“The victorious are the ones who get to write the stories.” 

–Cynthia Copeland, President of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History

Seneca Village was a 19th-century settlement of mostly African American landowners in the Manhattan borough of New York City within what would become present-day Central Park. I had never heard of Seneca Village until a feature on CBS Sunday Morning, Feb. 6, 2022.

Founded in 1825 by free Black Americans, Seneca Village was the first such community in the city. Andrew Williams, a 25-year-old boot polisher, was the first buyer, two years before slavery was abolished in NY. Because African-American men could only vote if they owned at least $250 of property, many Blacks living further downtown bought land in Seneca Village for the opportunity to vote. More than half owned property in 1850, five times the property ownership rate of all New York City. 

During Ireland’s Great Famine, many Irish immigrants came to live in Seneca Village, increasing the village’s population by 30%. African Despite their social and racial conflicts elsewhere, they lived close to each other in the village. By 1855, there were 52 houses. At its peak, the community had approximately 225 residents. A relatively high percent of Seneca Village children attended school, right in the village, at Colored School No. 3, housed in the basement of one of the village’s three churches. At this time, land above 59th Street was semi-rural or rural. Residents had gardens to grow food, fish from the nearby Hudson River, and firewood from nearby forests. Residents had barns and raised livestock. A natural spring supplied the village with fresh water. Excavations have uncovered stone foundations and roofing materials. Most houses were identified as one-, two-, or three-story, made out of wood. 

Seneca Village existed until 1857. Through eminent domain, the villagers were ordered to leave and houses were torn down for the construction of Central Park. Relics of Seneca Village have been found over the years, including two graves and a burial plot, but the settlement was largely forgotten until the book The Park and the People: A History of Central Park, in 1992. The Seneca Village Project was formed in 1998 to raise awareness. Since 2001, a historical sign commemorates the site where Seneca Village once stood. In 2019, the Central Park Conservancy installed a temporary exhibit of signage in the park, marking the sites of the Village’s churches, some houses, gardens, and natural features.   

Prior to the acquisition of Central Park, the Seneca Village community was referred to in pejorative terms, including racial slurs, such as
“N—r Village.” Park advocates and the media began to describe Seneca Village and other communities as”shantytowns” and the residents there as “squatters” and “vagabonds and scoundrels.” Residents were often described as “wretched” and “debased.” 

By the 1840s, the city’s elite were calling for the construction of a new large park in Manhattan, deciding on a 750-acre area labeled “Central Park,” bounded by 59th and 106th Streets between Fifth and Eighth Avenues. The New York State Legislature passed the Central Park Act in July 1853. Clearing occurred as soon as the Central Park commission’s report was released.  For two years, residents protested and filed lawsuits to halt the sale. However, in mid-1856, residents of Seneca Village were given final notices. In 1857, the city government acquired all private property within Seneca Village. By autumn, city officials reported that the last holdouts had been removed.  

The only institution from Seneca Village to survive was All Angels’ Church, relocated a few blocks away. Traces of Seneca Village endure. In 1871, workers uprooting trees at the corner of 85th Street & Central Park West came upon two coffins, both containing Black people from Seneca Village. A half-century later, a gardener named Gilhooley inadvertently found a graveyard from Seneca Village while turning soil. The site was named Gilhooley’s Burial Plot in honor of his discovery. The settlement was largely forgotten for more than a century when The Seneca Village Project was formed in 1998 as a collaboration between The New York Historical Society, Barnard College, and City College of New York. It is dedicated to raising awareness about Seneca Village’s significance as a free, middle-class Black community in 19th-century New York City. In 2001, a plaque, located near the modern-day Mariners Playground, commemorates the site where Seneca Village once stood.

In 2019, the city announced a request for proposals for a statue honoring the Lyons family.. Following a 1997 exhibition at the The New York Historical Society, researchers started performing imaging tests to determine if any traces of Seneca Village remained.  The project conducted archival research and preliminary remote sensing, using soil boring to identify promising areas with undisturbed soil. In 2005, the team used radar to successfully locate traces of Seneca Village. Researchers were granted permission for test excavations in the regions of the village thought most likely to contain intact archaeological deposits. Digs took place in 2004, 2005, and 2011.  The 2011 excavation uncovered foundation walls and cellar deposits. Archaeologists filled over 250 bags with artifacts, including the leather sole of a child’s shoe.

Poignantly, Mariah Williams, wife of Andrew Thomas Williams IV, descendant of the first owner, avows, “All we can do is honor the past. And nothing covered can ever get healed.”