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A Walk Through History at the Battery

A Walk Through History at the Battery

Name: ______Date: ______

A Walk Through History at

Follow the blue trail marked on the map below. As you stop at each numbered area, read the story and explore the prompts in the corresponding numbered

N E W S T T T R E E E T EE T E section of this packet. You can write notes on your thoughts T for each prompt, or STR S STRE I RE C HARGI N G R T B U L L S REE

MORR VE T SCU L P T U R E E A B R O A D discuss it with your companions.BE Please rememberON to follow all social T W O S T T E R S R E B ROA D W A Y S B T E City Hall R O T A O N E A 13 minute walk D W A Y W HITE HAL L W U .S. M distancing guidelines while at The Battery. We hope youO O R E S T R E enjoy your visit! POST OFFIC E

B B O W L I N G Y E A R G R EEN T Seaport W O 15 minute walk 3 3 KE I A W FDR DRIVE

H W HITEH A L L B I T T 2 W A TER /

D E H A E E STREET EXIT 1 L D W L S T R A

M U SEU M OF THE E 3 9 N T A E T E 9 /11 Memorial and Museum AMERI C A N I NDIAN W HITEHAL L Y 10 minute walk U S C U S T OM HOU S E T O N E SPLA STRE E B ROA D W A Y 1 9 0 7 E

S E I G R T E R S T R E R

T R A O N E RR E

O E E T W N EW Y O R K M E N E P L AZA S RIV Information W I STR TH C H

U AST Restrooms Handicap access E S O N E O

T S DGE S TATE R E N E T H E R L A N D S I Food Bikeway T STREET E M E MOR I A L BR E T P T A X I S G O V ERN ORS T A N T D ISL AND F ERR Y 0 25 50 100 200 I R T STRE 3 O N E B A TTER Y E B A T T E R Y MARIT I M E H E A D S L J E W I S H S P ARK P L AZA B U I L D I N G 1 9 0 9 Feet H OUS E TT RE T E R C E NTE NAR Y A AR T TA E SAIN T F L A G P O L E 0 25 50 E S T S T R P E LIZABETH P E E Meters A N N SET O N T ES SHRINE E E T P TA N E W A M S T E R D A M T S C R 1 7 S TAT E P A V I L ION B W E E PETER MINUI T A E A Y STREE T T T E S T R E L A T W PLAZA R E Y P K I W P A R K B Y E 1 7 O P S T R E E Y S T E R R U T H B A TTE R Y E BUS N C U E T L I D D PLA C E A E T S T T T R A O S TATEN ISLAND P B N R I T L A E E S F ERR Y T YA P L S T H E W ES V E R 4 W H ITE HAL L EB B A T T E R Y R F E R R Y T E R M I NAL T O V A L P B A T T E R Y T T L A R P S T R A U RBA N F A R M K B B 1 A T T E R Y B E I K E W E A Y T

G I O V A N N I D A V E R R A Z Z A N O RITZ T I F F A N Y & P L A Y SCA P E C ARL T O N C O . FDN ( I N D E S I G N ) H O T E L 2 WOO D L A N D G A R D E N S

Museum of Jewish Heritage Museum L A B Y R I N T H P A R K S E A G L A S S T 7 O FFIC E E D C A R OUS E L E 1 G U A R B A T TER Y PL A C E T H E T H S T R 5 B A T TER Y AS UT O MAR I N E C C A S T L E C L I NTO N W O O D L A N D SO N A T IONAL MONUM E N T F L A G P O L E K O R E A N W A R T E S 1 8 1 1 TA V E T E R A N S S ROB E R T F M E MOR I A L D T H E E W A G N E R J R I MMI G R A N T S P A R K NIT MONUM E N T B A T T E R Y U G A R D E N S R E S T A U R A N T

T ICKETS E A S T C O A S T S TAT U E O F L I B E R T Y M E MOR I A L P I E R & E LLI S I S L A N D A 1 8 8 6 G B OSQUE R A E R F O U N T A I N M D E E C E M N 6 R A N B S E M B R O R E M A F O F N N S C D E E G A R

N C E 1 R E M E M B R A R D E N S O F A Y G A G W A M E R I C A N G A N M E R C H A N T 2 6 MAR I N E G A W A Y N 3 G A N G M E MOR I A L G W A Y 4 A Y 5 G A N G W G A N G W A Y G A N G W A Y

N Y W P A T I E C I T Y S H R I PPER T A X C L I S N D F ERR IE EL LI S I S L A LIB E R T Y & S T A TUE O F 1 By the Labyrinth:

Archaeological records suggest that the first humans to come to this part of the world arrived after the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago. Multiple native tribes lived in the surrounding area for thousands of years, and the tribe was the first nation to live on this island, calling it Manahatta. The island was an ecological wonder at the time, due to its location at the meeting point of two rivers, supporting a wide variety of plant and animal life. The Lenape people hunted and gathered plant materials to feed their community and provide them with the tools, clothing, and materials that they used every day. They used young sapling trees to construct homes, covering them with bark and animal skins and leaving openings in the roof to allow the smoke from cooking fires to escape. They traded materials with other First Nations in the surrounding area, including the Haudenosaunee, the Mohicans, and the Shinnecock. Today, most Lenape tribe members live in Delaware and New Jersey, honoring their cultural traditions while making use of modern conveniences. Some of the plants you see in this area of the park are the same species that existed here thousands of years ago. Can you find all four of the following native plants in this area of the park? If it’s winter, look for evidence of their fallen leaves.

SHADBUSH MILKWEED ELDERBERRY When this tree bloomed with The Lenape used the tough The Lenape people ate the The Lenape people ground white blossoms in late spring, inner bark of the milkweed berries of this large shrub oak acorns into flour for it signalled to the Lenape plants to wind into twine, and made medicine from cooking, and used the long,’ that the shad were swimming making strong rope and the bark of the plant to treat tall trunks of these trees upriver and it was time to fish. fishing nets. cuts and wounds. to make canoes for fishing Additionally, the berries are and travel. edible when ripe.

2 Verrazzano :

Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian who sailed on an exploratory journey in 1524 under the patronage of the French king, Francis I. The goal of the trip was to find new trade routes that would allow to access eastern Asia without the long and difficult journey across land. Verrazzano’s trip across the ocean took nearly two months, and then Verrazzano and his crew sailed along the Atlantic coast from what is now to what is now in . In his records of the trip, Verrazzano wrote that this harbor and future site of The Battery was “a very agreeable site located between two hills be- tween which flowed to the sea a very great river.” Verrazzano was the first European to be credited with “discovering” what is now , though of course the Lenape tribe had already been living here for thousands of years. In the statue, the figure in front of Verrazzano represents Discovery, with the book of History at her feet. What symbolism do you see in the statue’s sword pointing to earlier pages in the book, before the date of 1524? 3 The Netherlands Memorial Flagpole In the early 1600s, sailed to this area from England and found great potential for beaver trapping and trading. The possibility of profits from resources here drew interest from the Dutch, and inspired commercial expeditions and early settlement. On behalf of the Dutch West India Company, bartered with a Lenape tribe to “purchase” the island known as Manahatta, in an exchange worth roughly 60 guilders at the time, equivalent to somewhere between 20 and 1,000 dollars in today’s currency. In fact, the Lenape people had no concept of “selling” the land. They considered themselves caretakers, not owners, of the island, and believed that the trade symbolized that they would share the land with the Dutch. In the early years of colonization, the Lenape helped the Dutch settlers learn survival skills in their new environment, but over the century or so, the Lenape population was driven out of Manahatta. Many died from diseases brought by the Europeans because their bodies hadn’t developed immunity against them, and others were killed or forced out by Dutch and then English settlers.

The image on the flagpole is of a Dutch settler trading goods with a member of the Lenape tribe (though it’s important to note that the image of the headdress is not historically accurate; such headdresses were worn by members of western tribes, and not by the Lenape people). Based on the story above, how did the groups disagree about what the trade meant? How would you have solved a disagreement like that?

4 The Battery Urban Farm

When the Dutch started settling here in the 1600s, they brought their own practices from home and also learned new skills from the Lenape people. Though they could trade the furs they were trapping for other goods, much of what they needed they had to grow themselves, on small farms not much larger than this one. If you were settling here like the Dutch in the 1600s, what would you need to grow or find in order to survive the cold winters? Draw a map of your ideal homestead here: 5 National This building has been located here in some form for more than 200 years. It was built in 1807, after the Revolutionary War, as a fort to protect against future invasions from the British. It was never used in battle, and was eventually repurposed into a performance space, then an immigration depot, and later New York’s first aquarium! While the building served as the immigration depot, immigrants would arrive here and enter the building to register, find jobs and housing, and connect with waiting family members.

South of Castle Clinton, find the statue of The Immigrants, by sculptor Luis Sanguino, and pick one of the figures to focus on. Consider why you think the artist chose to depict them that way. How does this statue represent the experience of immigrants? Write your thoughts below:

6 In the Bosque

Over the course of the 1900s, tunnel and subway construction closed down this park for years at a time. By the 1970s, New York’s birthplace had declined into an area of trash, broken benches, and dying trees. A New York resident named Warrie Price saw the need for more care for the park, and in 1994 founded The Battery Conservancy, an organization dedicated to reviving and beautifying the park. Over the years, the Conservancy completed plantings and construction to build the park into what you see today, and it continues to improve the site each year.

Notice the many different ways One of the challenges of managing public space in lower that people are using this public is preparing for the threats of climate change. space. Why do you think it’s Since this area you are standing on is landfill added in the important to maintain public 1850s, it is close to the level of the seawater and is parks in NYC? List three reasons: susceptible to large waves and floods during storms. In 2012 during , the waves flooded most of this area where the trees are. With climate change comes sea-level rise, which will cover this low-lying land with water. Future storms will cause even more flooding. How would you protect this park from future storms? 7 Playscape

This construction site is will soon be The Battery Playscape, a new playground filled with plants and features focused on sustainability. As you finish your walk through the history of this area, now is a great time to consider what’s in store for the future of the space. If you were in charge of the design, what elements would you include in a new play space for the park? Draw a map and label the important parts.

Thank you for visiting! We hope you enjoyed exploring the park. Check out our other visitor guides and more at www.thebattery.org

Email [email protected] with questions or for list of image sources.

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