![]() ![]() "And we were able to uncover the wall foundation of one of the houses." "Shards of glass and pipes and things of that sort," she said. It took years to convince the Parks Department to authorize the archaeological dig undertaken in 2011, the bounty from which Copeland's team is still cataloging. They have found remnants of the lives that were made here. Her team has traced one family to Astoria and another to the New Jersey Palisades.īut despite their persistence, the researchers have not been able to track down a single living descendant of a Seneca Villager. We really don't know where they have gone," Copeland said. So once they were evicted, where did they go? "Good question. ![]() "People were saying in the popular press of the day that the people who lived in this community were basically tramps, squatters and thieves and had no rights to being here," Copeland said, "when in fact the evidence shows that they actually owned the property and deserved to be here."Ĭourt records prove that some of the villagers put up a fight, but their fate was inevitable. When public sentiment started to swell for the creation of a grand park at the center of Manhattan, the village's days were numbered. Life wasn't easy, but it was a far cry from the crowded, squalid conditions immigrants endured downtown. Most of its residents were of African descent, but in the later years of its brief existence a number of European immigrants made their homes here as well. Most of what we know about Seneca Village has been gleaned from census records, said Copeland. "We believe it was probably New York's first African-American free settlement," said Cynthia Copeland, a historian, adjunct professor at NYU, and member of a team that's been researching this place for more than a decade. This was the main thoroughfare of Seneca Village, a settlement of nearly three hundred people that stretched from 82nd to 87th streets along the western edge of what's now the park. From the 1820s through the 1850s, there were three churches here. Today there are rolling, verdant hills dotted with playgrounds. ![]() Your browser does not support the audio element. WCBS 880's Alex Silverman Takes A Look Back At Central Park's Lost Village ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |