Bethesda Terrace and Fountain: Difference between revisions

Construction of the terrace and fountain occurred during the [[American Civil War]]. Only two major structures besides the Bethesda Terrace were completed during the Civil War: the Music Stand and the [[Central Park Casino|Casino]] restaurant, both demolished.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heckscher |first=Morrison H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dx_GNFFLSXsC&pg=PA17 |title=Creating Central Park |date=2008 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-30013-669-2|pages=58–59}}</ref> By the end of 1861, work on Bethesda Terrace was well underway.<ref name="NYC Parks Annual Report 1861">{{Cite web |title= 1861 Central Park Commissioners Annual Report |publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/4051annual_report_manhattan_central_park_1861.pdf |access-date=January 13, 2017 |date=1861 |pages=12–13 (PDF pp. 14–16)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Improvements in Central Park |date=December 18, 1861 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1861/12/18/archives/improvements-in-central-park.html |work=The New York Times|access-date=April 7, 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The stonework to be installed in the terrace arrived in 1862,<ref name="NYC Parks Annual Report 1862">{{Cite web |title= 1862 Central Park Commissioners Annual Report |publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/4077annual_report_manhattan_central_park_1862.pdf |access-date=January 13, 2017 |date=1862 |page=6 (PDF p. 7)}}</ref> and the masonry of the fountain was installed by 1863.<ref name="NYC Parks Annual Report 1863">{{Cite web |title=1863 Central Park Commissioners Annual Report |date=1863 |publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/4085annual_report_manhattan_central_park_1863.pdf |access-date=January 13, 2017 |page=16 (PDF p. 18)}}</ref> In 1864, the stonework of Bethesda Terrace was completed except for minor details, and the Central Park commission hired a sculptor to design the figures for the Fountain.<ref name="NYC Parks Annual Report 1864">{{Cite web |title=1864 Central Park Commissioners Annual Report |date=1864 |publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/4060annual_report_manhattan_central_park_1864.pdf |access-date=January 13, 2017 |pages=6–8 (PDF pp. 7–10)}}</ref> The upper level of the Terrace was mostly built by 1867, by which time the Fountain's figures were being cast in bronze.<ref name="NYC Parks Annual Report 1867">{{Cite web |title=1867 Central Park Commissioners Annual Report |date=1867 |publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/4087annual_report_manhattan_central_park_1867.pdf |access-date=January 13, 2017 |page=8 (PDF p. 9)}}</ref> The Bethesda Fountain was officially completed in 1873.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1873/06/01/archives/the-bethesda-fountain-inauguration-at-the-terrace-central-park-the.html|title=THE BETHESDA FOUNTAIN.; Inauguration at the Terrace, Central Park The Multitudes of Visitors. Stealing Jewelry Arrest of the Thief. Brooklyn Sanitary Precautions.|date=June 1, 1873|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 12, 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>▼

=={{anchor|The terrace}}Bethesda Terrace==▼

[[File:Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, New York, USA-1Aug2010.jpg|thumb|The Terrace]]▼

Bethesda Terrace became a site for an outdoor luncheon restaurant at the end of the 1960s, then became a congregating spot for the ''[[Hair (musical)|Hair]]'' generation before devolving into a drug-trafficking venue in the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite news |title=In Central Park, a Terrace Is Saved from Decay|last=Anderson |first=Susan Heller|date=May 3, 1987|work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/03/nyregion/in-central-park-a-terrace-is-saved-from-decay.html |access-date=April 18, 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The Terrace, designed by [[Calvert Vaux]] with sculptural decoration by [[Jacob Wrey Mould]], was restored in 1982, its stonework disassembled, cleaned, deteriorated surfaces removed, restored, patched, and reset. Resodding, and 50 new trees, 3,500 shrubs and 3,000 ground cover plants specified by Philip Winslow followed in 1986.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Central Park Conservancy |url=http://www.centralparknyc.org/aboutcpc/cpc-history/cpchistory1980-1988 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070126152855/http://www.centralparknyc.org/aboutcpc/cpc-history/cpchistory1980-1988 |archive-date=January 26, 2007 |title=1980–1988 |website=The Official Website of Central Park}}</ref> However, after having matured into dense blocks, these plants were removed in 2008 to make way for plants native to the United States.▼

The [[Mintons]] [[encaustic tile]]s of the ceiling of the arcade between the flanking stairs, designed by Mould,<ref>Clarence C. Cook, ''A Description of the New York Central Park'', 1869, quoted in {{harvnb|Murphy |Ottavino |1986 |p=35}}.</ref> were removed in the 1980s renovation because the [[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] deemed the tiles too costly to restore. Instead, the Commission approved the commission of a ceiling mural in its place.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Terrace in Central Park Lacks Its Ornate Ceiling|last=Neuffer|first=Elizabeth|date=June 7, 1987 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/07/nyregion/terrace-in-central-park-lacks-its-ornate-ceiling.html |access-date=April 18, 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Mayor [[Ed Koch]] declared in June 1987 that the tiles would be restored.<ref>{{Cite news |title=THE REGION; What's Up in the Park? Ceiling Tiles! |date=June 14, 1987|work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/14/weekinreview/the-region-what-s-up-in-the-park-ceiling-tiles.html |access-date=April 18, 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Nevertheless, the tiles sat in storage for more than 20 years until the Conservancy received a private donation for their restoration. The Conservancy embarked on a $7 million restoration effort to return the Minton tiles in 2004. A team of seven conservation technicians cleaned and repaired more than 14,000 original tiles by hand. Only three panels of replica tiles were needed to replace those that had been damaged beyond repair. For those recreations, the Conservancy decided to commission Maw and Company, Minton's successor in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The tiles were reinstalled in 2007.<ref name="Murphy and Ottavino"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Champe |first1=Peter |last2=Rabinowitz |first2=Mark |title=Restoring the Minton Tile Ceiling, Bethesda Terrace Arcade, Central Park, New York City |journal=[[APT Bulletin]] |volume=30 |issue=2-3 |date=1999 |pages=11–16 |doi=10.2307/1504635 |jstor=1504635}} Described some of the difficulties surmounted in carrying out this project.</ref>▼

=={{Anchor|The fountain}}Bethesda Fountain==▼

[[File:Bethesda Fountain in 2007.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Bethesda Fountain with restored plants]]▼

The pool is centered by a fountain sculpture designed by [[Emma Stebbins]] in 1868 and unveiled in 1873.<ref name="ginko">{{Cite news |title=Ask Professor Ginkgo: The Fountains of New York |url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_newsroom/daily_plants/daily_plant_main.php?id=15031 |date=September 10, 2002 |volume=XVII |issue=3695 |work=The Daily Plant |access-date=January 3, 2015 |publisher=[[New York City Department of Parks and Recreation]] }}</ref> Stebbins was the first woman to receive a public commission for a major work of art in New York City.<ref name=ginko /> The bronze, eight-foot statue depicts a female winged angel touching down upon the top of the fountain, where water spouts and cascades into an upper basin and into the surrounding pool. It was the only statue in the park called for in the original design. Beneath her are four four-foot [[cherub]]s representing [[Temperance (virtue)|Temperance]], [[Virtue|Purity]], [[Health]], and [[Peace]].<ref name=ginko /> Also called the ''Angel of the Waters'', the statue refers to [[Healing the paralytic at Bethesda]], a story from the [[Gospel of John]] about an angel blessing the [[Pool of Bethesda]], giving it healing powers.<ref name=ginko /> In Central Park the referent is the [[Croton Aqueduct]] opened in 1842, providing the city for the first time with a dependable supply of pure water: thus the angel carries a [[lily]] in one hand, representing purity, and with the other hand she blesses the water below.<ref name=ginko />▼

The panels of carving in the abstracted organic style propounded by [[Owen Jones (architect)|Owen Jones]], a mentor of the sculptor Jacob Wrey Mould{{sfn|Murphy |Ottavino |1986 |p=26}} are organized by an iconographical program of themes: the Seasons, the Times of Day, the Ages of Mankind.<ref>''Commissioners of the<!--the in original--> Central Park Reports'' ([[New-York Historical Society]]), noted in {{harvnb|Murphy |Ottavino |1986 |p=26}}.</ref> Considerable latitude was offered the carvers executing the work, following [[John Ruskin|Ruskinian]] principles.▼

{{Commons category|Bethesda Terrace and Fountain}}▼