Green, A. H. (Andrew Haswell), 1820-1903

Lawyer.

Andrew Haswell Green (1820-1903) was a New York City lawyer, city planner, civic leader, and reformer.

Andrew Haswell Green (1820-1903) was a New York City lawyer, city planner, civic leader and reformer widely referred to as both "the father of Central Park" and "the father of greater New York." One of eleven children born to William Elijah Green in Worcester, Massachusetts, Andrew Haswell Green left home for New York City at the age of fifteen, where he worked as an errand boy first to a jeweler, and then to a cloth importer. Unsatisfied by the dearth of fulfilling employment opportunities, he briefly left the city to manage a sugar plantation in Trinidad. Upon his return, he undertook the study of law mentored by Samuel J. Tilden, with whom he developed a lasting personal and professional relationship. In 1854, Green was elected to the New York City Board of Education. By 1857, he had been named head of the Central Park Commission, and through his influence the "greensward plan" of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux was implemented. Green expanded the role of the Parks Commission, which later created such city landmarks as Riverside Park, Morningside Park, and Columbus Circle.

Green was appointed city comptroller in 1870 as his friend and mentor Samuel Tilden exposed the graft and fraud of Tammany Hall under William M. "Boss" Tweed. He retained the position until 1876, restoring order to the city's finances, even using his own personal credit as collateral to obtain the funds necessary to cover the city payroll.

Upon Tilden's death in 1886, Green served as an executor of the Tilden estate, much of which had been earmarked for the creation of a public reading room. Green consolidated the Tilden Trust with the Astor and Lenox libraries to create the New York Public Library.

As early as 1868, Green had publicly promoted the idea of unifying Manhattan and the larger metropolitan area, but his plan had not been widely supported. After the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, the Washington Bridge in 1889, and the annexation of land north of Manhattan in what is now the Bronx, public and political opinion began to sway in favor of unification. The New York State legislature created a commission to investigate the issue and placed Green at its head. In 1896, Green's measure was approved, and the five boroughs of New York City were officially consolidated on January 1, 1898.

A. H. Green was murdered at his home in 1903, at the age of 83. Cornelius Williams mistook Green for a man named John R. Platt, whom he believed to be having an affair with his mistress, and shot Green five times at close range. Williams was found by the courts to be insane at the time of the crime.