Elizabeth Street Garden

Elizabeth Street Garden
Front entrance of garden
Location Elizabeth Street, between Prince & Spring Streets, New York City
Coordinates 40°43′19.9″N 73°59′40.7″W / 40.722194°N 73.994639°W / 40.722194; -73.994639Coordinates: 40°43′19.9″N 73°59′40.7″W / 40.722194°N 73.994639°W / 40.722194; -73.994639
Established 1991
Website ElizabethStreetGarden.com

Elizabeth Street Garden is a 1-acre community sculpture garden in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, located on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring Streets. The garden is managed by Elizabeth Street Garden, Inc. (ESG), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and open to the public for general use and community events by ESG volunteers.

City-owned and privately leased, the Garden is open to the public daily, weather permitting. Neighborhood volunteers operate the Ggrden year-round and program more than 200 free, public educational, wellness and arts-related events annually for children, seniors and all who live and work in the community.

History

The original site of P.S. 106, later renamed P.S. 21 designed by master school architect C.B.J. Snyder in 1903 with public outdoor space that functioned as a neighborhood social and civic center. The school stood at least through the mid-to-late 1970s. In 1981, the Little Italy Restoration Apartments were built on Spring St., including much of the former school site. Plans to build a new school never panned out due to community opposition, and the school’s playground became a vacant 20,000-sq-ft lot with frontage on Elizabeth and Mott streets, between Prince and Spring streets that eventually became the garden.[1]

In 1990, Manhattan Community Board 2 Parks Committee passed a resolution in favor of leasing it to Allan Revier on a month-to-month basis. In 1991, the Elizabeth Street Garden was developed and created by Allan Reiver owner of Elizabeth Street Gallery located in a renovated 1850s New York City firehouse adjacent to the garden property on Elizabeth Street. Reiver planted an array of perennial flowers, native plants, and trees with a display of architectural remnants, gates, fencing, statuary, tables, and seating from his gallery collection.[2][3]

Beginning in 2005, the garden was accessible to the public through the Gallery.

In 2013 the garden became the subject of a public debate surrounding the development of public housing or to establish a more community-centered public green space. A group of community members worked with Allan Reiver to revitalize the space and open the front gates to the public, introducing public programming and developing a significant base of support for saving the Garden. In August 2014 this group formed into Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden (FESG).[4]

In April 2017, committed to exploring every option available to preserve and protect the Garden and save the Community green space in Nolita, members of FESG and the original community group branched off to form Elizabeth Street Garden, Inc. (ESG) which now manages the Garden, keeping the space open to the public seven days a week and providing free public and educational programming for the community. [5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Elizabeth Street Garden.com".
  2. ↑ Reiver, Allan (April 27, 2017). "Seeds of discord? Garden sprouts a sue-ready group". The Villager. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Elizabeth Street Gallery.com".
  4. ↑ Edelman, Susan (November 3, 2013). "Little Italy fights to save Elizabeth St. Garden from affordable housing". NY Post. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  5. ↑ Reiver, Allan (April 27, 2017). "Seeds of discord? Garden sprouts a sue-ready group". The Villager. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
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