Sakura Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sakura Park is a two acre, public park, located in the northern-tip of the Manhattan, New York neighborhood, Morningside Heights.[1] Sandwiched between Riverside Church on the south, Grants Tomb on the east, and International House on its northern side, it is a small, but historic, piece of the 29,000 acre City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation system.
The park was originally called Claremont Park, but renamed in 1912 after the Committee of Japanese Residents of New York donated two-thousand cherry blossom trees to the city. Most of the trees would wind up in Washington D.C..[2][3] The land, originally owned by John D. Rockefeller and purchased by the City of New York for use as an extension of Riverside Park, was landscaped with financial support from Rockefeller, over a two year period starting in 1932. Directly to the west is Claremont Avenue which is dramatically lower in elevation, and resulted in a buttressed retaining wall being built during the period that extends to the length of the park.
In 1960, another gift was given to the park, this time by the City of Tokyo in the form of a tōrō, when New York became her sister city. Former Crown Prince and current Emperor of Japan, Akihito, was in attendance during the official dedication on October 10th of that year. Crown Prince Akihito would later rededicate the tōrō with his princess in 1987.[4]
The park currently only has a handful of cherry blossoms.
