The Casino and Rumsey Playfield
Central Park
In the original 1858 Greensward Plan for Central Park,
the designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux intended for
this site an exhibition and music hall required by the Board of
Commissioners as a feature of the new park. Plans changed, and by
1862 music was performed at the old Bandstand on the Concert Ground
at the end of the Mall. This area then became the site of the Casino
(casino means "little house" in Italian). The building was designed
by Vaux to be used as the Ladies' Refreshment Saloon, a respectable
dining establishment for the enjoyment of women who had come to
the Park without a male escort. This plan changed, however, and
the Casino became the main restaurant in the Park serving both men
and women. The building resembled upstate country houses that
Vaux had previously designed in his private architectural practice.
At night, the building was described in Baldwin's Guide to the Central
Park as "brilliantly illuminated with gas from handsome pendants."
During the day patrons would drive up in their carriages to visit
the Casino, sit under the Wisteria Pergola at the western edge of
the site, and listen to the strains of music from the Wednesday
and Saturday afternoon concerts on the Mall below. In the summer
seasons refreshments from the Casino were served at tables placed
under the archway leading to Bethesda Terrace. In the 1920s the restaurant was extended to include
an elaborately decorated ballroom created by Josef Urban, the esteemed
Viennese interior designer. It became a fashionable nightclub frequented
by New York Mayor "Gentleman" Jimmy Walker, and featured the musical
talent of Eddie Duchin's orchestra and such performers as Ethel
Merman. In 1935 this site underwent another transformation.
Newly appointed Parks Commissioner Robert Moses ordered the demolition
of the Casino, and the site was developed as the Mary Harriman Rumsey
Playground for children. A statue of Mother Goose, designed by F.G.R.
Roth, was erected near the playground entrance in 1938. Purchased
with Works Progress Administration funds, it depicts Mother Goose
and some of her nursery-rhyme characters, including Little Jack
Horner, Humpty Dumpty, and Little Bo Peep. In 1986 it became Rumsey
Playfield, a clay-surfaced sports area for school groups, and in
1990 the site of Summerstage, returning the site to the original
musical intention of Olmsted and Vaux.
Sunday, Oct 10, 1999