Although it was considered by many to be an unwelcome intrusion into the Park’s pastoral beauty, Wollman Rink has been a source of enjoyment for millions of Park goers who delight in winter ice skating and summer pedal boating. It was added to the Park during the reign of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who was responsible for many of the Park’s features that were not included in the original design, such as its Playgrounds and Bandshell. The Rink, opened in 1961, was named after Kate Wollman, whose family helped fund its construction. The Wollman family had previously donated $600,000 for the construction of the Wollman Rink in Central Park in 1949.



                                                                                                                                      Wollman Rink, 1963


In the original design of the Park, the pioneering landscape architecture team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux wanted to include a formal space for open-air musical concerts. At the center was Music Island, which was where the Rink now stands. Music Island was a small islet with a stage facing the Concert Grove across a narrow channel of water. Thousands of concert goers would attend Saturday afternoon concerts, parking their carriages in the Carriage Concourse, now the site of the Wollman parking lot. Performers included the Thirteenth Regiment Band (1896) and a brass band conducted by the world renowned bandleader Edwin Franko Goldman, whose concert series thrived for four decades. 

Although the addition of the concrete and chain-link Rink altered the area’s natural splendor, the Concert Grove still remains, a unique element of the original Park design. This area typifies formal European gardens of the 19th century, with a pedestrian promenade and a collection of bust sculptures representing great composers, such as Beethoven, Mozart and Grieg.

Click here to see the Wollman Rink today.