The Problem
In the heart of what is now Central Park once stood Seneca Village--a thriving community of displaced people, many of them free Black New Yorkers and Irish and German immigrants. In the 1850s, the city used eminent domain to seize the land, forcing residents from their homes to make way for the park. Today, millions walk and enjoy this space without realizing that beneath it lies the history of a vibrant community, and that the Central Park Reservoir, which now holds over a billion gallons of water, exists only because Seneca Village was destroyed.
