History
Originally known as Civic Park and St. Gabriel’s Park, the park was renamed in May 1978 in recognition of the adjacent St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral on Second Avenue and East 35th Street.
The gold-topped St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral appears adjacent to the western side of St. Vartan Park
The park was contiguous until the construction of the Tunnel Approach Street for the 1940 Queens-Midtown Tunnel cut the park in two. As a result, the shape of the park resembles an exclamation point.
A vintage postcard purchased from atop the 1931 Empire State Building captures from the building the park then known as St. Gabriel’s Park, below a Con Edison steam station (middle, dark square structure with stack) near the East River
A journey through the park’s history is presented through images and publication excerpts on this page and this site’s About, Events, Garden, Playground, Field, Basketball, Handball, Pickleball, Permits, Building, Wildlife, Swish and Posts pages.
Retrospection
“Early topographic maps suggest that there is one location . . . that would have had characteristics attractive to Native Americans, at Second Avenue and 42nd Street . . . a well-drained area north of a stream that crossed Second Avenue at 37th Street and that emptied into the East River less than one block away. The [Second Avenue and 35th Street] area at St. Vartan Park was once located between two streams that emptied into Kips Bay on the East River. The area would have had a riverine and an estuarine environment, making it suitable for hunting, fishing and, just east . . . collecting of shellfish. It also may have contained discrete sections of habitable land.”
In this rendering from the Welikia Project that imagines how today’s New York City land appeared in 1609, the land that would become St. Gabriel’s Park is plotted by the project with an orange border.
“. . . treading on historic topography . . . In 1665, Jacob Kip finished his home on a site between 35th and 36th Streets just east of Second . . . was destroyed in 1850 [when it was the oldest house in Manhattan] . . . Kips Bay itself extended inland to mid-block between First and Second Avenues. In September 1776 [from] the bay, 4,000 British and Hessian soldiers invaded Manhattan and routed the green Connecticut troops, who fled west. General George Washington failed to rally his army . . . and the Americans retreated . . . The British held Manhattan for the next seven years. ”
The location of what is now St. Vartan Park appears In the “Keps Bay” area of this map made from surveys conducted in 1766 and 1767 | The Plan of the City of New York in North America by Bernard Ratzer, printed in 1770
“Not only was General George Washington entertained in the [Kip] house, he used it briefly as his headquarters during the Revolution . . . Washington returned at least once and received an impressive gift, at least for the time. Sometime shortly after Washington’s [1789] inauguration . . .’now invested with Presidential honors, made an excursion, and was presented with the rosa gallica, an exotic first introduced into this country in this garden—fit emblem of that memorable union of France and the American colonies in the cause of republican freedom.’”
Part of a 1865 topographical map shows that the original water course of the actual Kips Bay (blue in center, with meadow in light green, marsh in dark green and “made land” in orange) reached Into what today is the eastern end of St. Vartan Park | Topographical Map of the City of New York Showing Original Water Courses and Made Land prepared under the direction of topographical engineer Egbert L. Viele
“A contract for this park has been let, the design including permanent playground features. This park is small in area, covering but one city square, but the plans have been designed to make the best possible use of every available inch of space.”
Left: Jacobus Kip’s house, on land that is reportedly on what is now part of the south side of St. Vartan Park | George Hayward lithograph courtesy of New York Public Library
Right: George Washington depicted in the September 15, 2022, Battle of Kips Bay | 1875 steel engraving by Henry Louis Stephens
“Work on this improvement . . . consisted of the general excavation of rubbish, bricks, walls . . . and all foreign materials, and placing fresh, clean, wholesome earth filling in enhancement and slopes . . . 8,000 cubic yards of excavation of all kinds removed, 3,000 cubic yards of filling furnished in place.”
Part of a drawn map published in 1879 shows the block bordered by First and Second Avenues and 35th and 36th Streets (middle, second full block from top) was well developed before the park arrived | The City of New York drawn by Will L. Taylor published by Galt & Hoy, courtesy of Library of Congress
“The park . . . takes in the square between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Streets, and First and Second Avenues, formerly a crowded tenement block. The work of demolition of the old tenement structures was begun February 3, 1904, and the improvement has hastened in every possible way . . . The destruction of the tenements has left the site covered with rubbish and debris to a depth of seven feet, but the work of removal will be completed in a few months. ”
Left: This 1890s northward shot of the Second Avenue elevated train line was taken from 34th Street, with the second block on the right — Second Avenue between 35th and 36th Streets — the future west end of the park | Photograph courtesy of New York Public Library
Right: A 1905 photograph is captured on Second Avenue, looking northward from between 34th and 35th Streets with the west end of the new park on the right between 35th and 36th Streets | Photograph courtesy of the City of New York
“. . . it was natural to begin at once to try and secure for the new neighborhood a park. . . We began by getting the use of two adjoining lots as a playground which we called the Kips’ Bay Playground. The interest of St. Gabriel’s Parish in this matter was great. That large parish, whose pastor was later Cardinal Farley, had the interests of its children close to its heart. Cooperating with them, St. Gabriel’s Park finally came into existence as the flowering of the Kips’ Bay Playground.”
“The Park Board last September announced the name of the park as Civic Park.”
St. Gabriel’s Park in 1908 lies between East 35th Street and East 36th Streets in view of the East River and the steepled St. Gabriel’s Church | New York City Department of Parks Annual Report, 1908
“A number of residents in the neighborhood of Civic Park . . . have begun a fight against the proposition of William J. Boyhan, the Tammany Alderman of the district, to change the name of the park to St. Gabriel’s. The credit for getting the park in the district, it is asserted, belongs to the Civic Club, which has its home in the neighborhood. The protest against the change is made in the name of a number of Catholics, who declare that the change would be an injustice to the Civic Club . . . A public hearing has been asked for on the resolution, but it is likely that the request will be discharged.”
St. Gabriel’s, the now-defunct East 36th Street church (with steeple, second background building from right), for which the park was previously named, faces the park in this view captured from East 35th Street in 1934 | P.L. Speer photograph courtesy of New York Public Library
“Although several members of St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church near by had opposed the name of Civic Park . . . to ‘St. Gabriel’s Park,’ the aldermen made the change yesterday. ”
This August 1, 1939, view from East 36th Street shows the park’s northeast entrance and an active horse water trough on First Avenue in front of the park’s garden | Photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“[Joseph Thomas] is the only voter in the Nineteenth Election District . . . he is receiving more consideration, from an official point of view, than any other voter in the United States . . . The conditions which made Thomas the monarch of all he surveys from a voting point of view was created by tearing down nearly all the residences in the election district to make room for St. Gabriel’s Park.”
The park west of First Avenue is seen in 1939, soon before the block across East 35th Street from the park was razed for construction of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel | Photograph by Alexander Alland courtesy of New-York Historical Society
“. . . one of the little-known parks on Manhattan Island will become better known to New York City residents . . . Four years ago or so, houses facing and adjacent to the park were sold from $12,000 to $15,000. They now command $50,000 . . . Factors that are calling marked attention to this property are the great commercial expansion in the Grand Central zone eastward, through the Forty-second Street area across Lexington and Third Avenues, and the assured activity in the easterly Thirty-fourth Street centre at no distant date. ”
The south side of the park alongside East 35th Street is viewed from Second Avenue on January 7, 1939 | Photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“. . . directors of the First Avenue Association . . . explained that the proposed Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Street [tunnel] entrance and exit plazas would directly adjoin St. Gabriel’s Park, which is between First and Second Avenues. The park, the committee pointed out, is one of the few breathing spaces in this congested section of the East Side. Its usefulness for park purposes would be at an end, the committee asserted, if streams of vehicles were constantly passing its borders on their way to and from the tunnel. Not only would the traffic prevent safe and easy access to the park, the report said, but the motor exhaust fumes would be an added objection. The committee’s proposal for use of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Streets would leave the park undamaged . . .”
This January 8, 1939, view of the park from the intersection of East 35th Street and Second Avenue looks toward the since-razed Con Edison steam station on First Avenue | Photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“St. Gabriel’s Park, on First Avenue, opposite the steam plant, is one of the few recreational areas in the neighborhood.”
The park extends from the top right of this November 19, 1940, view of work on the Queens-Midtown Tunnel near the Second Avenue elevated train line | Photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“Charging that the Queens Midtown Tunnel Authority had ‘carefully and deliberately neglected to tell me’ of its plan to use part of St. Gabriel’s Park on the East Side as an approach plaza for the tunnel, Park Commissioner Robert Moses angrily warned the authority yesterday that under no circumstances would he permit such use of the park . . . assailing the authority for ‘cold-bloodedly’ attempting to take the park, which occupies the block . . .”
The creation of Tunnel Approach Street (above the park’s basketball court on right, intersecting with East 36th Street) for the 1940 Queens-Midtown Tunnel severed the formerly contiguous park | Photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“Drafters of the New York City Tunnel Authority bill have stolen a march on Park Commissioner Robert Moses, it developed today . . . he can’t do anything about it . . . The bill passed [the New York] Legislature Tuesday, which authorizes construction . . .”
The tree-lined park now known as St. Vartan Park appears one block above the under-construction Queens-Midtown Tunnel, which was opened in 1940 | Fairchild Aerial Surveys photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“Remember that little patch of green between 35th and 36th Streets and First and Second Avenues in Manhattan? St. Gabriel’s Park, wasn’t it? That was the name yesterday. Now, however, it’s St. Vartan’s Park, to reflect the towering presence of St. Vartan’s Armenian National Cathedral on the opposite side of Second Avenue.”
St. Vartan Park was named for the domed St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral (center left, on Second Avenue between East 34th and East 35th Streets with green space from the park behind it) in 1978, more than six years after this view was captured | Photography courtesy of St. Vartan Park Conservancy collection
“Young professionals and families are flocking to Murray Hill . . . St. Vartan Park spans the area from East 35th to East 36th Streets and from First to Second Avenues . . . it is the largest park in Murray Hill, with baseball and football fields, as well as basketball and handball courts . . . Fred Arcaro, 75, a retired electrical engineer and president of the Manhattan East Community Association, has lived near First Avenue since 1989. He is hopeful that the growth will include more green spaces . . .”
More than a quarter century ago, St. Vartan Park appears west of the East River, Queens and Brooklyn, below a red-topped First Avenue Con Edison steam station whose demolition was completed in 1994 | Photograph from St. Vartan Park Conservancy collection
