The History of Ice Skating in Central Park

Each winter, New Yorkers and tourists flock to Central Park to lace up their skates and hit the ice at Wollman and Lasker rinks. While ice skating is now a favorite pastime, 19^th-century Manhattan offered few places for winter revelers to skate on natural ice.

Enter Central Park. In 1858, when commissioners held a design competition for the Park, they stipulated that each entry include an area that could be flooded and frozen for winter ice skating. The winning "Greensward" plan by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted included many ponds and lakes in the design. The Park was constructed rapidly, and by December 19, 1858 the man-made Lake was the first landscape feature to open for public ice skating. The ice skating mania had officially begun. In fact, for the first decade of the Park's existence, more people visited in the winter for the novelty of ice skating than in the warmer months. On Christmas Day in 1859, Central Park reported over 50,000 visitors — most of them skaters.

Initially there were few places to purchase reasonably priced skates, but by 1866 they had become an inexpensive commodity in all the city's stores. Not all skaters were comfortable practicing the new sport, however. The western portion of the Lake was reserved exclusively for female visitors and became known as Ladies Pond. It was hoped that women and girls who felt either too shy or too proper to skate in mixed company could practice the new activity without the stare of the opposite sex. On the contrary, the sport actually became quite popular for couples as it was one of the only permissible ways for men and women to hold hands in public.

To alert New Yorkers that the Park's ice was frozen, a ball was hoisted to the top of the pole near the bell tower (now Belvedere Castle) and the downtown trolleys all flew red flags — a signal that the ice in Central Park was ready to welcome skaters.

By the 1920's, the Park allowed skating and racing on the frozen Conservatory Lake. By the 1950's there was such a huge demand for guaranteed seasonal skating that Wollman Rink was built in 1950, with Lasker Rink following in 1966.  

View photos in the slideshow below of the Conservancy's annual Skating Party, one of the many benefits of membership. Interested in becoming a member? Learn more here.