Carl Schurz Park

Gracie Mansion, built in 1799 and the mayor's official residence since 1942, sits at the high point of this East River park, which took its current name in 1910 to honor the German-American statesman Carl Schurz. When construction of the FDR Drive cut through in the late 1930s, landscape architect Maud Sargent redesigned the grounds around it, building the John Finley Walk esplanade over the underpass. A 1928 statue of Peter Pan, salvaged from the old Paramount Theatre and installed here in 1975, was once thrown into the East River by teenagers and fished back out.