Tompkins Square Park

The park's entrance is at East 7th and Avenue A, and it has been the heart of the neighborhood since it opened.

Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre (42,000 m²) public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the west by Avenue A. St. Marks Place abuts the park to the west.

History

19th century

Tompkins Square Park is located on land near the East River, that once consisted of marshland and open meadows, but has since been filled in.^[1] Tompkins Square Park is named for Daniel D. Tompkins (1774–1825), Vice President of the United States under President James Monroe and the Governor of New York from 1807 until 1817. The park was opened in 1850.^[2]

In 1857, immigrants protesting unemployment and food shortages were attacked by police. In 1863 the deadly Draft Riots occurred in the park. ^[2]

On January 13, 1874, the Tompkins Square Riot occurred in the park when police crushed a demonstration involving thousands of workers.^[3] The riot marked an unprecedented era of labor conflict and violence.

In 1877 5,000 people fought with the National Guard when they amassed to hear Communist revolutionary speeches.^[2]

In April 1897 a Rabbi was arrested for not obtaining a permit for the performance of Birkat Hachama, a Jewish ritual done once every 28 years^[4].

20th century

A freshly fallen snow in February 2008.

In the middle 19th century the "Square" included a large parade ground for drilling the New York National Guard. The modern layout of the park by Robert Moses in 1936 is said to be intended to divide and manage crowds that have gathered there in protest since the 1870s. That tradition was rekindled as the park became the nursery of demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

By the 1980s Tompkins Square Park had become for many New Yorkers synonymous with the city's increased social problems. The park at that time was a high-crime area that contained encampments of homeless people, and it was a center for illegal drug dealing and heroin use.

In August 1988, a riot erupted in the park when police attempted to clear the park of homeless people; 44 people were injured. Bystanders as well as homeless people and political activists got caught up in the police action that took place on the night of August 6 and the early morning of August 7, after a large number of police surrounded the park and charged at the hemmed-in crowd while other police ordered all pedestrians not to walk on streets neighboring the park. Much of the violence was videotaped and clips were shown on local TV news reports (notably including one by a man who sat on his stoop across the street from the park and continued to film while a police officer beat him up), but ultimately, although at least one case went to trial, no police officers were found culpable.

From June 3, 1991 to July 25, 1992, the park was closed to the public for restoration, but also to keep out the homeless and in attempt to calm tensions.^[5]

21st century

People relaxing and sunbathing on the park's central knoll.

Increasing gentrification in the East Village during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as enforcement of a park curfew and the eviction of homeless people, have changed the character of Tompkins Square Park. The park was closed and refurbished in the early 1990s and today, with its playgrounds and basketball courts, handball courts and built-in outdoor chess tables, the park attracts young families, students and seniors as well as tourists from all over the globe. However, Colin Moynihan of the New York Times believes that the park is now "a lost place that has been supplanted by a neighborhood that is rather sterile and uninspiring." [[1]]

Attractions

Events

The outdoor drag festival Wigstock, held in the park, is now part of the Howl Festival. The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is a musical tribute to the famous former resident of Avenue B. In 2007, the New Village Music Festival was formed^[6]. This is a community music festival dedicated celebrating New York's diverse music scene. In addition, the event highlights the importance of music of culture and cultural arts programs throughout the city.

There is also an annual "Riot Reunion" concert every summer called "Cracktöberfest" that features the neighborhood squatt-punk, "crack rocksteady" band Leftöver Crack or one of their many other incarnations such as Choking Victim.

The Food Not Bombs Manhattan chapter serves every Sunday in the park, rain or shine.

Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United states and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation have a popular free outdoor French film festival which shows a critically acclaimed French films each Friday at sunset in city parks including Tompkins during June and July^[7][8].

Tompkins Square Dog Run

The newly renovated Big Dog Run.

The Tompkins Square Dog Run was the first^[2] dog run in New York City. It opened in 1990 as part of a large-scale renovation of the dilapidated park.^[9] It recently underwent a $450,000 renovation, much of which was funded by the New York City government and fund-raising by dog run patrons. It now includes a surface of decomposed granite sand, three swimming pools, picnic tables, and bath areas and hoses to spray off your pet.^[9]

One such fundraiser is the Halloween party the run hosts to raise money to maintain the run. This is the biggest dog Halloween party in the United States, boasting an annual attendance of more than 400 dogs in costume and 2,000 spectators.

Elm trees

The Hare Krishna Tree.^[10]

One of Tompkins Square Park's most prominent features is its collection of venerable American Elm (Ulmus americana) trees. One elm in particular, located next to the semi-circular arrangement of benches in the park's center, is important to adherents of the Hare Krishna religion. It was beneath this tree, on October 9, 1966, that A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, held the first recorded outdoor chanting session of the Hare Krishna mantra outside of the Indian subcontinent; participants in the ceremony included Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The event is seen as the founding of the Hare Krishna religion in the United States, and the tree is treated by Krishna adherents as a significant religious site.

American elm trees are known for their towering canopies, which provide abundant shade throughout the spring, summer, and fall. It is rare today to find such a collection of American elms, since many of the mature elms planted across the country have been killed by Dutch Elm Disease. This incurable disease, a fungus carried by elm bark beetles (Coleoptera scolytidae) that colonize on the branches of the elm tree, swept across the United States in the 1930s and remain a threat to the park's collection of elms. Despite having lost at least 34 of the trees, Tompkins Square Park still hosts a large assemblage of elms, which continue to this day to enchant park patrons. The East Village Parks Conservancy, a volunteer group, raises significant private funds for the ongoing care and maintenance of the American elms and other historic trees in Tompkins Square Park.

Playgrounds

The playground feature many unique jungle gyms, including rock climbing features. The water fountain spurts out unpredictably, in the summer time. There is a large sandbox, swing sets, and benches.

Monuments

Children at play in the summer.

• There is a monument the north side of the park to the General Slocum boating disaster on June 15, 1904. This was the greatest single loss of life in New York City prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Thirteen hundred people, mainly German immigrant mothers and children, drowned in the East River that day. The area near the park, formerly known as Little Germany, effectively dissolved in grief as shattered German families moved away. This disaster is also memorialized in James Joyce's novel Ulysses.

• The park is also the place where Indian Sadhu A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada came to sing and preach in 1966, beginning the worldwide Hare Krishna movement. An elm tree in the park's southern plaza that he chanted beneath is now considered sacred to the Hare Krishna faith, as noted by a New York City Department of Parks and Recreation plaque.

• The southeast corner of the park contains a statue of Samuel S. Cox (1824–1889), a New York City politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio and New York, and as U.S. Minister to Turkey in 1885-86. [2]

References

External links

• Tompkins Square Park information at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation website
• Letter from Tompkins Square Park
• The History of the Tompkins Square Police Riot, an archive of WBAI radio station
• Howl Festival
• Tompkins Square Dog Run : First Run
• Stranger to The System: Life Portraits of a New York City Homeless Community, webpage for a documentary chronicling the lives of twenty people living in Tompkins Square
• Neighborhood map of Tomkins Square Park: MondoMap
• Tompkins Square Park at On The Inside

Coordinates: 40°43′34″N 73°58′53″W / 40.72611°N 73.98139°W / 40.72611; -73.98139