Abingdon Square Park

Abingdon Square Park is located in the New York City borough of Manhattan in Greenwich Village. The park is bordered by Eighth Avenue, Bank Street, Hudson Street and West 12th Street.

The quarter acre green space is one of New York City's oldest parks. It is maintained by the Abingdon Square Alliance, a community-based park association, in cooperation with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

New York City acquired the land on which the park resides on April 22, 1831, and it was enclosed with a cast iron fence in 1836. In the 1880s, an effort was initiated by Mayor Abram Stevens Hewitt to expand public access to parks. Architect Calvert Vaux was part of a group that created a new design for Abingdon Square.

The square was part of a convert|300|acre|km2|sing=on estate bought by Peter Warren (Royal Navy officer) in 1740. Abingdon Square was named for a prominent eighteenth century area resident, Charlotte Warren, who married Englishman Willoughby Bertie, the 4th Earl of Abingdon and received the land as a wedding gift from her father. [Sheraton, Mimi. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/arts/design/20city.html?pagewanted=2 "West 12th Street, by the Numbers"] , "The New York Times", October 20, 2006. Accessed October 8, 2007, "The Abingdon Square centerpiece is a little triangular park with decorative plantings. Part of the convert|300|acre|km2|sing=on estate bought in 1740 by Sir Peter Warren of the British navy, it was a gift to his daughter Charlotte when she married the Earl of Abingdon."] Although most explicitly British place names in Manhattan were altered after the Revolutionary War, Abingdon Square retained its name due to the well-known patriotic sympathies of Charlotte and the Earl. [Henry Moscow, The Street Book, Fordham University Press 1978, p. 20]

The M11 and M14A bus lines terminate at Abingdon Square.

References

External links

* [http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=6391 New York City Department of Parks and Recreation: Abingdon Square Park] .
* [http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/parks_divisions/capital/pd_proj_month_jan_04.html January 2004 - Capital Project of the Month]