PRIVATE TOUR OFFERING: SENECA VILLAGE WALKING TOUR: Discover a Remarkable Community Before Central Park
Journey back to a lost community. On this walking tour, you’ll uncover the history of an extraordinary New York City community hidden beneath the landscape of today’s Central Park: A thriving African American and immigrant community from 1825 to 1857.
One of America’s most remarkable antebellum communities once thrived where millions now stroll in Central Park. Before the rolling lawns and scenic pathways were created, a vibrant, remote village of African Americans, along with Irish and German immigrants, built homes, raised families, and created the largest land-owning African American community in pre-Civil War New York City. They were miles from the discrimination, riots, and fires encountered in Lower Manhattan.
Welcome to the extraordinary story of Seneca Village, a community nearly erased from history to make way for Central Park.
This is your chance to experience one of the most significant historical and archaeological discoveries in New York City, brought to life with a historian and licensed New York City guide. You’ll traverse the landscape where the community once thrived, using the Central Park Conservancy’s “Discover Seneca Village” outdoor exhibit as a guide. There are no remaining structures, but your historian and guide will share evocative stories while displaying detailed maps, period photographs, and illuminating images of the structures and people who once inhabited the landscape.
- Narratives That Connect You to the Past: Stand where William Godfrey Wilson, church sexton, lived with his wife Charlotte and children in a three-story home. Excavations revealed evidence of a family that valued education and refinement in their uptown community. Discover how Elizabeth Gloucester, a female Seneca Village landowner and successful businesswoman, kept property in her own name even after marriage, defying New York’s marriage laws. Learn about the Lyons family, who invested in real estate in Seneca Village and assisted enslaved people to freedom in Lower Manhattan on the Underground Railroad.
- Churches & Community: Stand where the three village churches once welcomed many worshippers: African Union, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, and the racially integrated All Angels’ Episcopal.
- Land Ownership & Empowerment: Meet the people—landowners and laborers—who shaped this extraordinary enclave. Hear inspiring stories of pioneers like Andrew Williams and Epiphany Davis, who purchased land beginning in 1825, and discover how half of Seneca’s Black households owned property, a staggering five times the city average at the time.
- Landscapes and Archeology: See a surviving rocky outcropping and natural spring once used by Seneca Villagers. Find out what recent research and digs have unearthed about daily life, education, and abolitionist activity.
- The Plan for the Park: Discover the unfortunate end of Seneca Village and the reasons and plans for Central Park, the first large-scale public pleasure ground in the United States. You’ll also discover the moving legacy of Seneca Village.
The story of Seneca Village is an essential part of New York City’s history, first uncovered only about thirty years ago. This isn’t just a walking tour—it’s a revelation. You’ll never look at Central Park the same way. You’ll walk along the same ground where resourceful and determined families lived, worked, worshipped, and built one of America’s most remarkable antebellum communities. This walking tour honors and celebrates their achievements.
Duration: Approximately 90 minutes
Location: The tour begins and ends in the 80s on the west side of Central Park.
Book the tour today for your corporate group, school group, organization, or family.
EMAIL: BRUCER@DISCOVERNEWYORK.COM or CALL 917 475-6839
Photo Credit: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Double ambrotype portrait of Albro Lyons, Sr. and Mary Joseph Lyons.” New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Best Central Park African American History Tour
