Paley Park

USA / New Jersey / West New York / East 53rd Street, 3
An elegant midtown park with a dramatic waterfall and quiet sitting areas. It was named for the man who paid for it, William Paley, former chairman of CBS. It was designed in 1967 by Zion & Breen Associates. Bounded by buildings on three sides, set back from the street, slightly elevated and enclosed by an iron fence, the 1/10th-acre park is dominated by a 20-foot high wall of water at the back. The two side walls are covered with “vertical lawns” of English Ivy. Seventeen honey locust trees, planted on a grid within the central seating area, offer dappled shade above the moveable wire mesh chairs and marble tables, set on a floor of granite pavers.

This used to be the site of the legendary Stork Club, opened as a speakeasy in 1929 by bootlegger Sherman Billingsley. Considered the epitome of glamour and class, the club hosted the likes of Bing Crosby, Ernest Hemingway, Rocky Marciano, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, John F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover and mobster Frank Costello were both habituees. Columnist Walter Winchell presided over the goings on from Table 50 in the exclusive Cub Room (ala Sweet Smell of Success). The club appears in All About Eve and The Wrong Man.

tclf.org/landscapes/paley-park
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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paley_Park
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Coordinates:   40°45'37"N   73°58'30"W

Comments

  • It was named for Samuel Paley, father of William S. Paley.
  • Here's an interesting article and film about urban spaces, featuring PALEY PARK. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/10/power-movable-chair/3520/
This article was last modified 5 years ago