Sakura Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sakura Park
Looking downtown, the gazebo in the foregrouind and the tower of Riverside Church behind it
Type	Urban park
Location	Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates	40°48′47.05″N 73°57′43.62″W / 40.8130694°N 73.9621167°W / 40.8130694; -73.9621167
Area	2.067 acres (0.836 ha)
Operated by	City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation
Status	Open all year

Sakura Park is a public park, located at the northern-tip of Morningside Heights, New York City.^[1] Sandwiched between Riverside Church on the south, the Manhattan School of Music on the east, Grant's Tomb on the west, and International House on its northern side, it is a small, but historic, piece of the City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation system.

The tōrō given to the City of New York by the City of Tokyo, with the International House of New York in the background

The park was originally called Claremont Park after the avenue on its east side, but renamed in 1912 after the Committee of Japanese Residents of New York donated 2,500 cherry blossom trees to the city.^[2]^[3]^[4] 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 east is Claremont Avenue, which is dramatically lower in elevation, and resulted in a buttressed retaining wall being built during the period that extends 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 10 of that year. Crown Prince Akihito would later rededicate the tōrō with his princess in 1987.^[5]

The park boasts a bronze statue of General Daniel Adams Butterfield by Gutzon Borglum, who is said to have been so annoyed by the many changes to the sculpture demanded by the committee that commissioned it that he signed it on the top of the general's head, claiming that this was the only aspect that the committee had not required him to change. The statue is oriented such that it faces Grant's Tomb across Riverside Drive and thus it appears Butterfield is looking at the tomb of his fellow Civil War general and the president in whose cabinet he served.

The landscaping is dominated by two walks lined with mature linden trees, the branches meet overhead forming a leafy arcade. Between the two walks is a lawn, headed by a gazebo and planted with cherry trees. When the cherry trees bloom, people of Japanese ancestry come to celebrate Hanami and spread picnic blankets under the trees. The cherry bloom is preceded in spring by bulbs, beginning with snowdrops and continuing through tulips.

References

Notes

↑ "Sakura Park - Historical Sign". New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
↑ "Sakura Park". Consulate General of Japan in New York. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
↑ "Cherry Walk - Historical Sign". New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
↑ Simons, Justine (12 April 2012). "Gifts From Japan, Less Celebrated in Manhattan". The New York Times.
↑ French, Howard W. (October 10, 1987). "Japanese Prince Visits Harlem". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-02-26.

Protected Areas of New York City

Federal

National Historic Sites	Lower East Side Tenement Museum Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace

National Monuments and Memorials	African Burial Ground Castle Clinton Federal Hall General Grant Governors Island Hamilton Grange Statue of Liberty

Other Protected Areas	Gateway National Recreation Area Floyd Bennett Field Fort Tilden Fort Wadsworth Great Kills Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Jacob Riis Miller Field

State

State Parks	Bayswater Point Clay Pit Ponds East River FDR Four Freedoms Gantry Plaza Riverbank Roberto Clemente

City Parks and
Preserves

Manhattan	79th Street Boat Basin Abingdon Square Albert Capsouto Asphalt Green Battery Bennett British Garden at Hanover Square Bowling Green Bryant Captain Patrick J. Brown Walk Carl Schurz Central Chelsea City Hall Collect Columbus Corlears Hook Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Damrosch Dante DeSalvio Playground DeWitt Clinton Drumgoole Plaza Duane East River Esplanade East River Park Finn Square Foley Square Fort Tryon Fort Washington Gorman Gramercy Hamilton Fish Hanover Square Harlem River Hell's Kitchen Herald Square High Line Highbridge Holcombe Rucker Hudson River Imagination Playground at Burling Slip Inwood Hill Isham J. Hood Wright Jackie Robinson Jackson Square John Jay Louis Cuvillier Madison Square Manhattan Waterfront Greenway Marcus Garvey Mill Rock Mitchell Square Morningside Murphy's Brother's Playground Paley Peretz Square Peter Cooper Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden Ralph Bunche Randalls Island Richard Tucker Square Riverside Robert Moses Playground Roosevelt Triangle Rucker Sakura Samuel N. Bennerson 2nd Playground Sara Delano Roosevelt Septuagesimo Uno Seward Sheridan Square Sherman Square St. John's St. Nicholas St. Vartan Straus Stuyvesant Cove Stuyvesant Square Swindler Cove Teardrop Theodore Roosevelt Thomas Jefferson Thomas Paine Tompkins Square Tribeca Union Square Verdi Square Vesuvio Playground Wards Island Washington Market Washington Square West Side Community Garden Winston Churchill Zuccotti

Brooklyn	American Veterans Memorial Pier Amersfort Asser Levy Bath Beach Betsy Head Bensonhurst Breukelen Ballfields Brooklyn Botanic Garden Brooklyn Bridge Brooklyn Heights Promenade Brooklyn–Queens Greenway Brower Bushwick Byrne Cadman Plaza Canarsie Carroll Calvert Vaux City Line Coffey Columbus Commodore Barry Coney Island Beach & Boardwalk Coney Island Creek Continental Army Plaza Cooper Dyker Beach Floyd Bennett Field Fort Greene Four Sparrow Marsh Frank M. Charles Fresh Creek Nature Preserve Friends Field Fulton Gravesend Green Central Knoll Herbert Von King Highland Irving Square JJ Byrne Jamaica Bay Park John J. Carty John Paul Jones Kaiser Kelly Leif Ericson Leon S. Kaiser Playground Lincoln Terrace Linden Lindower Linton Manhattan Beach Maria Hernandez Marine McCarren McGolrick McKinley Mt. Prospect Owl's Head Paerdegat Basin Paerdegat Prospect Red Hook Robert E. Venable Saratoga Scarangella Seaside Seth Low Shore Spring Creek Steeplechase Sternberg St. Johns Sunset Tompkins Trinity Van Voorhees Walt Whitman Wingate WNYC Transmitter Zion Triangle

The Bronx	Baretto Point Bicentennial Veterans Bronx Castle Hill City Island Wetlands Claremont Concrete Plant Crotona Devoe Ewen Ferry Point Givans Creek Woods Grant Haffen Harding Harris Henry Hudson Hunts Point Jerome Joseph Rodman Drake Joyce Kilmer Julius Richman Macombs Dam Mill Pond Mullaly New York Botanical Garden Orchard Beach Pelham Bay Playground 52 Poe Pugsley Creek Rainey Raoul Wallenberg Forest Richman Riverdale St. Mary's Seton Falls Seton Soundview Spuyten Duyvil Shorefront St. James St. Mary's Starlight Tremont University Woods Van Cortlandt Vidalia Vinmont Veteran Washington's Walk

Queens	Admiral Alley Alley Pond Andrews Grove Astoria Baisley Pond Bayside Fields Bayswater Beach Channel Big Bush Bowne Brant Point Wildlife Sanctuary Breininger Broad Channel American Park Broad Channel Park Broad Channel Wetlands Brooklyn–Queens Greenway Brookville Bulova Captain Tilly Crocheron Cunningham Det. Keith L. Williams Det. William T. Gunn Dr. Charles R. Drew Dubos Point Wildlife Sanctuary Doughboy Douglaston Elmhurst Evergreen Flushing Fields Flushing Meadows-Corona Forest Fort Tilden Fort Totten Francis Lewis Frank Golden Frank Principe Haggerty Harvey Highland Hinton Hoffman Hook Creek Hunter's Point Idlewild Jamaica Bay John Golden Juniper Valley Kissena Linnaeus Little Bay Louis Pasteur Mafera Macneil Marconi Marie Curie Montbellier Overlook Park of the Americas Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto Ofc. Edward Byrne Powell's Cove Queens County Farm Museum Queensbridge Rachel Carson Railroad Ralph Demarco Rochdale Rockaway Community Rufus King Seagirt Avenue Wetlands Socrates Sculpture Spring Creek Springfield St. Albans Travers Tudor Udall's Park Preserve Wayanda

Staten Island	Aesop Allison Pond Amundsen Circle Annadale Arbutus Woods Arden Woods Austen House Barrett Bayview Terrace Blood Root Valley Bloomingdale Blue Heron Park Preserve Blueberry Bradys Bunker Ponds Buono Beach Carlton Clove Lake Clove's Tail Conference House Corporal Thompson Crescent Beach Deere Eibs Pond Faber Fairview Father Macris Forest Grove Fort Hill Fort Wadsworth FDR Boardwalk and Beach Freshkills Gaeta Great Kills Graniteville Quarry Graniteville Swamp Hero High Rock\| Hoffman Island Huguenot Ponds Hybrid Oak Woods Ingram Woods Isle of Meadows Jones Woods Joseph Manna King Fisher Kingdom Pond Last Chance LaTourette Lemon Creek Long Pond Gen. MacArthur Maple Woods Mariners Marsh Meredith Woods Midland Beach Midland Field Miller Field Mount Loretto Unique Area New Dorp Beach New York Chinese Scholar's Garden Northerleigh Park Ocean Breeze Old Place Creek Olmstead-Beil House Prall's Island Reed's Basket WIllow Swamp Richmond Terrace Wetlands Saw Mill Creek Marsh Schmul Seaside Wildlife Nature Shooters Island Siedenburg Silver Lake Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden Sobel Court South Beach Wetlands St. George Staten Island Greenbelt Staten Island Industrial Swinburne Island Tappen Tompkinsville Tottenville Shore Von Briesen Walker Wegener Westerleigh Westwood William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge Willowbrook Wolfe's Pond

Other

Nature centers	Alley Pond Belvedere Castle Blue Heron Crotona Dana Discovery Center Forest Fort Greene Fort Totten Greenbelt HIgh Rock Inwood Hill Orchard Beach Prospect Salt Marsh Van Cortlandt

Zoos	Bronx Central Park Prospect Queens Staten Island

Botanical Gardens	Brooklyn Botanic Conservatory New York Botanical Queens Botanical Staten Island Botanical New York Chinese Scholar's Wave Hill

Roosevelt Island	Lighthouse Southpoint

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.

Sakura Park

See also

References