Morning View - Naumburg Bandshell

Built in 1923, Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell has been host to countless legendary acts ranging from Duke Ellington to the Grateful Dead. Still a popular destination for visiting orchestras and other acts, the bandshell was nearly demolished in 1991, back when Central Park and many parts of Manhattan were still dangerous. From the NY Times, Dec. 20, 1991:

Seeing it as a magnet for drug dealing, homelessness and vandalism, New York City parks officials want to tear down Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell, whose classical limestone dome has reverberated for generations with some of the stateliest -- and noisiest -- music ever heard under the trees.

The demolition plan, advanced by the Central Park Conservancy and endorsed by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, has inflamed the descendants of Elkan Naumburg, the man who donated this "Temple of Music" in 1923. Given the officials' reasoning, said one, you might as well raze Manhattan.

"The whole city is vandalized and is an area for drug dealing and homelessness," said Christopher London, an architectural historian and one of Naumburg's great-grandsons. "The bandshell should not be torn down on such a fatuous argument. Should we tear down every building we can't secure?" Mall to Reopen

Demolition has not yet been considered by the city's Art Commission, whose approval would be required. Facing opposition in 1989, the Department of Parks and Recreation postponed the day of judgment. Now it has arrived because the Mall is to reopen next spring and the conservancy wants the bandshell gone by then.

Betsy F. Gotbaum, the parks commissioner, said yesterday that she would listen to objections from the Naumburg family. She added, however, that her mind was all but made up. "From an esthetic point of view," Ms. Gotbaum said, "and very, very much from a practical point of view, it's very bad. It's just awful to try to maintain," she said. "We can't keep people from sleeping in there. They set fires in it. It's a maintenance nightmare. And we can't put gates and locks on it. There's drug dealing, prostitution, all kinds of stuff that goes on. It's very hard to stop it."

Not the Central Park we know today, is it?