Tales from The Social Club: A Quiet, Peaceful Night in the City that Never Sleeps
Meeting Date and Time: Tuesday, November 19, 2024 from 5 PM to 7 PM
Meeting Location Start: Central Park Adventure Playground, 2 W 67th St, New York, NY 10023
Meeting Location End: Lenwich Sandwich Shop, 469 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10024
Website Link(s): Central Park Self Guided Walking Tour and Lenwich Sandwich Shop
On a cool dry fall evening, we met at the Central Park Adventure Playground to go on a self guiding walking tour of Central Park in the dark of night. This tour was my idea due to it being promoted specifically as peaceful and quiet, an important consideration for me having ultra sensitive hearing. Hence forth, it was wisely named Peace and Quiet With a Dose of History, and, indeed that night the tour lived up to its namesake. You can find out more about the tour here. The map below shows the route we took starting with 1. Adventure Playground, continuing with 2. Strawberry Fields, 3. the Alexander von Humboldt Statue, 4. Naturalists' Walk, and concluding with 5. Arthur Ross Pinetum.

Our starting location, Adventure Playground, is a NYC playground which history dates backs to the early 1930s. In the early 1930s, the first playground that existed on this site was built. In 1966, the playground was redesigned by architect Richard Dattner to a specific playground design called adventure style. This style, which was popular in the 1960s and 1970s, used no standard play equipment instead relying on interconnected play structures that encouraged children to explore and use their imagination. So fitting, Adventure Playground where my adventure and this story begins. Upon leaving the Adventure Playground, we got this spectacular view of the Manhattan Skyline.

Our next destination on our self guided tour was Strawberry Fields. To get to this location, we walked on pathways. Strawberry fields was dedicated to the memory of John Lennon in 1985. Yoko Ono, Lennon's wife, worked with the Central Park Conservancy to make Strawberry Fields a meditative retreat inside the park.

After leaving Strawberry Fields, we proceeded to visit the Alexander von Humboldt statue. A German explorer and naturalist, Humboldt made numerous scientific discoveries in the late 1700s and early 1800s including how human deforestation contributed to human caused global warming. He also developed a theory he named the “unity of nature.” A radical theory at the time, "unity of nature" states that all living things on Earth are interconnected. In other words, by impacting one part of nature other parts will be impacted to, for better of for worse.
Interestingly, the statue has no description at all on what Humboldt achieved during his lifetime, just his name. This statue is located at Naturalists' Gate, one of numerous entrances to Central Park.

We then proceeded to walk along a pathway called Naturalists' Walk, named after its proximity to Naturalists' Gate. We took in a breathtaking view of the Manhattan Skyline at night along the way.

We followed the pathway to the Arthur Ross Pinetum, an area filled with pine, spruce, and fir trees. As part of the original design of Central Park, where construction began in 1858 and was completed in 1873, designers Fredrick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux put in coniferous trees consisting of pine, spruce, and fir trees. These trees extended from 72nd Street to 102 Street on a the west side of the park on a section called Winter Drive. However, by the late 1800s, these trees were replaced by deciduous trees. Going forward in history, by 1971, philanthropist Arthur Ross, along with the Parks Department returned Pine Trees to a modest 4 acre section of Central Park between 84th and 86th Streets in the Mid-Park area. The Arthur Ross Pinetum now features 17 different species of pine trees. Below is one of the trees we walked past.

After about a mile of walking on our, we did a half a mile of more walking to grab some dinner. We walked all the way from the Arthur Ross Pinetum to exit Central Park at W 85th St. and Central Park West to the Lenwich Sandwich Shop near corner of W 83rd St. and Columbus Ave. When I arrived, I ordered a delicious hamburger and apple. We then proceeded to have some discussion on the results of the recent Presidential Election. After our discussion concluded and we went our separate ways, I proceeded to pass a bus stop sign with the time and temperature. On of my favorite things about the city is the bus stops and there temperature displays go hand in hand with my passion for meteorology. Although, I will say the temperature display needs units (degrees Fahrenheit in this case). As a citizen scientist (occasionally, I send weather observations to the National Weather Service), I am less than thrilled about that.
On a final weather related note, I would recommend that if you visit Central Park for this self guided tour or to do something else would be to check the weather forecast. Temperatures in the Fall and Spring seasons can go from warm to cool as day turns to night so bringing a couple extra layers may be necessary, and precipitation can occur at any time of the year.

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Sources
https://www.centralparknyc.org/restoration/adventure-playground
https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/adventure-playground
https://www.centralparknyc.org/activities/guides/peace-quiet-with-a-dose-of-history
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/who-was-alexander-von-humboldt-180974473/
https://www.centralparknyc.org/articles/central-park-history
https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/arthur-ross-pinetum