Central Park during the Great Depression (1933): Was born and raised in Queens, NY in the 1950s, and on a few occasions went to Central Park in Manhattan. I remember it as a lush green...

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

Was born and raised in Queens, NY in the 1950s, and on a few occasions went to Central Park in Manhattan. I remember it as a lush green place with lots of walking places and an expensive restaurant called "Tavern on the Green." I didn't realize that only a few decades prior, in 1933, Central Park looked like this.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

A sad period of time in our history. My dad family lost their store in 1932.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Sobering! Thanks for sharing.

RiJoRi Loc: Sandy Ridge, NC

Hey! They took down the parking lot, and returned Paradise!

And if I remember, the Empire State Building was being erected a few blocks away. (Just so they could film King Kong! 😉)

--Rich

fantom Loc: Colorado

Areas like that were called Hoovervilles.
When I was a young kid growing up in a major city there was one near us for several years. Eventually they told everyone to leave and they bulldozed the entire settlement.

Scruples Loc: Brooklyn, New York

bobbyjohn wrote:

Was born and raised in Queens, NY in the 1950s, and on a few occasions went to Central Park in Manhattan. I remember it as a lush green place with lots of walking places and an expensive restaurant called "Tavern on the Green." I didn't realize that only a few decades prior, in 1933, Central Park looked like this.

The Central Park Conservancy is on overdrive to keep it beautiful. My favorites are Cleopatra’s Needle, Alice in Wonderland Statue and don’t forget the glacially carved rocks that are so unique. It is still the treasure.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

bobbyjohn wrote:

Was born and raised in Queens, NY in the 1950s, and on a few occasions went to Central Park in Manhattan. I remember it as a lush green place with lots of walking places and an expensive restaurant called "Tavern on the Green." I didn't realize that only a few decades prior, in 1933, Central Park looked like this.

nikon_jon Loc: Northeast Arkansas

Is this a colorized b&w? The only viable color film that far back was Kodachrome and it didn't come along until 1935.

Canisdirus

My dad grew up in Lodi New Jersey...across the river.

He described his childhood this way...

We weren't poor...we just didn't have anything.

junglejim1949 Loc: Sacramento,CA

bobbyjohn wrote:

Was born and raised in Queens, NY in the 1950s, and on a few occasions went to Central Park in Manhattan. I remember it as a lush green place with lots of walking places and an expensive restaurant called "Tavern on the Green." I didn't realize that only a few decades prior, in 1933, Central Park looked like this.

Tragic 😥

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nice shot of a sad time. I was surprised to learn that Central Park was actually constructed. they didn't just decide to save that area as a park. The word "depression" does not appear in the article below.

https://www.centralparknyc.org/articles/central-park-history#:~:text=Construction%20began%20on%20the%20Park,and%20all%20built%20by%20hand.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I am an advocate for conservation land. I lived in a town that had a good portion of it and many people were annoyed that there was land that paid little taxes and they felt that they were supporting it (and some of it is privately owned).

The American Farmland Trust did a study of the cost of community services and concluded that residential land required a town to spend an average near $1.25 for each tax dollar they collected. Commercial land required about $0.75 per tax dollar and open space required about $0.25 per tax dollar.

That was about 50 years ago and the study has been repeated several times since, with similar results.

The primary difference is that the schools are the largest expense in most suburban towns. And commercial land and open space do not send students to the schools.

Bottom line is that open space benefits the community and should be encouraged. Naturally you need a balance.

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

fantom wrote:

Areas like that were called Hoovervilles. When I was a young kid growing up in a major city there was one near us for several years. Eventually they told everyone to leave and they bulldozed the entire settlement.

So, I guess that there are many Hoovervilles today in places such as: San Francisco, Los Angeles, NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, Austin, etc. etc. Sure wish that such cities told every one of those trespassers to leave! But then again, today is not 1933.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

bobbyjohn wrote:

So, I guess that there are many Hoovervilles today in places such as: San Francisco, Los Angeles, NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, Austin, etc. etc. Sure wish that such cities told every one of those trespassers to leave! But then again, today is not 1933.

I guess you also think that the First Nation folk should have told us European interlopers just to turn around and
head on back to our place of origin. But then again, today is not 1620. However, thank you for the image. I knew that the park no doubt had undergone various changes over the years, but I was mistaken in thinking that it had remained somewhat close to what Frederick Law Olmstead had envisioned for it.

flathead27ford Loc: Colorado, North of Greeley

Wow! Interesting.