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The lost neighborhood under New York’s Central Park

Vox | November 7, 2025



Before Central Park was built, a historic black community was destroyed.

Help our reporting on hidden histories. Submit a story idea here: http://bit.ly/2RhjxMy

If youā€™ve been to New York, youā€™ve probably visited Central Park. But thereā€™s a part of its story you won’t see.

Itā€™s a story that goes back to the 1820s, when that part of New York was largely open countryside. Soon it became home to about 1,600 people. Among them was a predominantly black community that bought up affordable plots to build homes, churches and a school. It became known as Seneca Village. And when Irish and German immigrants moved in, it became a rare example at the time of an integrated neighborhood.

Everything changed on July 21, 1853. New York took control of the land to create what would become the first major landscaped park in the US — they called it ā€œThe Central Park.ā€

In the Vox series Missing Chapter, Vox Senior Producer Ranjani Chakraborty revisits underreported and often overlooked moments from the past to give context to the present. Join her as she covers the histories that are often left out of our textbooks. Our first season tackles stories of racial injustice, political conflicts, even the hidden history of US medical experimentation.

Have an idea for a story that Ranjani should investigate for Missing Chapter? Send it to her via this form! http://bit.ly/2RhjxMy

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The Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History website: http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/seneca_village/

The exhibit on Seneca Village through the Central Park Conservancy: https://www.centralparknyc.org/programs/discover-seneca-village

Check out the 1856 before and after Central Park plans at the New York Public Library, as well as dozens of other Central Park maps and archives: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/6850fc74-5e61-8806-e040-e00a18067a2c

Read the full report on the 2011 Seneca Village excavations: http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/arch_reports/1828.pdf

Read the New York Timesā€™ coverage of Seneca Village: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/opinion/seneca-central-park-nyc.html

Read The Park and the People by Elizabeth Blackmar and Roy Rosenzweig for a comprehensive history of Central Park, including Seneca Village: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801497513/the-park-and-the-people/

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Written by Vox

Comments

This post currently has 38 comments.

  1. @Vox

    November 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

    hi everyone, thanks for checking out the first Missing Chapter episode of 2020! we've got a lot more reporting planned this year, so if you want to stay up to date with the latest in the series you can sign up for the Missing Chapter newsletter: https://vox.com/missing-chapter . -Ranjani

  8. @Curitaw

    November 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

    Just like Lake Lanier in Georgia there were many African American communities that were taken over by force. This is history not taught in schools.

  11. @musiqsoundsproductions

    November 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

    See how the media and goverments even back then, could twist words, make up stories, and play out people against eachother and could make whole communities dissapear.

    Nothing has changed.

    And people still fall for it.

  15. @lllyyysgf

    November 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

    A bulldozer comes through because a new hospital, a new highway, or a new high-speed railway station is being built, and then you lose your house or land without thorough and transparent negotiation. This kind of story happens in China every day. Anyway, feel sorry for the residents who lived in Seneca Village and other villages before.

  27. @tasireN

    November 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

    Everything black Americans had was always washed away no matter where it was in the United States smh šŸ¤¦šŸ¾ā€ā™€ļø I hope that type of power never happens again in America smh šŸ¤¦šŸ¾ā€ā™€ļø

  30. @jessenoelle262

    November 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

    Even if it WAS a "shanty town," being poor shouldn't disqualify citizens from having rights!!! And btw, the working class isnā€™t different from the lower classā€”to the elite, everyone who isnā€™t elite is lower class.

  36. @RC-qf3mp

    November 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

    So what? The entire island displaced the native Americans. Iā€™m glad Seneca village is gone so EVERYONE can enjoy Central Park. Are you a NIMBY? Life ā€” and capitalismā€” is about creative destruction. Get over it.

  37. @dazecm

    November 7, 2025 at 10:07 am

    Wealthy people stamping on poorer people. Looking at today's political environment shows things have sadly not improved as much as they should.

Comments are closed.

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