In 1825, downtown Manhattan was a seething stew of humanity; crowded, dirty and dangerous. Andrew Williams, a 25-year-old free black man decided to escape the tenements. He bought three parcels of land in what was established by the New York grid as 82nd Street and Broadway, and built his home there.

AAfter slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, Andrew was joined by others who shared his dream of freedom. They called their community Seneca Village, in tribute perhaps to the Roman philosopher Seneca, who championed individual liberty.

Irish immigrants escaping famine at home found refuge in Seneca Village. Residents worked as day laborers and domestic servants. They planted crops, raised chickens and fished in the Hudson and East Rivers, built churches, schools and a cemetery. Eventually, roughly 200 African Americans and 100 Irish immigrants called Seneca Village home. They lived together, loved together, were baptized and buried together.

By the late 1840’s as Manhattan expanded, the wealthy elite, and politicians supported plans to build a grand Central Park in New York City. Seneca Village was in the way. New York newspapers demonized Seneca Village as a shanty town and cast its residents as “vagabonds, scoundrels and squatters”. 

 In July 1853, the Central Park Act became law. Seneca Village homes were confiscated by eminent domain and in October 1855, evictions began. Andrew Williams and his Seneca Village neighbors were forced to leave their homes, some bludgeoned by police billy clubs, to make way for Central Park.