The role of parks in the two cities is very similar now, but originally it was very different. Boston's original grid system included a park in the center of town, on which the churches were built. This came to be known a common or a common land, which is where we get the term today of a Boston Common. The Boston Common was officially established in 1634, and is the oldest public park in the United States. The common is a 50-acre collection of trees, walking paths, and fields that provide residents with a place of rest from the modern world. This park was worked into the original plans because the Puritans saw the importance of parks in everyday life. A park is a place of relaxation, and they wanted this to be a key part of life. They knew that nature was good and pure, and they made sure that it was an integral part of their lives. This idea was passed on and extended to future generations that yielded men like Thoreau and Emerson.
Even today parks are an important part of Bostonian life. Boston has more than 4,500 acres of public parks. Another major park is the Public Garden (created in 1837), which most people consider part of the common. The two are separate, however, and the Public Garden is considered more of a formal place in which more solitary activities taking place. This term public was another major purpose of the parks. Boston's original town commons were also public facilities. This was done to create a larger affinity for the community. Winthrop and other leaders felt that a region shared by the community would raise interest in the prosperity of the town as a whole. Today, the largest park in Boston is the Franklin Park in Dorchester. This park also includes a zoo that contains over 700 animals, a children's zoo, and an African tropical rainforest.
The people of New York City dealt with parks in a very different way. At first
there were no parks. Everything was covered in cement and buildings. This was
in accordance with the original NYC goal of efficiency. Why would people built
parks when they could fill the same space with homes or office buildings? The
idea of parks was in no way part of the original grid system.
It wasn't until later that the parks were installed. People began to realize that parks were crucial to life in order to encourage relaxation. Relaxation is important because if one is unable to relax, then they are unable to work hard. People felt that although the grid system was very efficient, it was too monotonous for everyday life; there had to be a break. These breaks were allowed for in the creation of parks, the most significant of which was Central Park (click for other pictures)
Frederick law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux's Central Park was completed in 1860 and it changed the face of the city. The people were no longer only focused on work because this allowed them some leisure time as well. In creating Central Park, Americans were trying to follow the European ideology of Romanticism. They were confronting "back to nature" ideologies that they felt would encourage goodness in the people. It was also constructed in an effort to increase property values. Not many people had inhabited the areas above 42nd street, and Olmstead felt that this would draw people uptown. Also, property values in the middle of the city were very low due to the fact that they had no views of the harbor, and Olmstead and Vaux felt that this park would raise the value of property bordering the park. Olmsted declared that Central Park "is of great importance as the first real Park made in this century - a democratic development of the highest significance …" (5)
The park is a massive structure, and remains one of the most famous man-made parks to date. It spans over 60 city blocks, which contain various fields, sports facilities, playgrounds, trails, and lakes. The planners' main goal was to create a park in which nature was more important than man. The wanted to create a park in which even the man made structures would harmonize well with nature.
One of the most famous sections of the park is the "ramble." This section begins roughly around 79th street and spans north for about 15 blocks. It is a series of paths through the woods that twist their way in and out of trees. The ramble was created so that one could get lost in the trees and their relaxing aura. Another very important part of the parks was "the mall" This European copy consisted of long strips of road where people could stroll and display their wealth. The mall was surrounded by statues in an attempt to replicate the European landscape garden.
The term "central" was based around the idea that the park was in the center of everything. This means that it would be available to both the poor and the rich. As time had progressed, new innovations had allowed the rich to create their own neighborhoods, thus segregating New York into poor areas and rich areas. At the time the park was created, it remained as the only semi-social place where the poor could interact with the wealthy. Many planners of the park, felt that maybe this interaction might also cause some of the noble and proper characteristics of the wealthy to rub off on the poor.
Furthermore, Central park was one of the greatest displays of the American Dream at the time. The planners of New York decided that if they were going to have a park, then why not make it the best. A great deal of time and effort went into this construction, not to mention the vast amounts of money. This demonstrates how in New York people were always trying to be better than all the rest. The Park was also filled with ostentatious New Yorkers that were only trying to impress their friends and neighbors. This demonstrates the large desire that New Yorkers possessed to achieve a higher social status. The poor people were also frequent visitors to the park, and this allowed them to see what they wanted to aspire to be.
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