Morningside Park will be City’s tenth scenic landmark. On July 15, 2008, Landmarks voted to designate Morningside Park a scenic landmark, the first since 1983. Designed by Central Park architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the park consists primarily of a stone cliff between 110th and 123rd Streets, separating the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights and Harlem. Built between 1867 and 1895, the 30-acre park also features curvilinear walks, a buttressed stone retaining wall, a pond, and a waterfall. At an April 10, 2007 hearing, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe expressed strong support for designation. 4 CityLand60 (May 15, 2007).

Morningside Park has undergone some substantial alterations in its history, including a playground installation by Robert Moses in the 1940s. In the 1960s, Columbia University planned to build a gymnasium in the park, a plan that was ultimately quashed by student and community protests. Neglected throughout much of the 20th century, the Parks Department undertook a large restoration project in 1989. (read more…)