Inhabitat New York City reported that Two centuries ago, surveyor John Randel, Jr. was charged with the job of laying out New York City’s future grid system, but it’s come to light that his original plan may have entailed filling in the area now occupied by Central Park with streets and buildings.
White marble stone markers Randel used to plot future intersections have been found in the park area, indicating that the city’s eight hundred and forty-three acres of beloved park space may have come very close to not existing.
The white stones were set at the intersection of every street and avenue and would serve as the city’s nineteenth-century grid layout under what was called the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811. Can you imagine a New York City without a Central Park?
To read the article in its entirety along with seeing original maps, click here.