The Knotwell Family Blog

A pano that I feel represents some of the charm of Central Park. I wish I could tell you about all the charm and history of this remarkable park. It's a completely man made park. In fact, nothing in the park is native, except the big mounds of shist stone prevalent throughout the park. The trees were planted as park of the parks creation... and the trails and benches, well, you get the picture.

We decided, spontaneously, to take a rickshaw ride through central park. It was a guided ride. Our tour guide was Helen, from Namibia. She spoke exceptional English and knew her stuff. She took us on a grand journey through not only the park, but all the famous people that have either lived or still do live in the apartment buildings that surround this beautiful place. Central Park is not run by the City of New York. In fact, it is run by a non-profit conservancy that manages the park and it's structures. The conservancy was initially run by a group of women, the women that lived in the apartments surrounding the park itself. They don't own it now, but they used to. Central park has a zoo inside, a huge lake with row boats, a famous restaurant called The Boat House, like 5 billion trees and some fountains. Oh, yeah, and they also have people, 25 million people visit Central Park... making it the most visited city park in America. 843 acres of lushly landscaped gardens and paths. Perhaps the most unique thing about it was that it sits in the heart of arguably one of the busiest places in the world. Literally, you can be in Central Park and not even realize you are sitting in Midtown Manhattan.

The Dakota. Home to John Lennon. In fact, he was killed, right there, in front of the building in December 1980. When Lennon was killed, a makeshift memorial was created on the steps of the building. After a while, the owners were pretty upset about the condition of the entrance. So, they asked Yoko Ono (Lennon's wife - she still lives there and now owns 50% of the building) to do something about it. Ono asked the Central Park Conservancy if she could move the "shrine" into the park. They told her no. So, she offered them 1.2 million and they accepted. Money talks. An Italian Beatles fan created this beautiful mosaic and donated it to Central Park.

This memorial is located in The Strawberry Fields portion of Central Park. Named after a Beatles song written by Lennon about an orphanage in his hometown of Liverpool, England.