Great Lawn and Turtle Pond facts for kids
The Great Lawn and Turtle Pond are two connected and famous spots in Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, United States. This area used to be a large reservoir (a place to store water) for the city's old water system. It was filled in during the early 1900s.
Turtle Pond is right next to Belvedere Castle and the Delacorte Theater. It's home to many turtles and fish. The Great Lawn is a huge, oval-shaped grassy area, about 14 acres (5.7 hectares) big. People use it for sports and also for big concerts.
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What is the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond?
The Great Lawn and Turtle Pond are located on what used to be a large, flat reservoir. This reservoir was part of the original plan for Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.
The King Jagiello Monument stands at the east end of Turtle Pond, and the Delacorte Theater is on its west side. The Great Lawn itself is about 14 acres (5.7 hectares) and is surrounded by a walking path. Turtle Pond and the nearby Arthur Ross Pinetum cover another 31 acres (12.5 hectares). Together, the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond area is about 55 acres (22 hectares).
The Lawn: A Place for Sports and Fun
The Great Lawn is mostly a big field for playing. It has an oval path around it. You'll find eight baseball fields here (six inside the oval and two just north of it). There's also a soccer field and four basketball courts. It's a very popular spot for outdoor activities!
The Pond: Home to Many Turtles
Turtle Pond is located just south of the Great Lawn. Most of Central Park's turtles live here. Many of these turtles used to be pets that people released into the park.
Arthur Ross Pinetum: A Pine Tree Collection
The Arthur Ross Pinetum is named after Arthur Ross, a person who gave a lot of money to good causes. This area has 17 different kinds of pine trees. It covers about 4 acres (1.6 hectares) on the northwest side of the oval.
History of the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond
The Original Site: A Water Reservoir
The area where the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond are now used to be a big reservoir called the Yorkville Reservoir. It was built in 1842 to hold the city's drinking water. To build it, a community called York Hill had to move. Its residents went to Seneca Village, which was later removed when Central Park was built in the 1850s.
The reservoir was filled with water starting in 1842. It was about 34 feet (10 meters) deep and could hold a lot of water. It was surrounded by a stone wall, and you can still see part of it near 86th Street.
When Central Park was being designed, some people wanted to keep the reservoir as a feature, while others wanted to hide it to make the park feel more natural. Belvedere Castle was built in 1869 on a rock overlooking the southwestern corner of the reservoir.
What Were the Big Ideas for the Site?
By the early 1900s, New York City had a new water system, so the old reservoir was no longer needed. People started thinking about what to do with the empty space.
Many different ideas were suggested:
- Some wanted to cover the reservoir to create more space for fun activities.
- A famous architect named Thomas Hastings designed a grand plan for the site.
- Others wanted a road to connect two big museums: the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Even wilder ideas included airplane landing pads, an opera house, a radio tower, sports stadiums, and even underground parking!
These plans caused a lot of debate. Some people who loved the park's natural design thought these ideas would ruin it. Others, who wanted more places for city residents to play, thought sports fields and bath houses would be great. Hastings's plan was approved in 1917, but it was later dropped due to changes in city leadership during World War I.
In 1922, Hastings changed his plan to include a recreation center and a memorial for soldiers from World War I. This idea tried to please both sides. Newspapers and groups also pushed for more recreational space. However, the issue became political, and Hastings's plan faced a lot of opposition.
Several groups, like the Central Park Association, were formed to protect Central Park. They didn't want the memorial. Eventually, the idea of a memorial was canceled, and people started pushing for the reservoir area to be turned into a more natural space, like the park's original design.
Building the Great Lawn
The reservoir started to be drained in January 1930. The plan was to fill it with a huge amount of dirt. During the Great Depression, a tough economic time, some people who had lost their homes built temporary shelters in the dry bed of the reservoir. These temporary homes were called a "Hooverville." They were allowed to stay for a few years before being asked to leave in 1933.
After the "Hooverville" was removed, there were new ideas for the site, including running tracks and ball fields. This was also debated, as some thought it would harm the park's natural feel. However, a new parks commissioner, Robert Moses, took office in 1934. He continued the plan to create a large meadow with playgrounds and recreational areas around its edges.
The Great Lawn was mostly finished in 1937. It was planted with many trees. With new play structures, the Great Lawn became a popular play area for children.
Taking Care of the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond
Over the years, the Great Lawn got a lot of use, especially after baseball fields were added in the 1950s. By the 1970s, the soil became very hard and worn out. Also, dirt washing into Belvedere Lake (now Turtle Pond) caused too much algae to grow, making the water look like "algal soup" in the summer.
In the 1980s, after Belvedere Castle was fixed up, marsh plants were added to the north side of Belvedere Lake, and turtles were brought in. In 1987, Belvedere Lake was officially renamed Turtle Pond.
In the mid-1990s, the Central Park Conservancy, a group that helps care for the park, started a big project to fix up the Great Lawn and its surroundings. In 1996, they replaced the worn-out grass with new sod. The project cost $18 million and was finished the next year. It included installing 250 automatic sprinklers and planting 2,000 new trees.
The Conservancy also completely drained and reshaped Turtle Pond. This project, finished in 1997, was designed so that you can't see the entire edge of the pond from any one spot. They planted special plants along the shoreline, like lizard's tail and bulrushes, in areas designed to give them the right amount of water. A small island was also created for turtles to sunbathe and lay eggs safely. Since the restoration, many new kinds of dragonflies have been seen in the pond.
How People Use the Great Lawn
In 1996, the Great Lawn was used for about 12,100 softball games each year, with a quarter of a million players! The next year, it was estimated that 15 million people walked across the Great Lawn every year.
Concerts and Big Events
Since the 1960s, the Great Lawn has hosted annual concerts by the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. Some past concerts have drawn huge crowds:
- The 1980 Elton John concert had 300,000 people.
- The 1981 Simon and Garfunkel reunion concert had more than 500,000 people.
- A big protest against nuclear weapons in 1982 drew nearly 750,000 people.
- Paul Simon's 1991 concert attracted 600,000 fans.
- In 2003, the Dave Matthews Band recorded a live album there, with over 120,000 fans.
- Bon Jovi's concert in 2008 had about 50,000 people.
Other events include the New York premiere of the Disney movie Pocahontas in 1995, and Pope John Paul II's outdoor mass for 125,000 people that same year. Most concerts on the Great Lawn are free to attend.
Park officials have sometimes questioned how many people can actually fit on the Great Lawn. They estimate that about 10 acres (4 hectares) are usable for concerts, and about 6,000 to 8,000 people can fit in an average acre if everyone has enough space.
In 2004, during the 2004 Republican National Convention, the city's Parks Department did not allow protesters to gather on the Great Lawn, worrying about damage to the grass. In 2005, they suggested limiting the number of people on the Great Lawn to 50,000. Many groups felt this would limit their right to gather under the First Amendment (which protects freedom of speech and assembly). The idea was later dropped, but a report in 2009 still suggested a capacity of 55,000 people for the Great Lawn.
