Stuyvesant Square

Rutherford Pl. To N D Perlman Pl., E 15 St. To E 17 St.

Manhattan, 10003

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

In 1836 Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1778-1847) and his wife Helen Rutherford reserved four acres of the family farm and sold it for five dollars to the City of New York as a public park. This remarkable gift may have been the most ambitious gesture of Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, the co-founder of the New York Historical Society and one of the richest men in America at his time. A public park in a rapidly expanding city was a priceless amenity. The creation of Stuyvesant Square was the catalyst to the development of an exceptional district within which Stuyvesant’s spirit still thrives.