Carl Schurz Park/ʃʊrts/ is a 14.9-acre (6.0 ha)public park in theYorkville neighborhood ofManhattan,New York City, named for German-born Secretary of the InteriorCarl Schurz in 1910, at the edge of what was then the solidly German-American community of Yorkville. The park containsGracie Mansion, the official residence of theMayor of New York.
Carl Schurz Park overlooks the waters ofHell Gate andWards Island in theEast River, and is the site ofGracie Mansion (built forArchibald Gracie, 1799, enlarged c. 1811), the official residence of theMayor of New York since 1942. There are tours of the restored building every Monday and Wednesday. The park's waterfront promenade is a deck built over theFranklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, enclosing the roadway except on the side facing theEast River. The park is bordered on the west byEast End Avenue and on the south by Gracie Square, the extension of East 84th Street to the river. TheEast River Greenway, part of theManhattan Waterfront Greenway, passes along the promenade platform.
The park contains winding, shady paths, green lawns, waterfront views, basketball courts, a large playground for children, and two dog runs: one designated for larger dogs and one for smaller dogs.[1] The park is maintained by Carl Schurz Park Conservancy, the oldest park conservancy in New York City, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
The bluff overlooking a curve in theEast River at this point was named in 1646 by first recorded owner, Siebert Classen, "Hoorn's Hook", for his nativeHoorn on theZuider Zee.[note 1] The first house on the site was built for Jacob Walton, a few years before the Revolution, when the picturesque location suddenly gained tactical importance in the control of the East River. In February 1776,[2] the house and grounds were commandeered for an American battery of nine guns on the site.[note 2] This drew British fire on September 15, 1776, in a mopping-up operation to secure all ofManhattan Island following theBattle of Long Island; the bombardment demolished Walton's house and forced an American withdrawal. The British kept an encampment on the site untilEvacuation Day, 1783.Archibald Gracie leveled the remains of the star fort and constructed his timber-framed villaGracie Mansion in 1799.
The section of the park lying south of 86th Street (set aside as "East River Park" in 1876), whereJohn Jacob Astor once had a villa, was used as a picnic ground when the northern section was acquired by the City of New York in 1891.[note 3] The easternmost block of 86th Street was acquired subsequently, and the street de-mapped. A new landscape design byCalvert Vaux andSamuel Parsons was completed in 1902, several years after Vaux's death.
East River Park was renamed Carl Schurz Park in 1911.[3] The park was reconstructed in 1935 byRobert Moses, due to the creation of the FDR Drive,[4] with revised landscaping byMaud Sargent. The park's restoration from a neglected state in the early 1970s was due to the energies of a neighborhood group, the not-for-profit Carl Schurz Park Conservancy (incorporated 1974), formed originally to clean up the park's single playground.[5]
Carl Schurz Park served as the location for the climactic fight scene inSpike Lee's 2002 film25th Hour, starringEdward Norton andPhilip Seymour Hoffman.
40°46′31″N73°56′37″W / 40.77528°N 73.94361°W /40.77528; -73.94361
