Want to know what was there before Central Park? Well, you will after you’ve been on this four-part adventure with historian Sara Cedar Miller, who has spent almost 40 years uncovering the secrets and stories of the most celebrated 843 acres in New York City.

In these informative and entertaining sessions--one of them during a visit to the Park--you will learn about eons of geologic history and over 250-years of social history: the clash of Native and Dutch culture, the first European family’s tobacco farm, colonial roads and taverns, a secret Revolutionary War meeting, the butchers who helped to build the War of 1812 forts, epidemics, slavery, immigration, canal and reservoir building, real estate speculation, the Black community of Seneca Village, Jewish burial grounds, Irish Sisters of Charity, German bone-boiling factories, women’s property rights (or lack thereof), and the many schools, farms, piggeries, churches, orchards and gardens. You will meet con men, greedy speculators, corrupt officials, strong women, heroes, activists, and dreamers and many extraordinary New Yorkers that history had almost forgotten.

The last session, to be held in the park, will discuss the people and politics behind the creation of Central Park, the financial awards to the landowners, and the conflicts and compromises behind creating the nation’s first major democratic space and its celebrated design, one of the great masterpieces of American art.

Register

Wednesdays, 6:00 - 7:30 PM
April 12, 19, 26, May 3
$150 (4 sessions)

Before Central Park: Its Secrets and Stories

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