In 1825, African-Americans began buying the property that would become Seneca Village. Far to the north of the city at the time, researchers believed that it was sought to seek refuge from the crowded and poverty-stricken immigrant neighborhoods of the time. Seneca Village was a quiet shelter from the racial tensions and violence of the city.

John and Elizabeth Whitehead, who owned the land, subdivided their estate into 200 hundred lots. The first lots were bought by Ephiphany Davis, Andrew Davis, and the AME Zion Church. From there, the community grew and the Whiteheads ended up selling about half their lots to other African Americans.

Moreover, the cheaper land at Seneca Village offered the community the ability to own land. Landownership was rare for free men in the 19th century and the offered an escape from exploitative rents. While dwarfed by the growing metropolis to its south, Seneca Village grew into a small, but prosperous town.

The area was still largely wooded and rural. Nearby springs provided the village with fresh water. Seneca and Upper Manhattan were in sharp contrast with the developed metropolis.

2/3rds of Seneca Village's 250 plus residents were African American. The rest were Irish immigrants, who researchers claim, were tight-knit with Seneca's black community, a rare example of racial harmony.

In 1850, there were 50 homes, three churches, and a school. Nearly half the residents owned their own homes, allowing them the right to vote (often restricted from African Americans due to property quotas.)

However, the city had little regard for Seneca Village. As the Park commissioners drew their plans, it was marked for eminent domain, eviction, and demolition. The villagers protested and filed claims in court, but were largely ignored. The park planners were made up of the rich, powerful, and white interests of the city. The Seneca Villagers didn't stand a chance. The media of the time derided them as squatters (despite their ownership of the land) and referred to them with racial epithets.

The entire village was seized and razed. While the villagers were compensated, the community was dispersed and effectively destroyed. The oldest black community in New York had been eliminated. It was one of the first of many African-American communities to be destroyed by eminent domain and the construction of public infrastructure.

Not only was the village erased, but for an extended period, its history was too. Upon beginning their work, some researchers had thought it was an urban legend. The residents of the village had been dispersed, and the Draft Riots of 1863 caused a further flight from the city. Research is currently underway through the Central Park Conservancy, tracing the descendants of Seneca, and mapping their exodus. A documentary traces their efforts here