Strawberry Fields is a 2.5-acre landscaped section in New York City’s Central Park that is dedicated to the memory of Beatles member John Lennon. It is named after the Beatles song “Strawberry Fields Forever”. The memorial is a triangular piece of land falling away on the two sides of the park. Its focal point is a circular pathway mosaic of inlaid stones, with a single word, the title of Lennon’s famous song: “Imagine” (this was a gift from the city of Naples).
The Central Park memorial was designed by Bruce Kelly, the chief landscape architect for the Central Park Conservancy. Strawberry Fields was dedicated on what would have been Lennon’s 45th birthday, October 9, 1985, by New York Mayor Ed Koch and Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, who had underwritten the project. The entrance to the memorial is located on Central Park West at West 72nd Street, directly across from the Dakota Apartments, where Lennon had lived for the later part of his life, and where he was murdered on December 8, 1980.
The memorial is often covered with flowers, candles in glasses, and other belongings left behind by Lennon’s fans. On Lennon’s birthday (October 9) and on the anniversary of his death (December 8), people gather to sing songs and pay tribute, staying late into what are often cold nights.
Yoko Ono, who still lives in The Dakota, contributed over a million dollars for the landscaping and the upkeep endowment for Strawberry Fields.
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