Strawberry Fields

Location & Contact:

Central Park W and 72 St
New York, NY 10079
212-310-6600
Email Us
Visit our website

Description:

The Central Park memorial was designed by Bruce Kelly, the chief landscape architect for the Central Park Conservancy. Strawberry Fields was dedicated on what would have been Lennon's 45th birthday, 9 October 1985, by New York Mayor Ed Koch and Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, who had underwritten the project.

The entrance to the memorial is located on Central Park West at West 72nd Street, directly across from the Dakota Apartments, where Lennon had lived for the later part of his life, and where he was murdered. The memorial is a triangular piece of land falling away on the two sides of the park, and its focal point is a circular pathway mosaic of inlaid stones, a reproduction of a mosaic from Pompeii, made by Portuguese craftsmen as a gift from the city of Lisbon. In the center of the mosaic is a single word, the title of Lennon's famous song: "Imagine". Along the borders of the triangular area surrounding the mosaic are benches which are endowed in memory of other individuals and maintained by the Central Park Conservancy. Along a path toward the southeast, a plaque on a low glaciated outcropping of schist lists the nations which contributed to building the memorial. Yoko Ono, who keeps apartments in The Dakota, contributed over a million dollars for the landscaping and for the upkeep endowment.

Hours:

Monday: 10 am - 7 pm
Tuesday: 10 am - 7 pm
Wednesday: 10 am - 7 pm
Thursday: 10 am - 7 pm
Friday: 10 am - 7 pm
Saturday: 10 am - 7 pm
Sunday: 10 am - 7 pm

Photos