In 1833, a market was built in Greenwich Village with food sheds, a police court, volunteer firehouse, and jail. It was named after President Thomas Jefferson. The market was leveled in 1873 to make way for a courthouse and small prison designed by Frederick Clarke Withers and Calvert Vaux, one of Central Park’s master planners. In 1885, a panel of architects voted the courthouse the fifth most beautiful building in America.

 

In 1931, the prison was replaced with the Women’s House of Detention; its 11 stories towered over the courthouse, casting the sidewalks in shadow. Neighbors recall around-the-clock noise as inmates shouted from their windows to friends and visitors on the streets below.

 

In the 1960s, Greenwich Village residents organized to save the courthouse from demolition. They persuaded the City to renovate it for use as a branch of the New York Public Library. Later, they successfully demanded that the prison be demolished. Energized by this accomplishment, the community created a garden on the site where the Women’s House of Detention had stood. A newly formed committee of local residents became stewards of the new green space, and in the spring of 1975, Jefferson Market Garden's first flowers bloomed.

 

Our Garden is the creation of our community for our community and is open to all.

 

Read more about the History of Jefferson Market Garden and its neighbor, Jefferson Market Library.