Though familiar to jurors and neighborhood residents, most people may not realize that the open area amid the courthouses on Leonard Street between Centre and Lafayette Streets is actually public parkland. By day, the space is part dilapidated plaza, part Department of Transportation parking lot. At night, when the municipal workers have gone home, the unlit, unguarded area is noted for its populations of homeless individuals and idle youths.
Good news: The Parks Department is looking to change all that as part of a downtown open space program funded by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation,. A new $3.5 million park on the site will reclaim the parking lot for park use and add grass, game tables, and a water feature.
Summary
Collect Pond Park occupies the 18th-century site of Collect Pond, a large, 60-foot-deep pool fed by an underground spring. During the first decade of the 19th century, the polluted, plague-inducing Collect Pond was filled in and the area has since been home to public executions, a house of detention, and a section of the notorious Five Points slum.
In stark contrast to this somewhat unsavory history, park designers envision the new park as both a sunny lunch spot and a reminder of Manhattan's densely wooded past. The park will be surrounded by shade trees, with a large lawn in the center of the lot and tables along the northern and eastern edges. At the south end of the space, where the parking lot now sits, the Parks Department will place thick beds of ferns and other woodland plants. Water misters will be imbedded in the plantings, making the surrounding air feel wetter and cooler. The park will be enclosed by a four-foot fence and lampposts and will be locked at night.
