Minetta Playground

Minetta Lane, W. 3 St. and Ave. of Americas

Manhattan, 10012

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

This small park is a memorial to a not-quite-gone and not-quite-forgotten water feature of Lower Manhattan. When Dutch colonists settled in Manhattan in the 1620s, they learned from local Native Americans about a small brook that was full of trout. It originated near what is now Gramercy Square, burbled its way through (mostly beneath) Greenwich Village, and emptied into the Hudson at what is now West Houston Street.