Seneca Village

Discover Seneca Village through the dedicated work of researchers, archaeologists, and Central Park Conservancy historians and guides.

Before Central Park, the landscape along what is now the Park’s perimeter from West 82nd to 89th Street was home to a thriving, predominantly African-American community known today as Seneca Village.

Among New York’s nineteenth-century Black communities, Seneca Village was unique as a relatively prosperous community with churches, a school, and high rates of property ownership, which in some cases made the owners eligible to vote. When the City acquired the land for the Park in 1857, its residents were displaced and forgotten. Historians rediscovered its existence in the 1990s, and in recent years, the Conservancy has worked to trace and share its history.

COMPREHENSIVE Q&A

As a part of these efforts, the Conservancy has undertaken a major effort to conduct new research on Seneca Village and also share its history within the physical landscape of the Park. Explore our comprehensive Q&A and use the interactive map below to discover what Seneca Village might have looked like in the summer of 1855, two years before it was cleared to build Central Park.

ENVISIONING SENECA VILLAGE 3D MODEL

Envisioning Seneca Village is a project depicting what Seneca Village might have looked like in the summer of 1855, about two years before it was destroyed by the City of New York to build Central Park. The project is anchored in extensive scholarship and aims to make the village’s history visible to a wide audience. Envisioning Seneca Village is a collaborative project between Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, Leah Meisterlin, and Myles Zhang that integrates their expertise in archaeology, social history, historical geographic information systems (GIS), and digital architectural reconstruction. The project is also a work in progress with updates, additions, and new features planned soon. Note: the model is best viewed on desktop. A print version of a tour through the model can be downloaded here.

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Learn More

Dive deeper into Seneca Village and its residents with our resources below.