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Jackson Square Park
Jackson Square Park is an urban park in the Greenwich Village Historic District in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 0.227 acres (920 m2) park is bordered by 8th Avenue on the west, Horatio Street on the south, and Greenwich Avenue on the east. The park interrupts West 13th Street.
Its triangular shape arose from the intersection of two Native American footpaths that grew into Greenwich Village streets. Later, the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 created a new street grid for Manhattan, which ultimately resulted in 8th Avenue being built through the intersection.
The triangular area developed from an unimproved public rallying place, to a classic Victorian viewing garden, to a children's playground, and finally a contemporary mixed-use space.
Two footpaths would emerge as foundational streets in what is today's Meatpacking district and West Village of Manhattan. One footpath led up from the riverbank trading station called Sapohanikan and was both largely perpendicular to the shore and aligned closely to the solar equinox of spring and fall. It would become what we today call Gansevoort Street. Its parallel offspring, Horatio Street, forms the southern border of the park. The other footpath came up from the south and would become what we today call Greenwich Avenue, which forms the east side of the park.
By the late 18th century the footpaths had evolved into roads, with connecting roads emerging to the north. The city's first war memorial was erected in 1762 among farmland at the northern terminus of Greenwich Avenue (known then as Monument Lane) a few hundred feet north of what is now Jackson Square Park. It was an obelisk honoring British Major General James Wolfe who died in the Battle of Quebec. By 1773, the monument no longer appeared on local survey maps, though why it was dismantled is unknown.
On March 22, 1811, the New York State Legislature adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, the visionary but rigid grid system of streets to the north. But the decision to have 8th Avenue continue south below 14th Street appears to have not been implemented until the 1830s. This 8th Avenue extension would become the western side of the park. At the same time, Gansevoort Street was truncated by half a block, therefore no longer intersecting with what is Greenwich Avenue, in an effort to simplify the multitude of intersecting roads.
It is not certain when the triangular area was formally named “Jackson Square” but it is referred to as such in local newspapers by the early 1850s. It was presumably named for Andrew Jackson, US president from 1829 to 1837, who died in 1845. It is not to be confused with the contemporaneously owned private park of the same name at the foot of Jackson Street at the East River.
Until 1872 the area was simply an open intersection of streets, acting occasionally as a gathering place for political and civic rallies of up to 1,000 and even 2,000 people in attendance, often featuring temporarily constructed platforms for speakers. Nighttime illumination came from burning tar barrels, later gas lighting and then eventually electric lighting. Certainly by the early 1850s Jackson Square had become a regular location for fireworks and music each 4 July, a tradition which would last for decades.
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Jackson Square Park
Jackson Square Park is an urban park in the Greenwich Village Historic District in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 0.227 acres (920 m2) park is bordered by 8th Avenue on the west, Horatio Street on the south, and Greenwich Avenue on the east. The park interrupts West 13th Street.
Its triangular shape arose from the intersection of two Native American footpaths that grew into Greenwich Village streets. Later, the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 created a new street grid for Manhattan, which ultimately resulted in 8th Avenue being built through the intersection.
The triangular area developed from an unimproved public rallying place, to a classic Victorian viewing garden, to a children's playground, and finally a contemporary mixed-use space.
Two footpaths would emerge as foundational streets in what is today's Meatpacking district and West Village of Manhattan. One footpath led up from the riverbank trading station called Sapohanikan and was both largely perpendicular to the shore and aligned closely to the solar equinox of spring and fall. It would become what we today call Gansevoort Street. Its parallel offspring, Horatio Street, forms the southern border of the park. The other footpath came up from the south and would become what we today call Greenwich Avenue, which forms the east side of the park.
By the late 18th century the footpaths had evolved into roads, with connecting roads emerging to the north. The city's first war memorial was erected in 1762 among farmland at the northern terminus of Greenwich Avenue (known then as Monument Lane) a few hundred feet north of what is now Jackson Square Park. It was an obelisk honoring British Major General James Wolfe who died in the Battle of Quebec. By 1773, the monument no longer appeared on local survey maps, though why it was dismantled is unknown.
On March 22, 1811, the New York State Legislature adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, the visionary but rigid grid system of streets to the north. But the decision to have 8th Avenue continue south below 14th Street appears to have not been implemented until the 1830s. This 8th Avenue extension would become the western side of the park. At the same time, Gansevoort Street was truncated by half a block, therefore no longer intersecting with what is Greenwich Avenue, in an effort to simplify the multitude of intersecting roads.
It is not certain when the triangular area was formally named “Jackson Square” but it is referred to as such in local newspapers by the early 1850s. It was presumably named for Andrew Jackson, US president from 1829 to 1837, who died in 1845. It is not to be confused with the contemporaneously owned private park of the same name at the foot of Jackson Street at the East River.
Until 1872 the area was simply an open intersection of streets, acting occasionally as a gathering place for political and civic rallies of up to 1,000 and even 2,000 people in attendance, often featuring temporarily constructed platforms for speakers. Nighttime illumination came from burning tar barrels, later gas lighting and then eventually electric lighting. Certainly by the early 1850s Jackson Square had become a regular location for fireworks and music each 4 July, a tradition which would last for decades.