The Diana Ross Playground is located in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

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 ...

, inside the park at West 81st Street and

Central Park West Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...

Context

Its namesake, the recording artist Diana Ross, who lives across the street in

The Beresford The Beresford is a cooperative apartment building at 211 Central Park West, between 81st and 82nd Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed in 1929 and was designed by architect Emery Roth. The Beresford ...

, gave two legendary free concerts in Central Park on July 21 and 22, 1983 (attendance estimated to be between 400,000 and 800,000 people), and pledged to fund the project with proceeds from the television rights. However, when a thunderstorm during the first (and only scheduled) concert destroyed all of its memorabilia/merchandise, the performance did not prove profitable, and Ross used personal resources to fund the project. In late 1983, Ross said she would pay for a playground in Central Park, at the site of the concert, with proceeds from the concert. Groundbreaking took place in September 1986, with both Ross and then-Mayor

Ed Koch Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was ma ...

present. Ross reportedly called the event "one of the most fulfilling aspects of erlife and career."

Description

The playground is equipped with sturdy wood equipment, tire swings, a tube slide, a corkscrew slide, sandboxes, rope bridges, and a mushroom-style water feature. Open daily from 7:30am to dusk, the space is maintained by the

Central Park Conservancy The Central Park Conservancy is a private, nonprofit park conservancy that manages Central Park under a contract with the City of New York and NYC Parks. The conservancy employs most maintenance and operations staff in the park. It effectively ...

's Playground Partners program. To the north of the playground, the ground rises in a steep slope to Summit Rock, the highest point in Central Park. To the east, secluded in shrub plantings, is Tanner's Spring, one of two natural springs that remain in the park (the other being Montayne's Spring at the Pool). Its name commemorates Dr. Henry S. Tanner, a proponent of therapeutic fasting, who, in the summer of 1880, elected to fast under constant observation for forty days and nights, supplied only by water from this spring. M.M. Graff, in relating the story, observed "The legend quite naturally arose that the water of the spring contained some magically concentrated nutrients". Before the construction of the park, the spring provided water for the community of

Seneca Village Seneca Village was a 19th-century settlement of mostly African American landowners in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, within what would become present-day Central Park. The settlement was located near the current Upper West Side ne ...

, located to the north of Summit Hill, which at the time was called "Goat Hill". In May 2012, after the ''Diana Ross: For One and For All'' DVD of the concert was released, '' DNAinfo.com'' called the playground as one of the "best playgrounds on the Upper West Side".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Diana Playground Central Park Playgrounds 1986 establishments in New York City