Audubon Park Historic District

AP

The tall plane trees in this small park are a treasure of the neighborhood, lending shade in summer and forming unique living sculptures in the winter.  In earliest pictures, the park had no fence and the public had free access to it. A picture in the New York Times from May 1938 shows of a group of people in the park, which is encircled by the fence that exists today.  The then young plane trees were approximately twenty feet tall with slender trunks.  In the late 1970s, John Cassavetes used this neighborhood for several sequences in his film, Gloria, starring his wife, Gena Rowlands.  A spectacular shoot-out scene and car crash in that film occur around this park.

Frank, what'cha gonna do?  Shoot a six-year old Puerta Rican kid on the street?  He don't know nothin'. He don't even speak English.

Gloria, 1980

Starring Gena Rowlands

Directed by John Cassavetes

Charles and Murray Gordon Memorial Park

Riverside Drive at 156th Street