page_title: Morningside Park (Manhattan)
section_title: Cleanup and 21st century
hierarchical_section_title: Morningside Park (Manhattan) / History / Cleanup and 21st century
caption_attribution_description: Morningside Park
context_page_description: Morningside Park is a 30-acre public park in Upper Manhattan, New York City. 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. It forms the border between the neighborhoods of Harlem to the east and Morningside Heights to the west. Much of the park is adjacent to Columbia University, located on the western border.
  The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation operates Morningside Park. Its natural geography contains a cliff of Manhattan schist rock that separates the high terrain of Morningside Heights and the low terrain of Harlem. Several rock outcroppings and a man-made ornamental pond and waterfall are located within the park. There are also three sculptures, as well as several athletic fields, playgrounds, and an arboretum.
  The area near Morningside Park was originally known as "Muscota" by the Lenape Native Americans. The park 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.
context_section_description: Even by the 1960s, Morningside Park had a reputation for being unsafe and unsanitary.  After the Columbia protests ended, Morningside Park was the site of several murders, muggings, and other crimes, furthering its notoriety. Litter lined the park, and it became a frequent homeless hangout. So common were crimes there that it was given the nickname "Muggingside Park". In 1971, after the controversy over the now-canceled Columbia site had subsided, NYC Parks published its "Proposed Rehabilitation of Columbia Gym Site", which called for a playground on the site's eastern edge and new paths on the western side. It was reported that Columbia had agreed to pay compensation for the demolition that had occurred in the park. This resulted in the formation of the West Harlem Coalition for Morningside Park. Focus on Morningside Park and other parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted came in 1972, on the 150th anniversary of his birth. The West Harlem Coalition hired Lawrence Halprin Associates in 1973, but plans for renovating Morningside Park were postponed after the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis. At this point, Huxtable wrote in the Times, "Morningside Park may now be the city’s most crime-ridden, underutilized and dangerous spot." More than a decade after the Columbia gym plan was canceled, the construction fencing remained on the site.
  The state's department of parks was in talks with Bond, Ryder and Associates for a “redevelopment design” of Morningside Park by 1978 with the West Harlem Community Organization and Morningside Park Coalition participating in the redesign process. In 1981, as part of the "Olmsted Project", the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission held two shows that depicted Morningside Park, including a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit. At that time, Morningside Park was being considered by the LPC for "scenic landmark" status, but this was opposed by residents and activists wanted to redesign the park. The same year, Thomas Kiel and other Columbia undergraduates founded the Friends of Morningside Park, which supported returning the park to its original design.
  NYC Parks drew up plans for a $12-million restoration of the park between 1987 and 1989. At that point, Columbia had given $250,000 toward the renovation, half of what it had pledged toward the restoration of the site. A $5 million first phase began in early 1989 and was conducted by a partnership of Quennell Rothschild Associates and Bond Ryder James. It entailed converting the excavated crater left by the abandoned gymnasium project into a waterfall and ornamental pond, which was the first part of the renovation to be completed in 1989. The pond, part of Olmsted and Vaux's original plan, cost $950,000, about three times as much as "standard landscaping". Contractors installed wells to feed the waterfall and the pond. The reconstruction, which focused on the park between 110th and 114th Streets, also included installing new playground equipment, planting trees, creating a picnic area and renovating the sports fields. The 1957 fieldhouse was also redesigned, and a new entrance was installed at 113th Street and Morningside Drive. This renovation was completed in 1993. There was little funding to perform further renovations at the northern part of Morningside Park then, and there was just one maintenance worker for the entire park. As a result, the northern part of the park was still overgrown with weeds and frequented by drug addicts.
  NYC Parks began a renovation of the 116th Street stairs in July 1996 completing it two years later at a cost of $650,000. After the statues were refurbished, the bluestone steps at 116th Street were renovated in 1998. The same year, construction began on the Dr. Thomas Kiel Arboretum in the northern part of the park, named after a founder and former chairman of the Friends of Morningside Park who died in 1996. In 1998 and 1999, a group named the Morningside Area Alliance (MAA) received $35,000 in grant funding from the Kaplan Foundation to work on the park. A portion was used to assess what the park needed don
caption: Park entrance
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