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Seneca Village, one of NYC’s first African American Communities, to be honored in Central Park over Juneteenth weekend
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jun 17, 2023
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Zakiyyah Woods for Gothamist
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jun 17, 2023
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NOTE: The date of this event has changed since this story was first published. It will now take place Sunday, June 18.
The serene setting of one of New York City’s first African American communities is the inspiration for a Juneteenth commemoration taking place in Central Park on Sunday.
Seneca Village was established around 1825 on a rocky slope in what is now a seven-block span of Central Park near West 85th Street. It was dismantled in the 1850s when the city used eminent domain to move out its residents along with more than 1,000 other farmsteaders and villagers who lived in the park’s footprint.
At its peak, an estimated 250 residents lived in Seneca Village – primarily African American people, including emancipated men who owned property in the village decades before the end of slavery across the rest of the country.
The Central Park Conservancy will hold its second annual Juneteenth event on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a focus on healing and wellness spurred by the community’s legacy.
The free events take place near the park’s West 85th Street entrance and include a community art project led by artist Shanequa Benitez “inspired by the braiding patterns used by enslaved Africans to communicate escape routes,” according to the conservancy. The day also includes a breathwork session led by Harlem Yoga Studio and a body exercise in releasing trauma and stress led by somatic coach Jen Chau Fontan and choreographer Shawn Rawls.
The commemoration focuses on the landscape as Seneca Village residents would have known it, said Andrea Buteau, the conservancy’s vice president for Visitor Experience.
John Reddick (left) and Andrea Buteau of the Central Park Conservancy.
Zakiyyah Woods for Gothamist
“When thinking through the ideas of Seneca Village, this idea of wellness and the long-standing traditions that exist between Black people and nature, and the idea that this land provided sustenance and self-sufficiency for that community was really what came to the forefront,” Buteau said.
The village grew organically as New Yorkers escaped the crowded, unsanitary conditions of Lower Manhattan and congregants followed three African American churches who moved uptown in search of more space, said John Reddick, director of community engagement projects.
Seneca Village’s fresh air and proximity to clean water at Tanner’s Spring provided a sanctuary, and free men were able to own property there well before June 19, 1865 — the day when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Black people who were enslaved in Texas, which Juneteenth commemorates.
What remains of Tanner Springs is tucked away off of the main paths in the park.
Zakiyyah Woods for Gothamist
“There was a kind of sense of bringing a variety of communities together, with the exalted ability of owning land and making it an institutional kind of building of a community,” Reddick said. “And when we’re talking about the spirituality side, the churches really were a carrier of the African American culture.”
The musical performances on Sunday will include a choir from Mother AME Zion Church, which was originally based in Seneca Village.
The conservancy has to balance honoring the legacy of Seneca Village while acknowledging that its residents were cleared out by city officials more than a century ago as Central Park was planned.
Reddick said the displaced residents were paid for their property, but the amounts are not fully documented and it’s unclear if the Black landowners received fair value.
No major physical traces or visual documentation of where the village’s homes, churches and school once stood remain. But among the winding paths, a playground and outcroppings of the Manhattan bedrock, there are several large placards and banners that tell the history of the village.
Sixteen signs with historical information mark the prominent sites of Seneca Village.
Zakiyyah Woods for Gothamist
The conservancy says it is consulting with descendants of the residents and community leaders about ways to permanently commemorate the village’s history.
Reddick said the conservancy doesn’t want to simply build “a Disneyland version” of Seneca Village.
“We really want to speak to history, the significance of what that community was,” he said. “We're spending time to make people think about this place first, even as we think about commemoration – what does this environment that has survived, what can it tell the public and the community about the significance of the spot, even before we think about what's overlaid on it?”
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new york city
Race And Justice Unit
parks
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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