Central Park has its sesquicentennial anniversary this year, and it’s covered in this New York Times article, A Garden for All as Private Eden.
In the film The Cruise, a documentary about Tim “Speed” Levitch and his oddball tours of New York, Levitch says it was the intention of the park’s builders to build a place for relaxed leisure and romance. He points to people playing sports in the park and says that they’re not being historically accurate; he then points to a kissing couple and says that they are.
In twenty-odd years of travelling to New York, I can vouch for my historical authenticity: I’ve gone to the park pretty much only to make out. Okay, I like watching the polar bears in the zoo too. But seeing the bears is always a prelude to making out.