Astor Foundation Grant Provides New Fence for Jefferson Market Garden

A very generous grant from the Vincent Astor Foundation will allow GVSHP and the Village Committee for the Jefferson Market Area to install a new wrought iron and steel fence around the Jefferson Market Garden. The new fence will replace the deteriorating chain link fence which has surrounded the garden for more than two decades. Its design complements the handsome fence installed in 1983 around the Jefferson Market Library (originally the Jefferson Market Courthouse completed in 1877), and is based upon the original 19th century fence found on the 10th Street side of the building. The chain link fence around the back lot of the Library will also be replaced, so that the new fence will link the Garden to the historic Library building itself.

Mrs. Astor and the Astor Foundation have a long history of civic philanthropy all over New York City. The Foundation’s involvement with the garden site dates to the early 1970s, when the Women’s House of Detention was closed and subsequently demolished. The clearing of the site created an opportunity for a garden, and community leaders and neighbors in the vicinity of Jefferson Market formed the Village Committee for the Jefferson Market Area. A grant from the Astor Foundation in 1974 enabled the Committee to fulfill its dream to establish a garden on the vacant site, which had been transferred to the Department of Parks. The Astor Foundation’s important support also helped to attract additional funds to continue the garden’s maintenance.

For the past twenty years, the garden has been one of the most cherished and admired features of the Greenwich Village Historic District. Each year, thousands of local residents and tourists stroll through the garden and marvel at its horticultural treasures. The generosity of Mrs. Vincent Astor ensures that the lovely garden site adjacent to the venerable Jefferson Market Library will have a dignified and appropriate steel and wrought iron fence.

The New York City Parks Department and the New York Public Library have enthusiastically endorsed the new fence, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the plans in October. The work at the site should begin before the holidays, and will include moving the chain link fence to secure the garden during construction, creating a concrete foundation for the new fence, and installing the fence panel by panel, and replacing the entrance gate on Greenwich Avenue. The new fence will be created and installed by Architectural Iron Company of Pennsylvania, which has been involved in numerous Village fence projects. Look for an announcement of the grand unveiling of the Jefferson Market Garden fence this spring!

revised November 15 1997
by David Goldfarb