I’m continuing my Tompkins Square Park Tree Identification Project. Here are maps of the park that I am finding useful in my research. NYCityMap is a great resource, you can enter any NYC address or point of interest, and find maps, and aerial photos through the years of all the boroughs. Plus you can see building violations, zoning and overlays of such things as water fountains and parks. Keep an eye on map feature updates at their blog. The aerial photos start in 1924, think bi-planes buzzing overhead.

It looks like it was taken in winter. That must be a pavilion in the center. I’m imagining brass bands playing here. There’s another one further east. I’ve rotated the image to have it squared off with the streets.

Tompkins Square Park in 1951. The basic paths are established.

A friendly Tompkins Square community member let me photograph her copy of a map drawn by Lorna McNeur in the Spring of 1981 for The Friends of Tompkins Square Park. Notice how many elms were there then. Also note the bandshell and the various arrangements of benches, tables and fences. My photo does not do justice to this lovely drawing. I was dealing with reflections from glass over a faded print and had to tweak it severely to get readable details. But it is a great map, I was very happy to find it. The tree identifications on it are limited to major trees. I love seeing the arrangements of benches and tables that were there. I moved here in 1978 and I can vaguely remember them. View Full Size

The next date available on NYCityMap is 1996. Note the old dog run. There is a bit less green covering paths and details here. This might let me tighten up the cartography on my map. I don’t think the configurations of the fences have changed, other than the playgrounds.

The latest on NYCityMap is 2008. I know the west playground has undergone major changes since then.

My latest brainstorm is to use the seemingly uniform (40″) fence segments to calculate distances for my map. If it wasn’t raining today I’d be out there confirming some of the details I have here. So instead of pacing off like a pirate, I’m wandering around the park counting fence posts, and trying not to run into people.

This is a work in progress I am sure there are still many errors in it. The tree icons are proportional to their estimated trunk diameter. Right now I am more interested in notiing their positions and sizes as accurately as I can. The tree identification can come later. Your help is welcome in all this. I’m continuing to photograph the trees, and hope to have portraits of all the major trees of the park before the leaves are gone.

The purple arrows show trail directions. The idea is to sequentially number the trees along those paths for identification purposes. I’m using the Manhattan convention of north being uptown though that is way off the actual compass point.

Filed under: East Village, Parks- , History, Tompkins Square Park, TSPTIP - by gamma
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I think it was a pin oak that fell here and crushed this fence. I asked a park worker, and he said the tree crew was in and out in two hours, gettingthis oak and the giant elm pictured below, as well as the large hanging elm branch at 9th Street and Avenue B, and the locust at the central entrance on 7th street.

The elm in the central grove was hollow.

Filed under: East Village, Parks, Photos- , Tompkins Square Park, trees, TSPTIP - by gamma
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An oak leaf cluster. In the immediate aftermath of Irene passing through my East Village neighborhood, I seized the opportunity to gather samples of leaves from fallen branches, getting them before the sanitation and parks department bagged them up for mulch or whatever. I’m doing a tree identification project and close up details of the leaves attached to the branches, and their arrangements are critical to species identification. And most of the samples come from branches high-up and into the wind, normally inaccessible to my camera. Unfortunately, I could have used an intern or two to take note of location and individually bag the samples, but no, I stuffed them into a single bag and will have to go all forensic to match them back to their tree. Full resolution

London Planetrees are common in New York and I saw many large planetree branches fallen. Their distinctive mottled bark makes them easy to identify. They provide good shade and their branches form dramatic shapes. But from below, their leaves always look shabby and unhealthy. It must be their heavy venation, on the reverse of the leaves, and their ragged outline that gives that effect. Up-close they are quite beautiful and interesting. Planetrees are known for being able to deal well with soot and in general the stress of city life.
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Filed under: East Village, Parks, Photos, West Village- , Tompkins Square Park, trees, TSPTIP - by gamma
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I was sad to see that one of the grand old Tompkins Square Park elms is gone. It was one of the two elms in the central grove. Elms are known for their wide sprawling limbs. They are endangered by Dutch Elm disease. Tompkins Square park is known for its large and beautiful elms.

Filed under: East Village, Parks, Photos- , Tompkins Square Park, trees, TSPTIP - by gamma
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The top of an old oak near the park offices has fallen.

A grand old elm near Avenue B has lost a large branch.

A large old tree in the center of the park is down. You can see it from Avenue A. It is too far away for me to tell what kind of tree it is.

A locust tree near the central 7th Street entrance is down.

Filed under: Photos- , Tompkins Square Park, TSPTIP - by gamma
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Tompkins Square park is closed, a wise decision considering all the overhanging tree limbs. I would not be surprised to find many large branches downed overnight. I’m hoping no trees come down. I used the occasion of the empty park to grab many panoramic shots from the entrances. I’ll be using them in my TSP Tree Identification Project. Taking panoramic shots in the park is hard because of all the moving people usually there spoiling the pano and getting annoyed with me pointing my camera at them.

The streets were mostly empty. That’s a London Planetree in the background.

Filed under: East Village, Parks, Photos- , Tompkins Square Park, TSPTIP, Weather - by gamma
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I’m continuing my project to identify the trees of Tompkins Square Park. Coming up with a good numbering scheme for keeping track of individual trees has stymied me so far. It gets confusing, is it a shrub, should I give a number to a 3 inch diameter tree, should a corner tree be listed on 10th Street or Avenue B? But the map is coming along nicely. I’ve been reconciling measurements of the few details visible in Google Maps with my map based on the 1998 map from EVPC and my own crude measurements, pacing it off like a pirate. I’ve been adding details like benches and tables. My favorite innovation is making the tree icons proportional to trunk diameter.

I’m pretty sure it is a linden, species identification, anyone?

Japanese pagodatree (Sophora japonica) also known as Chinese Scholar. I’m fairly sure of the identification, can anyone confirm.

Filed under: East Village, Parks, Photos- , Tompkins Square Park, TSPTIP - by gamma
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Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
This will display all the photos I add to the Tompkins Square Park Tree Identification set on Flickr. Click on photo to see title and description.

Filed under: East Village, Parks, Photos- , Tompkins Square Park, TSPTIP - by gamma
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