Park Avenue (formerly Fourth Avenue) is a 140 foot (43 meter) wide boulevard that carries north- and southbound traffic in the New York City borough of Manhattan. For most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east.
The flowers and greenery in the median of Park Avenue are maintained by the Fund for Park Avenue. Begonias are a flower of choice for the Fund's gardeners because there is no automatic watering system and they can cope with the hot sun.
Each December, Christmas trees are placed in the median in a tradition that started in 1945 as a memorial to soldiers killed in action.
Famous quotes containing the words park and/or avenue:
“Linnæus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his “comb” and “spare shirt,” “leathern breeches” and “gauze cap to keep off gnats,” with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Only in America ... do these peasants, our mothers, get their hair dyed platinum at the age of sixty, and walk up and down Collins Avenue in Florida in pedalpushers and mink stoles—and with opinions on every subject under the sun. It isn’t their fault they were given a gift like speech—look, if cows could talk, they would say things just as idiotic.”
—Philip Roth (b. 1933)