen that exhibit!
June 13, 2013 at 6:48 pm
They actually did do an excavation a couple of years ago…
http://www.learn.columbia.edu/seneca_village/2011.html
May 27, 2021 at 2:49 am |
Hi Jeff, do you happen to know where this stone foundation is? I am doing my thesis on the shanty towns of Central Park and this information would be super useful. Thank you.
June 10, 2013 at 9:51 pm |
That’s a great post, as are the earlier ones on shanty towns, which I hadn’t seen before.
This definitely one of the best blogs on the Web. Even if you were to stop posting tomorrow (please don’t) it would still be one of the best blogs ten years from now… thanks!
June 10, 2013 at 10:07 pm |
Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoy it.
June 11, 2013 at 1:10 am |
excelent research, congratulations.
June 11, 2013 at 4:52 pm |
Who were the real thieves..hmm..
September 5, 2013 at 5:59 am |
[…] bulldozing shantytowns and draining swamps, they spent the next several years fabricating pastoral lawns, sloping hills, […]
September 8, 2013 at 7:28 pm |
http://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/m82z62
^^Link to an image of an 1855 topographical survey map hanging in the NYC Department of Records Visitor Center that marks each structure that stood in Central Park prior to its construction.
May 29, 2018 at 10:00 pm |
[…] homes and churches were described in editorials as squats, and their owners as thieves, Ephemeral New York details. Briefly, before the eviction order came in 1856, the residents of Seneca Village were […]
May 29, 2018 at 10:48 pm |
[…] homes and churches were described in editorials as squats, and their owners as thieves, Ephemeral New York details. Briefly, before the eviction order came in 1856, the residents of Seneca Village were […]
May 30, 2018 at 3:33 pm |
[…] church buildings have been described in editorials as squats, and their house owners as thieves, Ephemeral New York particulars. Briefly, earlier than the eviction order got here in 1856, the residents of Seneca […]
June 3, 2018 at 6:20 am |
[…] homes and churches were described in editorials as squats, and their owners as thieves, Ephemeral New Yorkdetails. Briefly, before the eviction order came in 1856, the residents of Seneca Village were […]
July 12, 2021 at 2:19 am |
[…] great park here, they seized the land via eminent domain in the mid-1850s and kicked out everyone living within the boundaries of the yet-to-be-built park, including residents of Seneca Village. Roughly 1,600 people were […]