Tudor City and the Man Who Saved Its Parks

Tudor City, built between nineteen twenty-seven and nineteen thirty-two by developer Fred French, was one of the first large planned residential communities in New York City. Its two small private parks, perched on a bluff above First Avenue, were long considered incidental amenities. In the nineteen seventies a developer proposed converting those parks into high-rise towers.

John Ferguson McKean, who lived here from nineteen oh seven to nineteen ninety-three, organized the Tudor City Association in nineteen seventy-three and spent two decades fighting to protect them. His campaign succeeded: the parks were preserved as public green space. The memorial here honors McKean's twenty years of unselfish effort, a reminder that in a city of relentless development, determined neighbors have sometimes managed to hold the line.