Remembering Jefferson Market (Greenwich Village)
Have you ever taken a timeout inside the magical and bucolic Jefferson Market Garden located in Greenwich Village? The garden is bordered by Greenwich Avenue, West 10th Street and Sixth Avenue, sitting just west of the New York Public Library’s Jefferson Market Branch. Little do many who enjoy this retreat within the city know about the property’s evolution over the last nearly two centuries.
According to Jack Intrator, Garden Historian for the Jefferson Market Garden, many a New Yorker and visitors from around the globe had the occasion to frequent the triangular city block that serves as the modern day home to the garden. The use of the garden as a garden has come full circle beginning in 1833 when the area was first known as the Jefferson Market (named after Thomas Jefferson), providing food choices for the swelling population of Greenwich Village. Many more and varied uses of the plot of land were to follow.
A wooden tower was built on the site to serve as a lookout tower for fires in the village. Soon thereafter, a modest jail was also erected on the property. The New York City Police Department was established in 1845 and block welcomed the establishment of one of New York’s first police courts. By 1870, leaders in Albany set out to build a new municipal building on the grounds of the original market, but a new courthouse - the Jefferson Market Courthouse - would not be completed until 1877. The municipal building with its signature bell tower was designed by Frederick Clarke Withers (1828 - 1901) and noted British-American architect and landscape designer Calvert Vaux (1824 - 1895). Vaux is best known as the co-architect, with Frederick Law Olmsted, of many of our most cherished city parks including Manhattan’s Central Park, Morningside Park and Riverside Park, and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. 1878 found the opening of a new jail of similar design adjacent to the courthouse.
Mr. Intrator, credited above, highlights key developments throughout the remainder of the 19th century up until the rebirth of the Jefferson Market Garden in 1975.
188 - A masonry market building designed by Douglas Smythe filled the remainder of the Jefferson Market site, replacing the market’s old sheds.
1885 - Leaders of The American Architect and Building News voted the courthouse the fifth most beautiful building in the United States.
192 - By this time the jail and courthouse were used only for trials of women, becoming locally known as "the lady's courthouse." The jail was now described as “dungeon-like,” and it was decided that both jail and market would be demolished in favor of the Women’s House of Detention.
1932 - he Women's House of Detention opened, ushering in "a new era in penology." The goal was the moral and social rehabilitation of women.
194 - The district court system was overhauled and the Jefferson Market Courthouse ceased being a courthouse. Various municipal agencies in need of cheap, temporary shelter used the space. The building began a slow descent into disrepair.
195 - The building was abandoned and slated for auction by the city.
196 - Community groups persuaded Mayor Robert F. Wagner and James Felt, chairman of the City Planning Commission, to withdraw the courthouse from sale and provide funds for its conversion by the New York Public Library into a much needed branch.
1967 - he Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library opened after restoration by architect Giorgio Cavaglieri. Meanwhile, over time, the Women’s House of Detention experienced its own descent, and by the 1950s and 1960, cases of inmate mistreatment became known. The surrounding neighborhood also suffered as individual relations, friends, and others gathered on the streets outside the prison, sometimes in very large groups to demonstrate support for a certain inmate.
1971 - The Women’s House of Detention officially closed.
197 - The Women’s House of Detention is demolished. The land is transferred to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, and a newly formed committee of local residents became its stewards.
197 - Jefferson Market Garden's first flowers bloomed. Landscape architect Pamela Berdan designed the garden in the spirit of Frederick Law Olmsted, who co-designed Central and Prospect Parks with Calvert Vaux.
1999 - The Garden’s one fulltime employee, Susan Sipos, a horticulturist began refurbishing and redesigning the garden.
2004 - Cynthia Nixon’s Sex and the City character, Miranda, and her character’s boyfriend, Steve, get married in the garden.
201 - The Garden celebrated its 40th Anniversary.