About The Site

This park was created as a setting for passive recreation in surroundings that evoked an ideal rural world. A rolling meadow dotted with trees and surrounded by woods formed the eastern portion. Olmsted said: “There is no more beautiful picture than that of a beautiful meadow, over which level-armed sheltering trees cast broad shadows.” Located west of Delaware Avenue, Olmsted and Vaux created a picturesque lake for boating in summer and skating in winter by damning the Scajaquada Creek that flowed through the site. Olmsted had predicted that Delaware Park was destined to take a “distinguished position among the parks of the world.” Significant features of this historic landscape are an 18-hole public golf course, the Mighty Oak, the Parkside Lodge, located on the Meadow or eastern side of the park. On the west, or Water Park as Olmsted named it, is the Japanese Garden, the Marcy Casino, the Rose Garden, a playground and a path that winds its way around Hoyt Lake.