5. Strawberry Fields in Central Park
After John Lennon’s tragic murder in 1980, landscape architect Bruce Kelly designed the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park where his wife Yoko Ono scattered his remains. The memorial takes its name from the Beatles’ hit “Strawberry Fields Forever,” which is named for the Liverpool children’s home, Strawberry Field, where John Lennon played as a child. The word “imagine” in the memorial is also a tribute to the song of the same name written by Lennon and Ono.
Flowers and other belongings left by Lennon’s fans often cover the memorial today. An array of Beatles fans often sit on the benches that surround the mosaic designed by landscape architect Bruce Kelly. One of the most famous visitors was Gary dos Santos, who installed flower designs around the mosaic and was deemed the “Mayor of Strawberry Fields” after visiting the memorial daily for almost two decades.