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When they lived in the nearby Dakota on 72nd Street and Central Park West, John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, adopted this landscape as their favorite oasis in the Park.
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Designed by landscape architect Bruce Kelly (1948-1993), one of the principal members of the Central Park Conservancy's management and restoration planning team, Strawberry Fields was named in 1981 by a New York City Council law introduced by Councilmember Henry J. Stern and signed by Mayor Edward I. Koch. It is named after the song Strawberry Fields Forever in honor of John Lennon (1940-1980), the musician and member of the internationally famous Beatles. His widow, the artist and performer Yoko Ono, later donated $1 million to the Central Park Conservancy to relandscape and to maintain the 2.5-acre tear-drop-shaped landscape.
Shaded by a grove of stately American elms, the black-and-white mosaic set in the pathway near its west entrance is a reproduction of a mosaic from Pompeii; it was fashioned by Italian craftsmen and was a gift from Naples, Italy. Its single word IMAGINE, the title of a popular Lennon song, is the only specific tribute to the musician within the beautifully maintained yet naturalistic, free-flowing Park landscape.
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H
ardly a day goes by without some remembrance of John Lennon being placed on the mosaic — a rose, a poem, a candle, a bouquet of flowers ...
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Take a stroll down the hill past a bronze plaque that lists the 121 countries endorsing Strawberry Fields as a Garden of Peace.
The path is a loop that brings you back to the mosaic past one of the most beautiful landscapes in Central Park. After completing the loop, walk to the upper meadow, an undulating lawn popular with picnickers. At the northernmost point of the meadow are three Bald Cypresses.
The slope behind the memorial is called Rose Hill for the rambling roses in the clefts of the bedrock. The eastern slope is a woodland popular with bird-watchers. In its center is the woodland wildflower meadow filled with Ostrich and Christmas Ferns and Virginia Bluebells.
To read the Parks Department's historical sign, click here.
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