“Central Park: A Beautiful View”

View of the new tower, Turtle Pond, Delacorte Theater, Great Lawn, and Manhattan’s East Side

“Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.”

Adapted from John Evelyn

Belvedere Castle

A breathtaking view changes perspective. “Belvedere,” Italian for a “beautiful view” captures not just the sweeping panorama of Central Park and the New York City skyline, but the sight of the magnificent Belvedere Castle itself. Faithfully restored to its original 1869 plan by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the landmark now includes a spectacular new wooden tower. The castle is magical for children and adults alike.

A young woman gazes serenely from the top terrace

On a wonderful preview day for Central Park members, dedicated staff and volunteers gave visitors a warm welcome. A friendly Walt Whitman, who has roots in the area, was in town for the Pride Celebrations. Now a visitor center as well as a destination, Belvedere Castle was initially a folly as NY1’s Roger Clark noted in his coverage. Decorative follies are buildings that were especially popular in England and France in the 1700 and 1800’s when Romanticism in art influenced landscape architecture.

Looking up from the main terrace at this beautiful restoration funded by The Thompson Family Foundation.

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux invented selfie stations, who knew?

From the castle, visitors will experience not only a welcome breeze and singing birds but the creative sounds of construction for new sets at the nearby Delacorte Theater.

The new wooden tower behind the pavilion and the Delacorte Theater

The Delacorte Theater and Shakespeare in the Park

Summer is the season of theater in Central Park. There is the amphitheater at Summit Rock, its endowment fund dedicated to a beloved friend of the park, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, landscape designer, preservationist, and founding president of the Central Park Conservancy. Better known is the Delacorte Theater, the home of Shakespeare in the Park, next featuring “Corolianus,” July 16th-August 11th. The open-air theater, a gift of George Delacorte, gave a summer residence to Joseph Papp’s Shakespeare workshop, founded in 1954. Originally, the performances were on the nearby lawn and went on to include “The Pirates of Penzance” by Gilbert & Sullivan whose work Mr. Papp also admired. The troupe’s year-round home, The Public Theater, opened in 1967 in Greenwich Village and both theaters have sent productions ranging from “Hair” to “Hamilton” to Broadway.

The idea that Central Park is not just a park, but a place of art and exploration is extraordinary in the middle of a city. The latter prompts the wondrous Discovery Walks for Families and Park tours, ideal for enjoying in the summer. On the wish list for next June is the annual New York Philharmonic Concert in the Parks – Central Park complete with fireworks. Coming up are SummerStage performances and the Central Park Conservancy Film Festival. The summer Saturday Central Park Tango at the Shakespeare statue offers charm and fun, but could be a stretch for my friend who survived school dances in the 70’s and still shudders at the first notes of “Smoke on the Water”.

Friendship takes every form in Central Park. On summer picnics or dining outdoors, the meal tastes better with friends. At the ball fields throughout the Park, friends gather in team spirit and sporting rivalries. Children leap through playground fountains with squeals of delight. Owners take their dogs for walks, or charmingly, vice versa. Some pass the pinnacle of “man’s best friend,” Balto, indeed ever friendly and vigilant as he stands a few yards from Tisch Children’s Zoo. Named after the Norwegian-Sami explorer Samuel J. Balto, the Siberian husky’s statue, created by Frederick George Richard Roth, honors the hero who saved the children of Nome, Alaska in 1925. During a diphtheria epidemic, Balto led a team in minus 40 degrees on the last 53-mile leg of the “Serum Run” from Anchorage. Friend to all, people now enjoy posing for photos and selfies with one of their Park pals.

The Garden of Friendship

Would that we all had “forever and a day” to spend in the Shakespeare Garden, lovely year-round with thanks to the staff and volunteers who paint in flowers. Through a shared love of the arts, friendship can flourish without ever speaking in personal ways.

As we near the International Day of Friendship, July 30th, and Friendship Day in the US, August 4th, it seems that things do come full circle. Having more pen pals than Beatles albums around the world by the age of twelve, (our mail carrier retired early), is not unlike the rapport I experience with others on social media. Post at #CentralPark and one joins a community, follow @CentralParkNYC, and one relives a trip with beautiful daily photos long after returning home. For those who call Central Park their backyard, instant notice of a concert or the unveiling of new artwork like the “Tilted Head” of Mark Manders makes the city feel like a neighborhood. For both Central Park and the broader community, there is #NYCParks and @NYCParks, part of New York City Parks with Fourth of July events.

On the note of artists, Joseph Papp was a genuine friend to Czech playwright Vaclav Havel before he ever knew him. Mr. Papp produced the US premiere of “The Memorandum” in 1968 during the first season of The Public Theatre. Both men immediately connected when meeting in New York City for the play’s opening. Vaclav had a rare dual privilege after the Prague Spring: seeing one of his plays produced and traveling outside of then Czechoslovakia. “The Memorandum” received the Obie Award for Best Foreign Play after the author left. Years later, Mr. Papp and his wife Gail Merrifield bravely traveled to Vaclav’s Czech country home, where the playwright lived under house arrest with his wife Olga, to deliver the award. Joseph Papp had offered help to Vaclav when he was in prison by finding him an artistic or academic residency in the US. Mr. Havel declined out of respect for his peers, also knowing that he would not be allowed to return to his homeland.

Though Vaclav Havel later became the first president of the Czech Republic, he remained an artist and friend of the founder of Shakespeare in the Park, who was also the man who helped save the Broadway Theater District. In the same generous spirit as Joseph Papp, President Havel encouraged artists in his country. Reading Vaclav Havel’s “Summer Meditations” and his thoughts on a civil society took me to Prague, and it was an inspirational experience to live there while he led the country.

A beautiful aspect of Central Park is that it brings people of disparate views together through a shared love. Even if one avoids the news, it is clear on a summertime stroll almost anywhere that a divisive time has begun again. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed the park inspired by a democratic ideal. Central Park is the place to go for snapdragons in lieu of snap judgments, and common ground is the definition of civility. Looking out from Belvedere Castle, all things are possible.

(Sources: centralparknyc.org, radio.cz, newyorker.com, centralpark.com, cnmh.org, wsj.com, countryliving.com, britannica.com, Wiki)