Our Garden’s History
In 1984, the Clinton Community Garden
became the first community garden in New York City to
to be granted permanent parkland status. This was a
big moment both for our garden and the future of
community gardening in the city. The story of our
garden, however, starts some seven years earlier when
a group of residents on West 48th Street decided to do
something about the garbage heap in the middle of
their block. Abandoned for 28 years, the lot held the
remains of two tenement buildings, rusted-out cars,
and ever-growing piles of trash, and was generally a
magnet for illegal activity in a neighborhood that had
its share of crime and misery. But the neighbors
spotted some wild tomato plants growing out of the
rubble and saw a chance for something else.
The city-owned property was leased through Operation GreenThumb in 1979 and organized into two sections, a public front garden with a lawn and flower beds and a back area for individual plots. Over the next several years, the back garden was expanded from the west to the east, so that 108 garden plots were eventually created. Paths were built from salvaged brick, and fences and gates were put in to protect the garden and separate the public area from the plots in the back. Stone benches were made from recycled slabs of slate and concrete blocks. In the early days, the garden featured a geodesic dome for winter gardening, and a mural, the mirror image of the garden, was painted on the building wall on the west side. Traces of this mural, by Mallory Abramson, a prominent garden founder and leader, are still visible today behind the Native American bed. The open green space stood in miraculous contrast to the then nearly tree-less block, offering escape from cramped apartments. The few nearby parks at the time stood in disrepair. Hell’s Kitchen Park, around the corner, had plenty of asphalt, concrete, and pigeon droppings but little greenery.
Despite, or because of, the garden’s success, the city
announced its intention to auction off the
15,000-square-foot piece of land in 1981. Developers had
begun to turn their attention to Hell’s Kitchen, viewing
long-neglected buildings and lots as prime real estate, and
the city was anxious to collect revenue on such properties.
This was, of course, symptomatic of what communities were
experiencing throughout the city, and many gardens were
perishing as a result. The community united to halt the
sale, forming the Committee to Save Clinton Community
Garden, and launched the Square-Inch Campaign. The idea was
to secure the garden, which had been assessed at $167,000
and advertised for $375,000 in the city’s auction guide, by
“selling” a piece of it for a $5.00 donation. The Trust for
Public Land, Housing Conservation Coordinators, and the
Green Guerillas joined in the fight. The story attracted
national attention and ultimately won the support of Mayor
Edward Koch, who kicked off the campaign in April of 1984
by buying the first square inch. The Square-Inch mural on
the garden’s east side, also by Mallory, marked the
campaign’s progress, becoming greener as donations
grew.
On November 16, 1984, just one month before the scheduled
auction, Mayor Koch transferred the garden land from the
Housing Department to New York City's Parks and Recreation.
Although square-inch sales raised over $70,000, it was seed
money from the Clinton Fund that clinched the deal, making
Clinton Community Garden the first community garden
in New York City to be transferred to permanent parkland
status. In 1986 the land was formally licensed by
the Parks Department to the nonprofit Clinton Community
Garden, Inc. The Vincent Astor Foundation, Operation
GreenThumb, the Greenacre Foundation, City Parks
Foundation, the Ninth Avenue Association, Community Board
No. 4, and the West 47th and 48th Street Block Associations
have all been helpful to the growth of our garden.
