Potter's Field to Harry Potter

photo from The Atlantic Cable Company website

I couldn’t stop thinking about the amazing transformation of Bryant Park in Manhattan.  The most incredible part, especially in these days of slashed budgets, is the unique public/private arrangements that works for everyone.  The community is happy, the tourists are happy, the city is happy, the not-paying-for it taxpayers are happy, the Bryant Park Corporation is happy and I am sure the pigeons are very happy.  The park is providing jobs for hundred of people and respite for hundreds more.  I had to go back to find out more about the history and future of this impressive urban experiment.

Lucky for me, the Bryant Park Corporation and the Bryant Park Blog have extensive sections offering the fascinating, checkered history of this 8 acre oasis.  Sixty years before the park memorialized William Cullen Bryant, the long time editor of The New York Evening Post, there was no park, only a remarkably unglamorous potter’s field (humble beginnings for what is now such a fashionable spot).  The burial grounds were decommissioned in 1840 to make way for the Croton Reservoir.  The green space next to the 4 acre lake, was named Reservoir Park.  The reservoir was soon torn down to make way for the “New York Crystal Palace”, a steel and glass structure in the shape of a cross that sported a 100 foot dome.  President Franklin Pierce spoke at the opening of exhibition hall in 1853 which featured steam engines, U.S. minerals and the largest crocodile in captivity!  Neighboring the ‘Palace’ was Latting Hall, an observatory that offered visitors an unobstructed views of Staten Island and New Jersey from its 315 foot tower, at the time it was the tallest structure in the city.  Fire destroyed both structures by the end of the 1850s.

The brief tourism boom at the park came to an abrupt end when the Civil War began and in 1863 troops moved into the park, now a Union Army encampment.  The name Bryant Park was granted in 1885 and plans began for the grand institution that is now the park’s raison d’etre...The New York Public Library.
When the library was completed in 1911, it included a raised rear terrace that was used as an outdoor reading space in the 1930s and staffed by librarians from the WPA.  The Great Depression also prompted the creation of the ‘Open Air Library’’, now the Bryant Park Reading Room (see Pleasures in the Park entry).
The 20s were literally roaring at the north end of the park with the construction of a subway tunnel along 42nd street, which kept the space closed for a decade.  Finally,  the park held a contest (a contest always seems to stimulate enthusiasm when things seem bleak) to redesign the park and Lusby Simpson, an architect from Queens, submitted the winning plan.  The redesigned, replanted and refreshed Bryant Park was opened to the public in 1934.  The most striking difference between the park then and now is the trees.  Originally the space was wide open, featuring lawns, plazas and puny little trees.  Eighty years of growth makes a big difference.  Now the open spaces are complimented by shady, protected areas throughout the space - something for everyone.

The final chapter in the history of the park is the great decline of the space in the the 1970s and 80s.  Neglected and ignored, the park became a haven for druggies and criminals.  Glenwood Managment Company called it a “disaster: dirty, drug-addled, dangerous” - pretty much the exact opposite of the jewel that New Yorkers and tourists now enjoy and treasure as an important New York landmark.
Check out the photo gallery for pictures of the Park throughout its journey and many transformations.