A Winter Walk in Central Park

Central Park is a wonderland throughout the year. In each season, one can see things not visible the rest of the time. Winter is the time to see the park with bare-limbed trees etching beautiful patterns against the sky. It is also the best season in which to take a close look at the park’s structures designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, including the spectacular Terrace with its improbably intricate carvings. It’s also the best time to look at the park’s wealth of sculpture, some of it great (like the Indian Hunter and Angel of the Waters), some of it not so great. Also, Central Park, in its early years, was more popular in the winter than in the other seasons, largely because of the extraordinary 19th-century popularity of ice skating. This walk through the park’s southeastern quadrant with Francis Morrone will seek to evoke those days.