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The tour begins at the William Shakespeare Statue at 65th Street and Center Drive. This tour is best experienced on a mobile phone.
Welcome to your Central Park walking tour. This journey is brought to you by The Humane Space, an app that prompts curiosity and wonder within.
Throughout this tour, we’ll provide contemplation prompts, which will activate your senses and deepen the experience of being in these beautiful locations. If you need to, please refer to the tour map above at any time. When you arrive at each new destination, use the pull-down menu on your tour screen to access the tour information for each location.
As always, be aware of your surroundings, especially if you’re looking up at the beautiful trees and natural environment we’re about to show you.
We begin our tour at the William Shakespeare statue at 65th Street and Center Drive.
If someone says “The Park” in New York, chances are very good that they are referring to Central Park. Spanning 843 acres—from 59th Street to 110th Street (south to north), and Fifth Avenue to 8th Avenue (east to west)—Central Park is the most filmed location in the world and the most visited urban park in the United States, boasting more than 40 million visitors annually.
Conceived by acclaimed landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (pronounced vox), the winning design of Central Park was selected through a competition held in 1858. Construction proved challenging due to the rocky, swampy terrain and the timing of the American Civil War. Interestingly, more gunpowder was used to clear the area now occupied by Central Park than was blasted at the Battle of Gettysburg. In total, around five million cubic feet of soil and rock were displaced and transported away to make room for the vast park as we know it today.
Dedicated in 1872, this bronze sculpture by one of the most prominent American sculptors of the late 19th century, John Quincy Adams Ward, commemorates the well-known poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564. A group of prominent New Yorkers had read about Shakespeare memorials being erected in England and Germany, and so they formed a committee to bring one to Central Park. An 1864 performance of Julias Caesar in the Winter Garden Theater raised $4,000 toward the funding of the statue. One of the actors was none other than John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln the following year. The monument’s cornerstone was placed in 1864 on the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, but the Civil War delayed its completion for several years. John Quincy Adams Ward would become known as the “Dean of American Sculptors,” creating a total of nine sculptures for New York City’s parks, including Indian Hunter, The Pilgrim, and the Seventh Regiment Memorial, which all reside in Central Park.
This sculpture of Shakespeare was cast in Philadelphia in 1870 at the Robert Wood & Company foundry, which was also responsible for statues of other historical figures, including former Secretary of State Henry Clay, Dr. John Witherspoon (a signer of the Declaration of Independence) and President Abraham Lincoln. The popularity of Victorian-style fences led to the foundry opening an outpost in New Orleans, which was responsible for much of the ornamental cast iron work there.
Next, let’s head to the northeast and travel the long straight path that is the Mall and Literary Walk path.We'll travel this path all the way to our third destination, Bethesda Terrace, but in the meantime, let's talk about Literary Walk.
On your tour screen, select Central Park Mall from the pull-down menu to visit this location.
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