Septuagesimo UNO

71 St. bet.ween West End Ave. and Amsterdam Ave.

Manhattan, 10023

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

Septuagesimo Uno (meaning seventy-one in Latin) is located on 71st Street between West End and Amsterdam Avenues. This parkland lies within the area settled following the Commissioners Plan of 1811. New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828) created the commission, which was charged with planning the orderly development of Manhattan north of Houston Street. Prominent New Yorkers, such as the politician Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), the surveyor Simeon De Witt (1756-1834), and the lawyer John Rutherford (1760-1840), filled the commission’s ranks. The planners agreed on a system of rectangular blocks, extending from 14th Street through Washington Heights, designed to maximize the city’s efficiency and ease of use. Known as the “grid system,” the plan arranged 12 North-South avenues perpendicular to 155 East-West cross streets. The commission designed the avenues to be 100 feet wide and the streets to lie 200 feet apart. The plan provided for parks t…