North Meadow
North Meadow is a 23-acre recreational field located around 97th
street, north of the Reservoir, south of North Woods and between
the park drives. During the Revolutionary War, this field, along
with the Great Hill to the west and East Meadow to the east were
the location of camps for British and Hessian troops who were
occupying the forts on the bluffs just to the north to seal off
lower Manhattan from the colonial armies. The area was listed as
a "Play-Ground" on the 1868 Greensward Plan for the park
and ballfields first appeared there in the 1870s, despite long-standing
and ongoing disputes between the upper class (that saw the park as pastoral
art) and everybody else (who saw it as a place for recreation).
The convention of notating closed greens with Red flags dates from
the 1880s, when there were additional flags indicating suitability
for specific sports - blue flag with a white ball for baseball,
white flag with a red ball for croquet, blue pennant with white
stars when open to the public in general. (Rosenzweig pp 314)
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