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Conservatory Water is a pond located in a natural hollow within
Since the 1860s, children had sailed their model yachts at the pond. Later, the naturalistic water lily pond was reshaped as a model boat pond loosely based on that of one in the Jardin du Luxembourg, in Paris.Sergey Kadinsky (2016)
''Hidden Waters of New York City: A History and Guide to 101 Forgotten Lakes, Ponds, Creeks, and Streams in the Five Boroughs''
/ref> The formally shaped shallow basin is set in a molded curb of "Atlantic Blue" granite, which replaced a concrete curb in 2000. It is home water to a flotilla of Model yachting, model sailboats. The model sailboats were made familiar in the pages of E.B. White's children's realistic fantasy novel ''Stuart Little'' (1945) about a mouse-like human boy who sailed his ship on Conservatory Water. The novel was recreated in the popular family animated/live-action comedy Stuart Little (film), 1999 film of the same name.
The eastern shore of Conservatory Water contains the Kerbs Memorial Boathouse, designed by architect Aymar Embury II, where patrons can rent and navigate radio-controlled and wind-powered model boats. The 1954 boathouse, in picnic Georgian architecture, Georgian taste with red brick and a green copper hip roof and steeple, outside of which is a flagstone patio, houses resident model sailboats as well as the Radio control, radio-controlled model yachts of the Central Park Model Yacht Club.
Pilgrim Hill lies to the southwest of Conservatory Water, just inside the park entrance at 5th Avenue and on the north side of East 72nd Street, 72nd Street. Its slopes are popular among locals for sledding in the winter when Central Park receives 6 inches of snow, for groves of pale flowering Yoshino cherry trees as they burst into bloom in the spring, and for picnics and lounging in warmer months. The slopes are dotted by ''Prunus serrulata'' and other specimen trees, notably a globose European Hornbeam and nine species of oak, all set in rolling lawn.
They are surveyed by artist John Quincy Adams Ward's bronze statue of ''The Pilgrim'', a tall stylized representation of one of the Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony), Pilgrims, British immigrants to the New World led by William Bradford (governor), William Bradford who left from Plymouth, England, in the cargo ship ''Mayflower'' in September 1620. The statue faces westward on the crest of a little Hillock, knoll at the top of the hill, on a Rustication (architecture), rusticated Quincy Quarries Reservation, Quincy granite pedestal that was created by architect Richard Morris Hunt and contains four bas-reliefs (depicting the ship the ''Mayflower'', Bible and Sword, Cross-Bow and Arrows, and Commerce), overlooking the East Drive at East 72nd Street. The statue was donated to New York City in 1885 by the New England Society of New York.
Bronze sculptural groups set in small terraces front the Conservatory Water. One to the north, parallel with East 74th Street, commemorates Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel ''Alice in Wonderland'', with an tall Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice (whose face is modeled on that of the sculptor's daughter) sitting on a large mushroom at a tea party held by the Mad Hatter (whose face is supposedly modeled on that of George Delacorte) with the March Hare, the White Rabbit, the The Dormouse, Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Caterpillar, and Alice's kitten Dinah in her lap. It was created in 1959 by sculptor José de Creeft, patterned on illustrations drawn by John Tenniel, commissioned by philanthropist George Delacorte in honor of his wife, and forged in the Modern Art Foundry in Queens, New York. It is favored by children who enjoy climbing on it, which was contemplated in its design. At the base of the statue, among other inscriptions, is a line from Lewis Carroll's 1871 nonsense poem "Jabberwocky".
''Saving Central Park; A History and a Memoir''
/ref> A larger-than-life-size Anderson sits on a Stony Creek (Branford), Stony Creek polished pink granite bench with an open book on his lap, turned to the story of "The Ugly Duckling," with a -tall bronze duck at his feet. In the palm of Andersen's left hand, the sculptor inscribed: "In appreciation of the help and encouragement my wife Nellie has always given me affectionately, Georg, 1956." The statue is meant to be climbed on. The sculpture was cast in the Modern Art Foundry. These sculptures were built by New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, NYC Parks commissioner Robert Moses in the 1950s as part of the park's "Children's District". Another statue, that of the fictional Mary Poppins (character), Mary Poppins, was not constructed.
''Classical New York; Discovering Greece and Rome in Gotham''
It commemorates Waldo Hutchins (1822–1891), a member of the original Board of Commissioners for Central Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, New York City Park Commissioner (1857–1869 and 1887–1891), and a three-term United States House of Representatives, Representative to the U.S. Congress (1879–1885). The bench is almost tall by long, and weighs several tons. ''Waldo Hutchins Bench Sundial, New York, USA''
October 6, 2016. The cost of the bench was $15,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Its architect was Eric Gugler, and in 1932 it was executed by the Piccirilli Brothers studio, the firm that carved the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The bench has a small sundial, a variation on a 3rd century BC Hellenistic period Berossus sundial, at its back designed by sculptor Albert Stewart (sculptor), Albert Stewart. The sundial features a small Art Deco bronze gnomon sculpture of a female dancer trailed by a wind-blown gown and flowing scarves at its center. The gnomon sculpture was crafted by sculptor Paul Manship, who created the 18-foot (5.5 m)-tall bronze gilded Prometheus statue at Rockefeller Center. Incised in the bench and paving three semicircular arced lines match the bench shelf’s shadow lines at 10:00 a.m., noon, and 2:00 p.m. at the Equinox#Celestial_coordinate_systems, vernal and September equinox, autumnal equinoxes--though today Daylight saving time in the United States, daylight saving time has thrown the times off by one hour in the spring. There are two Latin inscriptions etched into the back of the bench: ''vivas oportet si vis tibi vivere'' ("One must live for another, if he wishes to live for himself"; a quotation of the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger); and the sundial reads ''ne diruatur fuga temporum'' ("Let it not be destroyed by the passage of time"). If two people sit at opposite ends of the bench and speak softly into it, they can hear each other easily. On the backside to the west, Pilgrim Hill overlooks the bench and Conservatory Water.
Central Park Conservancy: Conservatory Water
{{authority control 1854 establishments in New York (state) 1885 sculptures 1932 sculptures 1955 sculptures 1959 sculptures Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Boathouses in the United States Bronze sculptures in Central Park Calvert Vaux designs Central Park Cultural depictions of Hans Christian Andersen Frederick Law Olmsted works Lakes of Manhattan Lakes of New York (state) Monuments and memorials in Manhattan Sculptures in Central Park Statues in New York City
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
in Manhattan, New York City. It is located west of Fifth Avenue, centered opposite East 74th Street. The pond is surrounded by several landscaped hills, including Pilgrim Hill dotted by groves of Yoshino cherry trees and Pug Hill, resulting in a somewhat manicured park landscape, planned in deferential reference to the estate plantings of the owners of the mansions that once lined the adjacent stretch of Fifth Avenue.
Conservatory Water is named for a Greenhouse, glass-house for tropical plants and was intended to be entered from Fifth Avenue by a grand stair. The shore of Conservatory Water contains the Kerbs Memorial Boathouse, where patrons can rent and navigate Radio-controlled boat, radio-controlled model boats, as well as bronze sculptures.
The water was supplied from the Ramble and Lake, the site of the historic Sawkill stream, which once flowed through here on its way to the East River. When Central Park was built in the mid-19th century, hardy Nymphaeaceae, water lilies were naturalized in the bottom mud and tender ones were wintered over in the park's Conservatory (greenhouse), conservatory. Later, the naturalistic water lily pond was reshaped as a model boat pond.
History
Conservatory Water is named for another estate-garden feature, a Greenhouse, glass-house for tropical plants, to be entered from Fifth Avenue by a grand stair. The garden had been proposed in the Greensward Plan of 1857, during a design competition for Central Park where the Greensward Plan ultimately won out. Several other proposals submitted during the competition did not include a formal garden. The two principal designers of the Greensward Plan, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, instead suggested building a Conservatory (greenhouse), conservatory on the site of the proposed formal garden, with a "hard-edged" reflecting pool in the middle. Only the reflecting pool was constructed, though. A naturalistic pond displaying Nymphaeaceae, water lilies was excavated. The steep bank towards Fifth Avenue was densely planted with shrubs and trees, including birch—for quick cover—and Fagus sylvatica, copper beech. Samuel Parsons, Calvert Vaux's assistant and partner, who was named Superintendent of Plantings, described the effect in his ''Landscape Gardening'' (1891):The general shape of this pond was oval, with winding, irregular shores, bounded by a high bank on the east side and a great willow drooping over the north end. Rocks were disposed in the immediate banks, so as to suggest a natural formation, rather than an artificial pond. The bottom, scarcely three feet deep, was cemented tight as a cup, and the water flowed gently in at one end, and out at the other, and so through a basin and into the sewer. Eighteen inches of soil was made rich with manure and deposited over the bottom.The water was supplied from the Ramble and Lake, the site of the historic Sawkill stream, which once flowed through here on its way to the East River. Hardy water lilies, both European and American, were naturalized in the bottom mud and tender ones, planted in boxes, were wintered over in the park's Conservatory (greenhouse), conservatory, now the site of Conservatory Garden.
Since the 1860s, children had sailed their model yachts at the pond. Later, the naturalistic water lily pond was reshaped as a model boat pond loosely based on that of one in the Jardin du Luxembourg, in Paris.Sergey Kadinsky (2016)''Hidden Waters of New York City: A History and Guide to 101 Forgotten Lakes, Ponds, Creeks, and Streams in the Five Boroughs''
/ref> The formally shaped shallow basin is set in a molded curb of "Atlantic Blue" granite, which replaced a concrete curb in 2000. It is home water to a flotilla of Model yachting, model sailboats. The model sailboats were made familiar in the pages of E.B. White's children's realistic fantasy novel ''Stuart Little'' (1945) about a mouse-like human boy who sailed his ship on Conservatory Water. The novel was recreated in the popular family animated/live-action comedy Stuart Little (film), 1999 film of the same name.
Boathouse
The eastern shore of Conservatory Water contains the Kerbs Memorial Boathouse, designed by architect Aymar Embury II, where patrons can rent and navigate radio-controlled and wind-powered model boats. The 1954 boathouse, in picnic Georgian architecture, Georgian taste with red brick and a green copper hip roof and steeple, outside of which is a flagstone patio, houses resident model sailboats as well as the Radio control, radio-controlled model yachts of the Central Park Model Yacht Club.
Surroundings
The waters of Conservatory Water shelter a seasonal population of unusual minute freshwater jellyfish, ''Craspedacusta sowerbyi''. In the sculptured Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts pediment of an upper-floor window of 927 Fifth Avenue, overlooking Conservatory Water, the red-tailed hawk named "Pale Male" set up a nest, under the binocular watch of the Park's numerous bird-watchers.Pilgrim Hill
Pilgrim Hill lies to the southwest of Conservatory Water, just inside the park entrance at 5th Avenue and on the north side of East 72nd Street, 72nd Street. Its slopes are popular among locals for sledding in the winter when Central Park receives 6 inches of snow, for groves of pale flowering Yoshino cherry trees as they burst into bloom in the spring, and for picnics and lounging in warmer months. The slopes are dotted by ''Prunus serrulata'' and other specimen trees, notably a globose European Hornbeam and nine species of oak, all set in rolling lawn.
They are surveyed by artist John Quincy Adams Ward's bronze statue of ''The Pilgrim'', a tall stylized representation of one of the Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony), Pilgrims, British immigrants to the New World led by William Bradford (governor), William Bradford who left from Plymouth, England, in the cargo ship ''Mayflower'' in September 1620. The statue faces westward on the crest of a little Hillock, knoll at the top of the hill, on a Rustication (architecture), rusticated Quincy Quarries Reservation, Quincy granite pedestal that was created by architect Richard Morris Hunt and contains four bas-reliefs (depicting the ship the ''Mayflower'', Bible and Sword, Cross-Bow and Arrows, and Commerce), overlooking the East Drive at East 72nd Street. The statue was donated to New York City in 1885 by the New England Society of New York.
Pug Hill
Pug Hill is located to the northwest of the ''Alice and Wonderland'' statue and was a popular place for the city's pug owners to socialize in the late 1990s through the mid-2000s. At times, there were so many pugs present that they were described as a fawn and black whirlpool moving through the grass. However, Pug Hill gatherings were ended due to heavy NYC Parks enforcement. In 2006, Pug Hill was the inspiration for an eponymous book.''Alice in Wonderland'' sculpture
Bronze sculptural groups set in small terraces front the Conservatory Water. One to the north, parallel with East 74th Street, commemorates Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel ''Alice in Wonderland'', with an tall Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice (whose face is modeled on that of the sculptor's daughter) sitting on a large mushroom at a tea party held by the Mad Hatter (whose face is supposedly modeled on that of George Delacorte) with the March Hare, the White Rabbit, the The Dormouse, Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Caterpillar, and Alice's kitten Dinah in her lap. It was created in 1959 by sculptor José de Creeft, patterned on illustrations drawn by John Tenniel, commissioned by philanthropist George Delacorte in honor of his wife, and forged in the Modern Art Foundry in Queens, New York. It is favored by children who enjoy climbing on it, which was contemplated in its design. At the base of the statue, among other inscriptions, is a line from Lewis Carroll's 1871 nonsense poem "Jabberwocky".
''Hans Christian Andersen'' sculpture
Another sculptural group, to the west of the Conservatory Water, commemorates Danish fable author ''Hans Christian Andersen'' and the Ugly Duckling (1955), sculpted by Georg John Lober.Elizabeth Barlow Rogers (2018)''Saving Central Park; A History and a Memoir''
/ref> A larger-than-life-size Anderson sits on a Stony Creek (Branford), Stony Creek polished pink granite bench with an open book on his lap, turned to the story of "The Ugly Duckling," with a -tall bronze duck at his feet. In the palm of Andersen's left hand, the sculptor inscribed: "In appreciation of the help and encouragement my wife Nellie has always given me affectionately, Georg, 1956." The statue is meant to be climbed on. The sculpture was cast in the Modern Art Foundry. These sculptures were built by New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, NYC Parks commissioner Robert Moses in the 1950s as part of the park's "Children's District". Another statue, that of the fictional Mary Poppins (character), Mary Poppins, was not constructed.
Waldo Hutchins bench
Discreetly sited overlooking Conservatory Water, just inside Central Park north-west of the park's East 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue entrance, and east of Pilgrim Hill, is a curved Concord, New Hampshire, Concord white granite exedra (a design from ancient Greece and Rome) outdoor bench.Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis, Matthew McGowan (2018)''Classical New York; Discovering Greece and Rome in Gotham''
It commemorates Waldo Hutchins (1822–1891), a member of the original Board of Commissioners for Central Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, New York City Park Commissioner (1857–1869 and 1887–1891), and a three-term United States House of Representatives, Representative to the U.S. Congress (1879–1885). The bench is almost tall by long, and weighs several tons. ''Waldo Hutchins Bench Sundial, New York, USA''
October 6, 2016. The cost of the bench was $15,000 ($ in current dollar terms). Its architect was Eric Gugler, and in 1932 it was executed by the Piccirilli Brothers studio, the firm that carved the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The bench has a small sundial, a variation on a 3rd century BC Hellenistic period Berossus sundial, at its back designed by sculptor Albert Stewart (sculptor), Albert Stewart. The sundial features a small Art Deco bronze gnomon sculpture of a female dancer trailed by a wind-blown gown and flowing scarves at its center. The gnomon sculpture was crafted by sculptor Paul Manship, who created the 18-foot (5.5 m)-tall bronze gilded Prometheus statue at Rockefeller Center. Incised in the bench and paving three semicircular arced lines match the bench shelf’s shadow lines at 10:00 a.m., noon, and 2:00 p.m. at the Equinox#Celestial_coordinate_systems, vernal and September equinox, autumnal equinoxes--though today Daylight saving time in the United States, daylight saving time has thrown the times off by one hour in the spring. There are two Latin inscriptions etched into the back of the bench: ''vivas oportet si vis tibi vivere'' ("One must live for another, if he wishes to live for himself"; a quotation of the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger); and the sundial reads ''ne diruatur fuga temporum'' ("Let it not be destroyed by the passage of time"). If two people sit at opposite ends of the bench and speak softly into it, they can hear each other easily. On the backside to the west, Pilgrim Hill overlooks the bench and Conservatory Water.
References
External links
Central Park Conservancy: Conservatory Water
{{authority control 1854 establishments in New York (state) 1885 sculptures 1932 sculptures 1955 sculptures 1959 sculptures Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Boathouses in the United States Bronze sculptures in Central Park Calvert Vaux designs Central Park Cultural depictions of Hans Christian Andersen Frederick Law Olmsted works Lakes of Manhattan Lakes of New York (state) Monuments and memorials in Manhattan Sculptures in Central Park Statues in New York City