The Alamo City and the City that Never Sleeps might have more in common than you think, beginning with our love for parks.
We’re sharing a bit about two former San Antonians who contributed to the legacy of public parks in the Big Apple — Warrie Price and Betsy Barlow Rogers.
🌳 The Battery
The Battery Conservancy is the nonprofit organization founded in 1994 to revitalize New York’s birthplace park. The Conservancy is tasked with the design and maintenance of The Battery, a 25-acre public parkland on the southern tip of Manhattan. Warrie Price is the foundation’s founder and President.
As a student at the University of Texas - Austin, Warrie became close friends with her college roommate, Lynda Bird Johnson (daughter of then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson). Warrie visited New York City for the first time in the summer of 1963 on Marine 1 with Lynda, fell in love with the city, and the rest is history. Read more about their friendship.
Nearly 30 years later, the Battery Conservancy has pumped new life into The Battery, turning it into a tranquil public garden and outdoor oasis.
San Antonians are kind of a big deal.
Photo by Ajay Suresh, via Wikimedia Commons
🌳 Central Park
A native of San Antonio, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers earned an undergraduate degree in art history from Wellesley College in 1957 and a master’s degree in city planning from Yale University in 1964. In 1979, she was appointed Central Park administrator and founded the Central Park Conservancy the following year — the country’s first public-private park partnership.
Elizabeth and her husband continue to champion environmental preservation as owners of the 979-acre C. L. Browning Ranch in the Texas Hill Country.
You can read more in Elizabeth’s memoir, “Saving Central Park,” and several of her other books for free via the San Antonio Public Library.
