Christopher Gray asks, in his June 23rd New York Times Cityscapes Column,

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/23/realestate/23SCAP.html

what the Collyer Brothers ever did for Harlem that the park at 128th Street
and Fifth Avenue should remain named for them. Mr. Gray doesn't ask the
question himself, just passes it along to potray one side of a current
local debate. The side that wonders why two recluses should give their
names to the park when it could have some wonderfully meaningless p.c. name
like Learning Tree Park. Maybe they should give at a nice corporate name
like Ipana Toothpaste Learning Tree Park. (Don't want to offend current
corporations. Well, maybe some; but that's another story).

To provide a possible answer to the question -  "Oh, maybe because the name
might actually mean something, might reflect the unsanitized, not always
"nice", past that helped the neighborhhod become, for better or worse, what
it is today. Or perhaps what it meant to those who experienced life there.
Perhaps so some young student might see the name and be interested enough
crack open a book or search out an archive to find out who the Collyers
were. That student won't care about the past of a 'learning tree'. Or, best
of all, just to keep alive the wonderful stories recounted in the column.

Okay, dismounting soapbox now
David Minor


David Minor
Eagles Byte Historical Research
Pittsford, New York
585 264-0423
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