Andrew Haswell Green

Andrew Haswell Green (October 6, 1820 – November 13, 1903) was an American lawyer, city planner, and civic leader who was influential in the development of New York City. Green was responsible for Central Park, the New York Public Library, the Bronx Zoo, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also participated in or led significant projects, such as Riverside Drive, Morningside Park, Fort Washington Park, and protecting the Hudson River Palisades from destruction. Green is considered "the Father of Greater New York" for his last project to consolidate the city with neighboring towns, chairing the 1897 committee that drew up the plan of amalgamation.

Green was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on October 6, 1820, one of 11 children. In 1835, he moved to New York City, where two of his sisters ran a school for young girls.^{[citation needed]} One of his brothers was Samuel Fisk Green, a medical missionary of the American Ceylon Mission in Sri Lanka.

Green started work in the mercantile trade and befriended a local merchant, who subsequently hired him to manage his sugar refining plantation in Trinidad. Green lived there for about a year, where he kept a daily diary of his activities and thoughts. Green returned to Worcester for a few years before returning to New York City to pursue a legal career.

In 1845, Green became a lawyer under the tutelage of railroad attorney and future U.S. presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The two met at a party and quickly became friends, along with Tilden's law partner John Bigelow. In 1854, Green was elected to the New York City school board and became its president a year later.

From 1857 to 1870, Green was active in or led the Central Park Commission (CPC). The Republican-led New York State Legislature began to institute measures to control the municipal affairs of the largely Democratic metropolitan region; one such act created the Central Park Commission. In April 1858, Olmsted and Vaux's Greensward Plan for Central Park was chosen by the CPC, thanks largely to Green's influence. The CPC's work would proceed under Green's leadership, despite resistance from resentful local Tammany Hall politicians who had little control of the project after the creation of the CPC.

With Green's coaxing, the legislature began to expand the CPC's authority, transforming it into the city's first comprehensive planning body. In the next decade, the CPC planned and/or proposed improvements in northern Manhattan, the Harlem River, and the Bronx. Projects included Riverside, Morningside and Ft. Washington Parks; the street plan above 155 Street; a widened and straightened Broadway; a Grand Circle at 59th Street and Eighth Avenue, and more. In 1868, Green and the Commission approved the building of the Paleozoic Museum, a museum of paleontology on Central Park; although, the project would later be canceled in 1870. In 1869, Green got approval for the CPC to create the American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, two public-private institutions.

By 1870, a new home-rule ("Tweed") charter ended the state-run CPC. However, the city's Departments of Public Works and Public Parks would eventually execute most of the CPC's unfinished plans. The Tweed Ring was exposed in 1870, and Green was made New York City Comptroller to sort out the ring's crippling theft and graft. He used his personal credit to obtain funds to cover the city payroll.^{[citation needed]} He cut waste and halted most public works to spare the city from bankruptcy. Some critics claimed his retrenchment policy was too arbitrary and severe. Green served as comptroller until 1876.

Later, the Niagara (Falls) Park Commission was created to establish New York's first state park and defend the falls; Green soon became president of the commission and served until his death in 1903.