John Rink’s Plan: The Central Park That Never Was

For most New Yorkers, it’s hard to imagine Central Park looking any different than how it does now—great lawns interspersed with ponds, a man-made lake, sporting grounds, giant rocks jutting out of the grassy surfaces and curving pathways for pedestrians, bikers, and pedicabs alike. But at one point, a long time ago, it was a swampy patch of land with trees and water courses running throughout. So in 1857, the City of New York held a design competition for the creation of a park in the relatively undeveloped area between 59th and 110th streets.

Ultimately Frederick Olmstead and Calvert Vaux won for their “Greensward Plan,” a design that struck a balance of manufactured and wild. Olmsted and Vaux’s plan integrated manmade structures like the Mall, Bethesda Terrace, and bridges, while also artfully creating open spaces and “natural” wilderness with waterfalls, caves, and historic rocks. The duo wanted to allow New Yorkers to connect with nature and experience the seasons outside of the gridlock of the city. Thirty-two other entrants also submitted their plans to transform the swampy lands into a magical park. Of those 32 losing designs, only five survived, and two can be seen at the New York Historical Society today.

One of those two designs, and arguably the most magnificent of all the losing proposals, was that of park engineer John Rink, who planned a highly decorated, whimsical version of Central Park. Rink’s design, which stretches eight-and-a-half feet long, was lost for years until it was discovered in an attic in 2008.

His version of the park envisioned star- and spiral-shaped sections full of decorative gardens. Instead of working with the natural landscape, Rink planned many gardens and topiaries without any green, open spaces beyond the required parade ground. Rink’s vision was for a much more decorative park, one that was more in line with the elaborate, ornamental taste of the Victorian era, modeled after the formal, structured topiary gardens at the Palace of Versailles.

He labeled almost every part of the park, including roads and gates, named after U.S. presidents and patriots. The fancy and formal gardens he named according to their shapes, like the Star Ground and Spiral Ground.

At the bottom of his proposal, Rink also planned for a large, two-winged museum that would surround the eastern and southern sides of the reservoir. Had this other park been made reality, Rink’s large public museum would have predated (some say rivaled) the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which today sits at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street.

To learn more about the history of Central Park and Rink’s design, visit www.centralpark.com and www.nyhistory.org.