Central Park Opens

“Olmsted wrote during construction of the park, its purpose was ‘not simply to give the people of the city an opportunity for getting fresh air and exercise.' Nor was it merely a ‘place of amusement or for the gratification of curiosity or for gaining knowledge . . . The main object and justification is simply to produce a certain influence in the minds of people and through this to make life in the city healthier and happier . . . The character of this influence is a poetic one and it is to be produced by means of scenes, through observation of which the mind may be more or less lifted out of the moods and habits into which it is, under the ordinary conditions of life in the city, likely to fall.'”