Damrosch Park

by Tom Miller

Included in the 1955 Lincoln Square Renewal Development plan was what The New York Times described as “the superblock…set aside for the Performing Arts Center,” adding, “The superblock is bounded by West Sixty-second Street, Amsterdam Avenue, West Sixty-fifth Street and Columbus Avenue.”  Among the venues that would rise there would be the Metropolitan Opera House, the Lincoln Center Theater, the State Theater (today’s David H. Koch Theater) and the David Geffen Hall. 

The main thrust behind the project was Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who envisioned a park and outdoor performance venue within the “superblock.”  No one else shared his vision.  As plans developed, according to The New York Times years later, he “battled for the park when almost nobody else in power wanted it.”  As was most often the case, Moses triumphed.

On October 13, 1959, The New York Times reported, “Plans were announced yesterday by the Park Department for developing a 2.34-acre park in the new Lincoln Square development on the West Side.  It will be known as Damrosch Park, in honor of the noted musical family.”  At the time of the article, architects Darling, Innocenti, and Ebel were designing the landscaped park “for outdoor concerts, theatricals and other performances,” said the article.  Tucked away at the southwest corner of a “superblock” paved in concrete, the park would be green oasis.

As plans developed, according to The New York Times years later, he “battled for the park when almost nobody else in power wanted it.” 

The article noted that the park, “will include the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Memorial Bandshell.”  (The Guggenheim Foundation had donated $500,000 for the construction of the bandshell.)  The area directly in front of the bandshell, designed by Eggers & Higgins, would accommodate 4,500 persons.

The completion of Damrosch Park and the Guggenheim Bandshell (which, according to The New York Times journalist Donal Henahan, “looks like a Spanish onion sliced in half”) was completed in the spring of 1969 at the cost of $1,528,769 (nearly double the 1959 estimate of $832,000).  The park was named in honor of the Damrosch family—Leopold, Frank, Walter and Clara, and David Mannes (the husband of Clara Damrosch)—prominent in New York City’s musical history.  The dedication was held on May 22, 1969.

Although Robert Moses was present, he was “purely as a spectator,” remarked The New York Times.  Instead, the remarks were made by current Parks Commissioner August Heckscher and board chairman of Lincoln Center John D. Rockefeller 3d.  The music that afternoon was provided by the Goldman Band, founded in 1918.

Since its beginnings, the Goldman Band had performed free public concerts throughout the city, including the Green at Columbia University, Central Park, and Prospect Park.  With the opening of Damrosch Park, the Goldman Band found a home—what today we would call a residency.  It would be a staple of Damrosch Park over the coming decades among the myriad other performances played in the bandshell.

It became apparent that an open-air venue in the middle of bustling Manhattan had shortcomings.  Critic Allen Hughes attended the first concert in Damrosch Park, on June 6, 1969—a lecture-recital by the Virtuosi of New York.  Hughes said that within one 15-minute period, “seven jets, one four-engine propeller plane and one helicopter flower overhead, while numerous trucks barreled up Amsterdam Avenue.”  To make the situation worse, he said, there was “the Metropolitan Opera’s air-conditioning system, which is right beside the band shell and which roars like a sizable waterfall and never stops.”

Three years after its opening, Damrosch Park was not only the venue for poetry readings, concerts, opera, folk festivals, and high school orchestra shows, it had been discovered by local residents and workers as an urban oasis.  On August 4, 1972, The Times writer Murray Schumach noted that in the late mornings, “the elderly arrive with books, and children bring jump ropes, tops or balls, depending on the season.  At noon, nearby workers open sandwiches under the trees.  In midafternoon, mothers appear with baby carriages, elderly women with knitting.”  After dinner, he said, the crowds came for the concerts.

It was the first of ten bombings in New York and Newark during the interval.

A scare came on August 31, 1974 at five minutes after midnight when a terrorist bomb exploded in the park.  The New York Times said, “Except for the uprooting of a row of hedges at Amsterdam Avenue and 62d Street, there was no damage.”  Nevertheless, seven months later on February 7, 1975, the newspaper remarked, “That minor bomb blast, however, was the signal for the start of a new and deadly urban terror campaign by an underground band calling itself Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (F.A.L.N.).”  It was the first of ten bombings in New York and Newark during the interval.

In the 21st century, the days of elderly people reading a book and mothers taking their children to play essentially ended.  New York Fashion Week moved from Bryant Park to Damrosch Park in 2010.  Although it took place every year in September, the set-up began in August.  To facilitate the Fashion Week tents, “the city removed 67 trees from the park,” reported The New York Times.  Then, each year in October, the Big Apple Circus set up their tents and occupied the park through January.

Saying that the park was “off-limits nearly 10 months of the year,” in February 2012, a group of residents and the NYC Park Advocates sent a “cease and desist” letter to the city and Lincoln Center, “demanding that Damrosch Park be returned to its proper use as a city park.”

With the neighborhood calling Damrosch Park “decimated,” on 2023 Lincoln Center announced plans to redesign the center’s western edge, with the focus of the plan being the park.  Design architect Weiss/Manfredi; architect of record Moody Nolan; and Hood Design Studio as the landscape designer were teamed to execute the project.  On June 6, 2023, The New York Times reported, “The project will likely entail tearing down parts of the wall, building an outdoor stage and renovating Damrosch Park.”  At this writing, no major renovations have commenced.

Tom Miller is a social historian and blogger at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com