Morningside Park (Manhattan)

About

Morningside Park is a 30-acre (12-hectare) public park in Upper Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The park is bounded by 110th Street to the south, 123rd Street to the north, Morningside Avenue to the east, and Morningside Drive to the west. A cliff made of Manhattan schist runs through the park and separates Morningside Heights, above the cliff to the west, from Harlem. The park includes other rock outcroppings; a human-made ornamental pond and waterfall; three sculptures; several athletic fields; playgrounds; and an arboretum. Morningside Park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, although the group Friends of Morningside Park helps maintain it.

The area near Morningside Park was originally known as Muscota by the Lenape Native Americans in the Delaware languages. A park in this location was first proposed by the Central Park commissioners in 1867, and the city commissioned Central Park's designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux to produce a design for the park in 1873. Jacob Wrey Mould was hired to design new plans in 1880, but little progress occurred until Olmsted and Vaux were asked to modify the plans following Mould's death in 1886. The Lafayette and Washington, Carl Schurz Monument, and Seligman Fountain sculptures were installed after the park was completed in 1895.