Downing Park (Newburgh, New York)

Last updated
Downing Park
Downing Park, Newburgh, NY.jpg
The pond and fountain, known as the polly
Downing Park (Newburgh, New York)
Typepublic park
Location Newburgh, NY, United States
Coordinates 41°30′22″N74°01′06″W / 41.50611°N 74.01833°W / 41.50611; -74.01833
Area35 acres (14 ha)
Created1897
Operated byDowning Park Planning Committee, City of Newburgh

Downing Park is the largest of several public parks in the city of Newburgh, New York, United States. The park was designed in the late 19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who gave the design to the city on the condition it would be named after their mentor, Andrew Jackson Downing, a Newburgh native who had died in a steamboat accident on the Hudson River in 1852.

Contents

History

Most of Downing Park was a farm belonging to a family named Smith. The Smith's 1750s farmhouse stood at the present location of the pergola. The idea to build a park originated with Mayor Benjamin B. Odell in the late 1880s. The 25-acre Smith estate was acquired and later ten more acres were added. The City offered the design commission to Olmsted and Vaux, who delivered the plans in 1889. It was the last collaboration between the two. Vaux and Olmsted were well known for creating open spaces that promoted the well-being of the public, and they favored naturalistic, rustic, and curving landscape designs. Downing Park's 35-acres were designed to be a passive, contemplative environment in the center of the city. Construction started in 1894 and the park was opened in 1897.

In addition to the farmhouse, the park originally featured an observatory and a band shell. The observatory, designed by Calvert's son Downing Vaux, rested on the highest point in the park, commanding spectacular Hudson River views. At the turn of century, the farmhouse was turned into a smallpox sanatorium. In 1908 the flu epidemic ended; the city condemned the house, and it was burned to the ground. Later that year, architect Frank Estabrook designed the pergola to be built on the farmhouse foundations. The band shell was removed in the 1920s; the observatory was torn down in 1961 as part of an "urban renewal" project. [1]

Today

Downing Park, Newburgh, NY Downing Park, Newburgh, NY - 2.JPG
Downing Park, Newburgh, NY

Downing Park is centrally located within the city, between Robinson Avenue (US 9W-NY 32) on the west, South Street on the north, Dubois Street on the east and Third Street to the south. Carpenter Avenue divides the park into an eastern and western half.

The most prominent feature of the park is the pond and fountain in its southwest corner, known as the "polly." In the early 20th century, it was a popular place for ice skating in the winter, but that has since been prohibited as pollution has made the water less capable of effectively freezing up in the winter. The Polly’s natural stone Shelter House, designed by local architect Gordon Marvel was added in 1934 and served as a place for visitors to change into skates and enjoy cups of hot chocolate during the cold winter months. It is now the headquarters of the Downing Park Planning Committee.

To the east, the land rises to a small hill, the terrace, which overlooks the Hudson. Other amenities in the park include an amphitheater to the north of the polly, host to many local concerts and festivals in the summer months.

Flora and fauna

Downing Park is home to the only dedicated ornamental daylily garden in New York, donated and maintained by the Iris and Daylily Society. A denizen blue heron is regularly observed fishing in the two-and-a-half acre Polly; a great white heron has also been observed. There are also brown mallards, wood ducks, snapping turtles, peregrine falcons, and visiting Canada geese. [2]

Events

It also hosts the Newburgh Farmers' Market from July through October, [3] and an annual Tuskegee Airmen's Family Day., and an annual Easter Egg Hunt [2] [4] The Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra hold free Summer Pops Concerts at Downing Park. [5]

Related Research Articles

Frederick Law Olmsted American landscape designer, journalist, social critic, and public administrator

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his partner Calvert Vaux. Olmsted and Vaux's first project was Central Park, which resulted in many other urban park designs, including Prospect Park in what was then the City of Brooklyn and Cadwalader Park in Trenton. He headed the pre-eminent landscape architecture and planning consultancy of late nineteenth-century America, which was carried on and expanded by his sons, Frederick Jr and John C, under the name Olmsted Brothers.

Newburgh, New York City on west side of Hudson River in U.S. state of New York

Newburgh is a city in the U.S. state of New York, within Orange County. With an estimated 2019 population of 28,177, it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area. Located 60 miles (97 km) north of New York City, and 90 miles (140 km) south of Albany on the Hudson River within the Hudson Valley Area, the city of Newburgh is located near Stewart International Airport, one of the primary airports for Downstate New York.

Fort Greene Park Public park in Brooklyn, New York

Fort Greene Park is a city-owned and -operated park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York City. The 30.2-acre (12.2 ha) park was originally named after the fort formerly located there, Fort Putnam, which itself was named for Rufus Putnam, George Washington's Chief of Engineers in the Revolutionary War. Renamed in 1812 for Nathanael Greene, a hero of the American Revolutionary War, it was redesigned by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who also designed Central Park and Prospect Park, in 1867. The park contains the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument, which includes a crypt designed by Olmsted and Vaux.

Calvert Vaux 19c UK/US architect and landscape designer

Calvert Vaux was an English-American architect and landscape designer, best known as the co-designer, along with his protégé and junior partner Frederick Law Olmsted, of what would become New York City's Central Park.

Andrew Jackson Downing American landscape designer & horticulturalist

Andrew Jackson Downing was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine (1846–52). Downing is considered to be a founder of American landscape architecture.

Belvedere Castle Folly in New York Citys Central Park

Belvedere Castle is a folly in Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. It contains exhibit rooms, an observation deck, and since 1919 has housed Central Park’s official weather station.

Delaware Park–Front Park System United States historic place

Delaware Park–Front Park System is a historic park system and national historic district in the northern and western sections of Buffalo in Erie County, New York. The park system was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and developed between 1868 and 1876.

Parks and recreation in Buffalo, New York

Many of the public parks and parkways system of Buffalo, New York were originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux between 1868 and 1896. They were inspired in large part by the parkland, boulevards, and squares of Paris, France. They include the parks, parkways and circles within the Cazenovia Park–South Park System and Delaware Park–Front Park System, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places and maintained by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy.

Abingdon Square Park Public park in Manhattan, New York

Abingdon Square Park is located in the New York City borough of Manhattan in Greenwich Village. The park is bordered by Eighth Avenue, Bank Street, Hudson Street and West 12th Street.

Montgomery–Grand–Liberty Streets Historic District United States historic place

The Montgomery–Grand–Liberty Streets historic district was the first of two to be designated in the city of Newburgh, New York, United States. It runs along the three named north-south streets in the northeast quadrant of the city and includes 250 buildings in its 1,010 acres (4.1 km2). The later East End Historic District is nearby.

Hillside Cemetery (Middletown, New York)

Hillside Cemetery is located on Mulberry Street in Middletown, New York, United States. Opened in 1861, it was designed in the rural cemetery style by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, later noted for their collaboration on Central Park. There are several thousand graves, some with excellent examples of 19th-century funerary art.

Eustatia United States historic place

Eustatia is a brick house overlooking the Hudson River in Beacon, New York, United States. Located on Monell Place in the northwestern corner of the city, it is a rare survival in Beacon of a cottage in the High Victorian Gothic style.

Frederick Clarke Withers American architect

Frederick Clarke Withers was a successful English architect in America, especially renowned for his Gothic Revival ecclesiastical designs. For portions of his professional career, he partnered with fellow immigrant Calvert Vaux; both worked in the office of Andrew Jackson Downing in Newburgh, New York, where they began their careers following Downing's accidental death. Withers greatly participated in the introduction of the High Victorian Gothic style to the United States.

Central Park Mall Architectural feature in New York Citys Central Park

The Central Park Mall is a pedestrian esplanade in Central Park, in Manhattan, New York City. The mall, leading to Bethesda Fountain, provides the only purely formal feature in the naturalistic original plan of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for Central Park.

Joel T. Headley American politician

Joel Tyler Headley was an American clergyman, historian, author, newspaper editor, adventurer and politician who served as Secretary of State of New York. Headley belonged to the American Party.

Maple Lawn United States historic place

Maple Lawn, also known as the Walter Vail House, is a residence in Balmville, New York, United States built in the Gothic Revival architectural style's Picturesque mode. It was designed by Frederick Clarke Withers, following principles of his late mentor, Andrew Jackson Downing, and commissioned by a wealthy local family in 1859.

Calvert Vaux Park Public park in Brooklyn, New York

Calvert Vaux Park is an 85.53-acre (34.61 ha) public park in Gravesend, Brooklyn, in New York City. Created in 1934, it is composed of several disconnected sections along the Belt Parkway between Bay 44th and Bay 49th Streets. The peninsula upon which the park is located faces southwest into Gravesend Bay, immediately north of the Coney Island Creek. The park was expanded in the 1960s by waste from the construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and was renamed after architect Calvert Vaux in 1998. It is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also known as NYC Parks.

W. E. Warren House United States historic place

The W. E. Warren House is a historic house located at 196 Montgomery Street in Newburgh, New York. It is a focal point of the Montgomery—Grand—Liberty Streets Historic District, one of several houses in the area built by Calvert Vaux. A historical marker for Vaux's friend and partner Andrew Jackson Downing is located outside the house.

Joel T. Headley House

The Joel T. Headley House is a historic mansion in New Windsor, New York, built for historian and writer Joel T. Headley (1813–1897), who later served as a New York State Assemblyman for Orange County and the New York Secretary of State (1856–1857). Headley commissioned the house and grounds from local architectural theorist and landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing with assistance from his partner, English architect Calvert Vaux. Subsequent owners were unaware of the house's significance until the 1990s, and fervor for Downing and Vaux in neighboring Newburgh often neglects its existence. The design, No. 14 "A Cottage in the Rhine style" featured in a later edition of his book Cottage Residences, also inspired the William G. DeLuc House in Minnesota, considered a rare example of Gothic-inspired architecture there.

Halsey Stevens House United States historic place

The Halsey Stevens House is a historic house located at 182 Grand Street in Newburgh, New York. It is one of the first residences designed by the architects Calvert Vaux and Frederick Clarke Withers after the death of their mentor Andrew Jackson Downing the previous year. Listed as part of the Montgomery—Grand—Liberty Streets Historic District in Newburgh, the house has been well-preserved and demonstrates how both worked with Gothic Revival and Italianate styles. Halsey R. Stevens, their client, was a lumber dealer and Biblical scholar.

References

Coordinates: 41°30′22″N74°01′06″W / 41.5060°N 74.0183°W / 41.5060; -74.0183