About
Watch an independent 2024 documentary about St. Vartan Park that features St. Vartan Park Conservancy and the Conservancy’s leadership on accessibility (above)
St. Vartan Park Conservancy
Founded in the spring of 2022 by East Midtown Manhattan community leader Kevin O’Keefe, the nonprofit St. Vartan Park Conservancy acts on behalf of the public to improve St. Vartan Park and its surrounding community.
The 2.76-acre park is located near the East River in Manhattan’s Murray Hill-Kips Bay community and is bordered by First and Second Avenues and 35th and 36th Streets.
In 2024, NYC Parks and the Conservancy forged an agreement that grants the Conservancy formal leadership roles. The pact was the earliest ever secured by a Manhattan conservancy following launch. The all-volunteer organization is governed by a board of directors.
The Conservancy’s park role includes its service as official steward of the St. Vartan Park garden in cooperation with NYC Parks.
Before he created the Conservancy, O’Keefe led an advocacy campaign that successfully opened the park’s city-owned garden to the general public for a trial period after decades of closure. The garden’s perpetual public access started in sync with the formation of the Conservancy.
In November 2024 with the addition of a fully accessible enhanced garden entrance and new pathway, the Conservancy completed a celebrated five-phase garden equity plan that values inclusivity, diversity, mental health and other community needs in accord with New York State human rights law. The garden serves as the community’s emblematic village green.
The largest public park east of Fifth Avenue between 26th Street and 76th Street, St. Vartan Park is property of the City of New York under the jurisdiction of NYC Parks.
In addition to the garden, the park includes a playground, athletic field, sports courts (including for basketball, handball and pickleball), a park building, public restrooms, picnic tables, and a Little Free Library.
A soccer game is played on the St. Vartan Park turf on July 24, 2022
The north side of the full St. Vartan Park basketball court and the basket on the half court
An artist creates a tree rendering in the St. Vartan Park garden on May 28, 2023
This rare winter sighting of the American woodcock, also known as the timberdoodle, was captured on the east side of the St. Vartan Park garden on January 2, 2023
A group starts to gather in St. Vartan Park for an Earth Day-themed event on April 30, 2022
Retrospection
“Widely regarded as one of New York’s nicest neighborhood parks. You’ll enjoy plenty of shade from the plethora of trees, a big and spacious playground for families with young kids, nice baseball fields and basketball courts. ”
Fun in the spray shower area of the park playground is captured on June 9, 2013
“Just like for Earth Day 2021, public school students and community organizations gathered this morning at St. Vartan Park to clean up the streets. The students from The River School PS 281 and PS 116 joined with their parents to fan out into the Murray Hill neighborhood with their garbage grabbers, picking up as much trash as possible.”
Tire-swing action unfolds at the St. Vartan Park playground on March 10, 2013
“ If you’re thinking about moving to New York City, it can be hard to decide which of its many neighborhoods is the right fit for you. Murray Hill. . . is a bit more tranquil and out of the chaos of the heart of Midtown . . a relatively small area of NYC, but you can stroll along the FDR for picturesque views of the East River or stop by St. Vartan Park . . .”
The St. Vartan Park athletic grounds, now a turf field, appears on November 7, 2013
“[On] mornings in Murray Hill . . . sun shines on brownstone blocks and apartment towers; children climb on play structures as flowers bloom in St. Vartan Park on Second Avenue; neighbors chat over omelets at Sarge’s Deli; and the workers of Midtown step to their offices as the city awakens.”
Green space in the park is visible on these three vintage postcards | Postcards from Manhattan East Community Association collection
“. . . in the past few years, many more families with young children have been moving to Murray Hill . . . discovery of the 2.8-acre St. Vartan Park, with its big playground that is ‘busy all day long,’ convinced [Eve Moskowitz Parness] that she had made the right decision to stay in Murray Hill.”
This animal sculpture, shown on February 28, 2023, was installed in St. Vartan Park as part of the park's playground renovation that was completed in 2002
“Take a break at St. Vartan Park, at 35th Street and First Avenue . . . features thousands of shrubs that were planted during a 1984 renovation and, in the northeast corner of the park, there sits a sculpture that is the very picture of harmony — a bird perched on the back of a lion.”
In 1955, St. Vartan Park (then St. Gabriel’s Park) appears west of the East River, Queens and Brooklyn, below a stack of the First Avenue Con Edison steam station whose demolition was completed in 1994 | Photograph from St. Vartan Park Conservancy collection
“In parks you may get an opportunity to understand your senses, stay with your thoughts and step away from hustle. One of these locations is St. Vartan Park . . . a boost of cheerfulness . . .”
On March 1, 1944, a five-alarm fire at a bomber-plane parts factory at 411 East 36th Street attracts onlookers at the park | Weegee Collection photography courtesy of Getty
“. . . waves of Irish immigrants settled around Second Avenue, as did a large population of Armenians, part of the reason the huge St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral was erected at the corner of Second Avenue and 35th Street . . . the Rev. Mardiros Chevian, who has been the cathedral’s dean since 1994 [said], ‘I think the whole area has livened up.’ Part of that liveliness is centered on St. Vartan Park, which, though spare, has become a popular place for parents to take their children on weekends.”
St. Vartan Park (bottom right) appears one block below the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, which was opened in 1940 | Fairchild Aerial Surveys photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“. . . one of the most heavily used breathing spaces in crowded Manhattan is bounded by 35th and 36th Sts. and First and Second Aves.”
The park is captured from First Avenue and East 36th Street on January 8, 1939 | Photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“. . . on Monday, August 10 . . . the westerly half of the [park’s] reconstructed area will open. Handball, shuffle board, horseshoe and basketball courts, parallel and horizontal bars, a roller skating track and a softball diamond are included in the facilities for older children. When the entire park in finished late this summer, there will be a completely equipped playground with wading pool and wide tree-shaded promenades paralleling 35th and 36th Streets.”
This January 7, 1939, view from the northeast corner of East 35th Street and Second Avenue includes the now-defunct Second Avenue train line (left) and the park’s handball wall | Photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“ . . . park’s existence as a breathing space is very necessary . . . with mothers and babies, with baby carriages and little toddlers and energetic three and four-year olds . . . ”
This June 6, 1929, view from the northeast corner of East 35th Street and Second Avenue shows a park entrance that was removed when a handball area was added seven years later | P. L. Sperr photograph
“This park was authorized in response to the plea for a breathing spot, by the dwellers of the middle east side of Manhattan . . . The park consists almost entirely of playgrounds . . . The young trees were cultivated and watered during the hot summer weather, and a hedge of privet, removed from Central Park, was planted along the fence surrounding the park . . . ”
The park appears on July 3, 1936 | Photograph shot from the St. Gabriel’s branch of the New York Public Library courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“There was filed in the Supreme Court yesterday a report of . . . Commissioners of Appraisement and Condemnation appointed to value and condemn the property to be acquired by the city for a park between First and Second Avenues, Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Streets . . . The amount claimed by the property owners was $1,400,000. The valuation of the property as estimated by the city experts was $900,000, and the amount awarded by the commissioners is $1,028,000.”
The eastern portion of the park appears west of the East River on July 7, 1940, during the construction (foreground) of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel | Photograph courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
A journey through the park’s history is presented through images and publication excerpts on this and other pages on this site, including on the History, Events, Garden, Playground, Field, Basketball, Handball, Pickleball, Permits, Building, Wildlife and Swish pages.
This clip from a 1926 issue of The New York Times’ publication Mid-Week Pictorial was captioned “AFTER THAT CHAMPIONSHIP: JOSEPH O’BRIEN, Who Will Represent St. Gabriel’s [now St. Vartan] Park, New York, in the Park Playground Marble Contest, Knuckles Down to Hard Practice for the Event” | Times World Wide photo
