Tiny Midtown Oasis Designated National Historic Place

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — One of New York City's smallest parks received a huge honor Tuesday.

Greenacre Park — a pocket park occupying a tiny lot on East 51st Street between Second and Third avenues — was named to the National Register of Historic Places. State and city officials visited the park to unveil a plaque commemorating the dedication and pledge to protect the park from shadows.

"This beautiful park delivers a connection that builds social bonds with family, friends and community and I congratulate the Greenacre Foundation on this national recognition," state Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey said Tuesday.

Harvey said that she often visits the "serene, calm and tranquil" park in order to lower her blood pressure during the week. The state official noted that Greenacre Park was an unusual nominee for the national designation because it is younger that 50 years old and the National Register of Historic Places often does not honor individual parks.

Greenacre Park opened in 1971 and accommodates about 700 visitors per day. The green space embodies the design characteristics of the "vest pocket park" movement of the 60s and 70s — multi-leveled design, a prominent water feature that drowns out the noise of the city, multiple plantings, a concession stand and flexible seating that could be moved. The park was designed by architect Hideo Sasaki.

"Every one of these features was done at a high level, a deep level of design and workmanship and craftsmanship" Harvey said Tuesday. "So soon after its completion the park was recognized immediately as a significant work — it received all kinds of awards."

The park was founded by Abby Rockefeller Mauze — the granddaughter of business titan John D. Rockefeller — who also established the Greenacre Foundation. To this day the Greenacre Foundation maintains the pocket park as a private park for public use.

In recent years, the Greenacre Foundation has championed the "fight for light" — a campaign that drew attention to the number of high-rise developments being built near the park with the potential to cast shadows over the green space. That fight intensified when the City Council passed a rezoning of East Midtown in 2017 that's expected to generate 6.8 million square feet in new commercial office space over the next 20 years, city officials said.

Despite requests from the local community board and the borough president's office, the city did not include specific protections for Greenacre Park in its rezoning plan. The city and the Greenacre Foundation were able to negotiate a side deal that would let the foundation know when developers filed plans to build near the park and would give the foundation some power to weigh in on development proposals.

City and state officials that spoke at the plaque unveiling Tuesday stressed the need for planning that would protect green spaces like Greenacre Park.

"My great council member (Keith Powers) and I are keenly aware of the importance of smart urban planning so that we actually have a combination of densely populated urban areas with open spaces and green and places where children can play, seniors can sit and we can breath," State Senator Liz Krueger said Tuesday.

Both Krueger and Powers — who represents the City Council's fourth district on the east side of Manhattan — said Tuesday that Greenacre Park must be protected "forever."

Gail Caulkins — the Greenacre Foundation's president and the granddaughter of Abby Rockefeller Mauze — thanked the officials for showing their support in the "fight for light" and thanked the National Register of Historic Places for honoring the park.

"The trustees of the foundation are committed to keeping the park in excellent condition and providing a respite for tens of thousands of visitors each year," Caulkins said.

Photo by Brendan Krisel/Patch