Before Central Park

I loved this book, learning in detail about how NYC and Central Park came to be: the players, the politics, the real estate. Great writing and beautiful photographs. Thoroughly researched.

While most people know Central Park for being one of the highlights of New York City few stop to think what it was like before the park was constructed. This book gives a vivid and interesting look at what was there before and who was there before. The author strikes a perfect blend between detail and readability and there are numerous maps and photos to help make the connection between pre-park and Central Park clearer. A great book for those who enjoy the history of NYC and those who enjoy Central Park.

Thoroughly researched and compellingly presented, this is the story of the land that became Central Park, from the earliest days of European settlement to the present day. An informative, enjoyable read.

Central Park is a spectacular urban oasis, a place for forty two million annual visitors to take a deep breath, stroll the changing landscapes and enjoy the beauty that the Park presents. Many visitors are blissfully unaware of the Park's history - they just know they like this beautiful place in the middle of Manhattan. Others know that the Park was designed by Frederic Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1857, and developed over the next fifteen years. But what was there before that? In Before Central Park, Sara Cedar Miller takes her readers back another 250 years, starting with the Lenapes and the Dutch settlers, and weaving a rich tapestry of the prepark's topography, the wars, the landowners, the legal disputes, the politicians, the con artists and the topsy-turvy growth of New York City that led to the idea and creation of the Park. The book is well-researched and important events are described in detail. Historians and researchers will understand the importance of Before Central Park. The book will also be a fun read for those who love the Park or are generally interested in history. The Park's extraordinary life from the 1850's forward is well-documented. Before Central Park offers an even greater appreciation of the Park, as the prepark history was no less rich and vibrant.

Disclaimer: I worked at Columbia University Press, the publisher of this book, for a bunch of years, albeit handling their reference works (before Google and Wikipedia swept such things into the trashcan of history.) Not only that, but I've known Sara Cedar Miller for many years, albeit spasmodically and at a distance. Anyway, this book by the author of the best guide to Central Park and the best history of Central Park is another crowning achievement, a book written for everyone who loves the place and wonders what was before it and what brought it about. Sara Cedar Miller has proved to be an amazing researcher, a brilliant contributor to the history of New York, a fine story teller, and a terrific photographer. I'm sorry that its thoroughness and her many wonderful photographs have made rather a weighty object, because when reading it in bed I need a pillow to support it on my chest. But while my arms get tired my mind is being stimulated. She keeps me awake. Brava, Sara!

This book takes you behind the story of how Central Park, the verdant jewel in New York City's crown, came into being. In doing so, it does not skimp on the details. Far from it. In over 600 pages of scintillating text, lushly illustrated with gorgeous photographs, it offers a compelling historical analysis, filled with interesting anecdotes, that shed light on two and a half centuries of history that resulted in what arguably is the most influential public space in the world. Highly recommended.

My partner purchased this book through my account. See the review below."Before Central Park" by Sara Cedar Miller includes a really enlightening section on Seneca Village, in the park founded in 1825 by free blacks in New York before slavery was outlawed in the state. The in depth research that Miller has done shows the origins and development of this community and its destruction through eminent domain by New York City to create Central Park. A number of landowners protested their inadequate compensation but the park went forward over their protests. The absence of any records does not enable us to follow the fate of these families as well as the disappearance of the village which was razed. It shows the powerlessness of ordinary people in the face of urban development. A beautiful park was created, which swept away the lives of ordinary people. Howard Pflanzer