[30][32][33] Because of the limitations of the terrain, the proposed design would emphasize scenery, with balconies, a planted lagoon, a lawn at the north end of the park, and a retaining wall with stairways.

[37] A Times article in April 1875 noted that the city's Department of Public Works was laying roads and sidewalks west and east of the park.

[37] On June 16, 1880, the Legislature passed a law allowing the city's Department of Public Works to finish the roads, sidewalks, and retaining walls near Morningside Park.

That May, Michael McGrath won a contract to build granite steps, brick arches, and other ornamentation at the 110th and 116th Street entrances on the western border and at four intermediate overlook bays.

[6] Kellogg submitted new plans for $250,000 worth of park improvements in February 1887, at which point the Times reported that only the 116th Street staircase and part of the retaining wall had been completed over the previous fourteen years.

[45] In July, a group of Civil War veterans stayed in the park during the Independence Day weekend, hosting a historical reenactment in which they fired cannons and pretended to storm the blockhouse walls.

[48][49] Though Parsons and Kellogg presented their proposed changes in August 1887, which they believed were feasible with the available $250,000 appropriation, local property owners asked that the original plan be used instead.

[6][53][54] Initially, Olmsted and Vaux had proposed a southeastern entrance plaza, a lagoon, and an exhibition hall; the modified design eliminated these, while adding a lawn and a "Restawhile" recreation structure.

Subsequently, Vaux's suggestion to modify Morningside Drive was approved in July 1889, as was Kellogg's request for asphalt, concrete, and gravel for pavings.

[56][57] That September, the DPP voted to proceed with the completion of stairs and overlooks at Morningside Avenue north of 117th Street, in the same design as those built previously.

In 1901, a "women's cottage and refreshment room" was approved along with a $8,250 appropriation for it,[72] and the following year Barney and Chapman proposed an ornate outhouse in the French Gothic style containing a tower with space for tool storage.

[74] In 1913, the Carl Schurz Memorial by Karl Bitter and Henry Bacon was placed in the park, followed the next year by Edgar Walter's Seligman (Bear and Faun) Fountain.

While a temporary structure had existed in the park since at least the early 1910s,[81] the New York Board of Water Supply began construction of a steel-frame pumping station in January 1916.

[91] A playground at the northeastern corner of Morningside Park was also constructed in 1935; it was expanded with extra equipment in 1941, including athletic courts, a wading pool, exercise structure, swings, slides, and a children's play area.

[98] The arrangement between Columbia and the city stipulated that the university would be the sole user of the complex during weekdays between June and October, while it would be open to the public at other times.

[104] Subsequently, in March 1964, neighborhood associations and officials toured the park to demonstrate its deteriorated conditions and need for funding, and to show that it was safe.

[107] The University's administration under Grayson Kirk denied that this reflected racial bias and stressed that greater park services would benefit the Harlem community.

[111] Unsatisfied, protesters picketed outside Kirk's home that July,[112] while Harlem officials decried a proposed compromise to build a community swimming pool instead.

[49][119] The Columbia faculty formed a committee to intervene[120] after a large 2,500-person protest on April 30, which involved a New York City Police Department raid at several buildings.

[126] At the same time as the Columbia controversy, another dispute arose after the New York State Legislature designated the northwestern corner of Morningside Park as the site of a public elementary school in 1963.

[130] Frederick G. Frost, Jr. & Associates designed the structure, known as PS 36 Margaret Douglas Elementary School, as a concrete-and-brick educational complex atop a stone base and rock outcroppings.

[135] The West Harlem Coalition hired Lawrence Halprin Associates in 1973, but plans for renovating Morningside Park were postponed after the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis.

[130] In 1981, as part of the "Olmsted Project",[138] the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) held two shows that depicted Morningside Park, including a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit.

[130] It entailed converting the excavated crater left by the abandoned gymnasium project into a waterfall and ornamental pond,[6][141] which was the first part of the renovation to be completed in 1989.

[142] The reconstruction, which focused on the park between 110th and 114th Streets, also included installing new playground equipment, planting trees, creating a picnic area and renovating the sports fields.

[147] In 1998 and 1999, the Morningside Area Alliance (MAA), a neighborhood community group, received $35,000 in grant funding from the Kaplan Foundation to work on the park.

[162][163] Columbia University student Davide Giri was fatally stabbed nearby in 2021 in what The New York Times called "an eerie reprise" of Majors's death.

There is an entrance to the park from the intersection of 110th Street and Morningside Drive, within an overlook bay that contains asphalt paving; this leads to a stone stairway.

[195][186] The statue commemorates the alliance between the U.S. and France during the American Revolutionary War and consists of a bronze sculptural group depicting General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, both in uniform and shaking hands.

[191][196] The statue consists of a bronze depiction of politician Carl Schurz, standing in the middle of an exedra (or semicircular recess) made of granite.