Tompkins Square Park

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. [cite book |title=Homesteading in New York City, 1978-1993: The Divided Heart of Loisaida |author=Hassell, Malve Von Hassell |publisher=Bergin & Garvey |year=1996 |pages=p. 39] 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. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/arts/14expl.html Paths of Resistance in the East Village] , John Strausbaugh, "The New York Times", September 14, 2007; accessed August 25, 2008.]

In 1857, immigrants protesting unemployment and food shortages were attacked by police. In 1863 the deadly Draft Riots occurred in the park and had an effect on Manhattan.

On January 13, 1874, the Tompkins Square Riot occurred in the park when police crushed a demonstration involving thousands of workers. [cite book |author=Gordon, Michael Allen |title=The Orange Riots: Irish Political Violence in New York City, 1870-1871 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1993 |page=p. 203] 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.

20th century

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. [cite book |title=Homesteading in New York City, 1978-1993: The Divided Heart of Loisaida |author=Hassell, Malve Von Hassell |publisher=Bergin & Garvey |year=1996 |pages=p. 44]

21st century

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. Although at the same time, the park lost much of its "culture." A New York Times reporter writes that the park is now "a lost place that has been supplanted by a neighborhood that is rather sterile and uninspiring. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/books/05squa.html?hp]

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. 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.

Tompkins Square Dog Run

", October 15, 1995; accessed August 15, 2008.] dog run in New York City, and spawned others. It was has undergone a $150,000 renovation, much of which was funded by the New York City government and fund-raising by dog run patrons.

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 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

Monuments

*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. [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000839]

References

External links

* [http://nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=12589 Tompkins Square Park information] at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation website
* [http://www.city-journal.org/article02.php?aid=1155 Letter from Tompkins Square Park]
* [http://pdr.autono.net/tapecat.htm The History of the Tompkins Square Police Riot] , an archive of WBAI radio station
* [http://www.howlfestival.com/ Howl Festival]
* [http://www.dogster.org Tompkins Square Dog Run : First Run]
* [http://www.curbsidemedia.org/stranger%20to%20the%20system.html 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]
* [http://mondomap.com/mondo/?vid=19459&bid=153 Neighborhood map of Tomkins Square Park: MondoMap]
* [http://ontheinside.info/ben-chang/tompkins-square-park Tompkins Square Park] at On The Inside