This strange shaped space could have been lost but instead, the City decided to make something out of it. This is where the earliest much smaller Lower Manhattan grid not quite lined up with the new large grid of the rest of New York City.
As the sign points out, "A sliver of Manhattan bounded by Houston Street, First Avenue, and Avenue A, Peretz Square marks the spot where the tangled jumble of lower Manhattan meets the regularity of the Commissioners' Plan street grid."
Isaaz Loeb Peterz (1851-1915) was born in Zamosc, Poland to a religious family. The site was acquired by NYC Parks on May 9, 1934 when the Board of Transportation issued a permit to Parks for temporary use and occupation. On November 23, 1952, Manhattan Borough President (later mayor) Robert F. Wagner, Jr. dedicated Peretz Square, saying "[Peretz's] writings gave hope and purpose to his people."
The green space is lovely to look out but it's not per se a park. You can't enter the fences and that's okay.
[Review 15695 overall - 287 in New York - 1199 of 2021.] read more