Andrew Haswell Green may not be a household name, but he should be. New Yorkers ought to know that many of the City’s most popular landmarks would not exist were it not for this lawyer, leader, and planner.
Perhaps New York’s most underrated hero, Green died in 1903, at the age of 83, but his legacy remains indelibly marked all over New York City. Here are ten things you should know about Andrew Haswell Green:
1. It was when, serving with the Central Park Commission between 1857 and 1870, that some of Green’s greatest achievements came to pass: among them, gaining approval for the CPC to create both The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History (1869).
2. There are few areas of New York life that Green didn’t take an interest in. In 1855, he became President of the Board of Education. In 1871, he became NYC’s Comptroller. In 1895, Green formed the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society which rescued endangered sites and created parks, all the way into the 1970s.
3. When Samuel J. Tilden left a fortune in his will in 1886, with the specific goal of opening a public library, a number of his relatives contested it. Though the funds that Green and two other executors ultimately received was much less than Tilden first intended, Green got around the financial issues by combining the Astor and Lenox libraries and using Tilden’s fortune to expand them. The result: The New York Public Library.
4. A portrait of Andrew Haswell Green hangs in a part of City Hall that isn’t accessible to the general public. We think it deserves a more prominent place in there, since Haswell saved the 1811 building from demolition in the 1870s.
5. New York City’s five boroughs were only consolidated in 1898, thanks to the work of Green. He lobbied tirelessly to join them together as one great city, and succeeded, earning him the nickname, “Father of New York City”.
6. Green was actually born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts and lived in Trinidad for a year before he decided to move to New York and pursue a legal career. He qualified as a lawyer at the age of 25.
7. Green founded the world famous Bronx Zoo. When it opened on November 8, 1899, it wowed the public with 843 animals. It continues to be a major tourist attraction today.
8. It’s no wonder Andrew Haswell Green was so community-minded-he had ten brothers and sisters!
9. Only in recent years did Green finally get a park named after him-the Andrew Haswell Green dog park, situated at East 63rd Street, and overlooking the East River. It’s provided Upper East Side with a great spot to bring the neighborhood’s canine-lovers together.
10. Despite his extraordinary accomplishments in forming New York City as we know it today, there are surprisingly few tributes to Green. The most poignant is a low-key bench in Central Park, at the top of the 106th Street hill. The bench, put in place in 1929, is surrounded by five maple trees to represent the five boroughs.
Photo Courtesy of wikipedia.org
