Sergei Rachmaninoff

New York, NY

Tucked into Central Park just across from the Dakota apartments, this teardrop-shaped garden honors John Lennon, the Beatle and peace activist who was shot outside that building in December 1980. Yoko Ono funded the landscaped 'Garden of Peace,' dedicated in 1985 and named for the Beatles song 'Strawberry Fields Forever,' and nations around the world contributed to its planting. At its heart lies the black-and-white 'Imagine' mosaic, a gift from the city of Naples, where visitors still leave flowers and gather each year on the anniversary of Lennon's death.

New York, NY

In the early decades of the twentieth century it became a cherished New York tradition to plant flowering cherry trees as living memorials, beautifying the city's parks and greenways while honoring beloved individuals. This plaque marks one such gift, a stand of cherry trees presented to the City of New York in memory or appreciation of Otto Marx. Rather than commemorating a battle or a famous statesman, it records a quieter kind of history — an act of civic generosity meant to bring beauty to a growing metropolis for generations to come.

New York, NY

At the turn of the twentieth century, a young Russian Orthodox churchman led his faith's growing North American flock from New York City, serving as archbishop from 1898 to 1907 and helping consecrate St. Nicholas Cathedral as its spiritual anchor. He guided a scattered immigrant community of Russians, Serbs, Greeks, and Alaskan Orthodox believers during an era of massive immigration, translating liturgy and organizing far-flung parishes across the continent. After returning home he was elected Patriarch of Moscow in 1917, the first in generations, just as the Russian Revolution engulfed the Church he now led.

New York, NY

In the Conservatory Garden at the north end of Central Park stands a quiet bronze fountain honoring Frances Hodgson Burnett, the English-born American author whose children's books—most enduringly The Secret Garden—shaped generations of young readers. The fountain's two children, a boy playing a flute and a girl holding a bowl, echo Mary and Dickon from that beloved 1911 novel, set in a walled garden much like the one that surrounds them here. Dedicated in the 1930s after Burnett's death, the memorial was a gift meant for the children of the city, tying the author's imaginative world to a real public garden they could wander.