Morningside Park (New York City) on September 16, 1776. Year later, during the War of 1812 three blockhouse fortifications were built on the land. The park was first proposed by the Central Park Commissioners in 1867, after Andrew Haswell Green, Commissioner and Comptroller of Central Park, proposed that a park be built in Morningside Heights to avoid the expense of expanding the Manhattan street grid across difficult terrain. In 1870, the City of New York obtained jurisdiction of the property. The original design for the park, submitted by Parks Engineer-in-Chief M.A. Kellogg in 1871, was rejected by the Board of Commissioners for Public Parks. In
Demographics of New York City 2013, the population of foreign-born individuals living in New York City had increased to 3.07 million, and as a percentage of total population, was the highest it had been in the past 100 years. Immigrant Africans, Caribbeans, and African Americans make up 25.1% of New York City's population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 2,086,566 black people residing in New York City. Percentage wise, approximately two out of every five black residents of New York City resides in Brooklyn (primarily in the Central, Northern, and Eastern sections of the borough), one out of every five resides in Bronx