There are countless reasons why each of us fell in love with Jefferson Market Garden.

Maybe it was the first time you saw children giggling as they searched for frogs and butterflies. Or the sound of jazz floating under the dogwoods. Maybe it was a quiet moment on a sunny bench enjoying the fragrance of the nearby roses, or the unexpected joy of watching newlyweds share a kiss. Ask anyone who’s wandered through the Garden gates and they’ll tell you—it’s magic.

As supporters of the Garden, we each came for different reasons—but stayed because it gives so much back. For 50 years, this gem has welcomed us all with open gates. It has been lovingly cared for by volunteers, shaped by its leaders, and sustained by supporters like you with no city funding, just heart and hard work. The Garden belongs to all of us—and it thrives because our community is with us, season after season.

Now, as we mark this golden milestone, we ask you to help us honor the past and invest in the future. We invite you to join us on September 15, 2025, at the Garden and Rosemary’s for a very special evening, and to consider a gift in honor of all we’ve built together—and all we still can.

ABOUT JEFFERSON MARKET GARDEN

In 1833, a market was built and named for President Thomas Jefferson on the site of the current Garden. In addition to food sellers, there was a police court, volunteer firehouse, and jail. The market was torn down in the 1870s and replaced with a courthouse and small prison. Designed in the Victorian Gothic style by Frederick Clarke Withers and Calvert Vaux, one of Central Park’s master planners, the courthouse opened in 1877.

In 1931, the Women’s House of Detention replaced the small prison. 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 and later successfully demanded that the prison be demolished. Energized by this accomplishment, the community created a public green space where the prison once stood. A newly formed committee of local residents became its stewards, and in the spring of 1975, Jefferson Market Garden's first flowers bloomed.

Read more about the History of Jefferson Market Garden.

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