Opened in 1839 and redesigned in 1872 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux to accommodate mass congregations of New Yorkers, Union Square Park has served as home base for countless community events and festivals-from the first Labor Day parade in 1882 to workers’ rallies in the 1930s to the first Earth Day in 1970 to the current, wildly popular Greenmarket. This former burial ground has seamlessly transitioned from a town square to a bustling City park, and as such, it is the deserved home of statues depicting distinguished men like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi, and Marquis de Lafayette.