On the odd Wednesday

New York is a city of nooks and crannies, overlooked gems, and underappreciated spaces. One such place is the Flatiron District’s Madison Square Park, a little slice of green bounded by 23rd and 26th Streets and situated between Fifth and Madison Avenues. There has been a city park at Madison Square since the mid-19th century, and the park abounds in beautiful, old monumental sculpture marking now-obscure people and places (William Seward, President Chester Arthur, etc.). The park has seen its share of events and changes over the past century or so, transforming its old bucolic surroundings into the urban landscape more familiar to us today: once upon a time, there were P. T. Barnum freak shows along the park’s fringe; the Statue of Liberty’s torch and arm called the park home prior to construction; like one hundred other places, the park purports to be the birthplace of baseball; and then there are the early skyscrapers that limn the edge of Madison Square, including the 285-foot Flatiron Building, completed in 1902, and the Venice-inspired MetLife Tower (1909).

Like much of New York, by the 1980s Madison Square Park had seen better times and was more often the host of a different kind of freak show than those envisioned by Barnum. Crime—some violent, some petty—made the park unusable; the scene beneath the park’s centuries-old elm trees was one of neglect. Until 1997. That’s when a public-private partnership formed the Campaign for the New Madison Square Park, which morphed over time into the Madison Square Park Conservancy. The group had deep pockets and a green light from the city to completely renovate the Square. The result: one of the best-kept secrets in New York, a beautiful six-acre park with one of the city’s best playgrounds, a lovely reflecting pool, a well-maintained lawn, a great seasonal rotation of flora, and of course, the Shake Shack, a little hot-dog joint with plentiful outdoor seating.


The Conservancy also maintains a full schedule of public programs, including—as I discovered this week—a summertime live music series. Richard Shindell, whom I consider to be another underappreciated treasure, wrapped up this summer’s program last evening on one of those picture-perfect midsummer nights in New York. Shindell, accompanied by a stand-up bass, ran through a great set of songs, and even old Cry, Cry, Cry bandmate Lucy Kaplansky stopped by to add some harmonies on a few numbers. Since Shindell plans to release a new collection of material in the next few months or so, I’ll save that divagation for another day.

Shindell’s 8/9/06 Madison Square Park Playlist (I think)
“Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”; “Fishing”; “Señor”; “Deportee”; “There Goes Mavis”; “A Summer Wind, A Cotton Dress”; “The Kenworth of My Dreams”; “So Says the Whippoorwill”; “The Courier”; “Are You Happy Now?”; “The Last Fare of the Day”; “Transit”; “Wisteria”

Photograph of Richard Shindell by Preston Merchant