In 1853, the city was given the power to purchase 778 acres situated in the middle of Manhattan after the state – using the power of eminent domain – claimed the land form the more than five hundred proprietors who owned the site.
The overall design for the park was published in the first annual report of park commissioners, ostentatiously subtitled Adopted by the Commissioners, June 3rd 1856.
In 1858, the New York State legislature designated an area from 59th Street to 106th Street for creation of the park at cost $5,000,000 for the land alone.
The governing structure under which the park would actually be built was finally established on April 17, 1857.
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park, transformed this swampy, rocky area into American’s first ‘people park’.
While the construction of Central Park would continue until 1873, the first section was open to the public in the summer of 1858.
In 1965 Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark, and in 1998 the National Audubon Society designated it an Important Bird Are in New York State.
Central Park New York
