Dag Hammarskjold Plaza

How did this site become a garden?
Katharine Hepburn Garden in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza opened in 1997. At the community’s request, NYC Parks landscape architect George Vellonakis designed the lush, naturalistic garden sanctuary, which lies behind a low fence along the park’s southern perimeter. He preserved the London plane and sycamore trees that screen the walls of adjacent buildings and added a lower canopy of birches, dogwoods, viburnums, rhododendrons, and other shrubs. The site is deeply shaded, and most of the flowering plants bloom in spring. The garden offers a cool refuge with many herbaceous perennials that create a tapestry of lush greenery. Steppingstones are inscribed with quotations by actress Katherine Hepburn, and black granite tablets with images from her popular films line the garden wall. A bench from Hepburn’s Fenwick estate with accompanying granite marker also provides a tranquil seat for visitors. 

Every year, new plantings add to the charm and educational value of the garden, made possible by private and public support and donations. The garden is planted and maintained by volunteers under the supervision of Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in cooperation with NYC Parks.

Who is this garden named for?
The name pays tribute to the actress Katherine Hepburn’s (1907-2003) lifelong love of flowers and gardening and honors her commitment to the neighborhood. The actress moved to Turtle Bay with her husband Ludlow Ogden Smith in 1931. She joined the Turtle Bay Association in 1957 and fought for more than 30 years to preserve the neighborhood’s character.

Katharine Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Connecticut. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1928 and in the same year she made her professional debut in a minor role in a Baltimore stock company production of Czarina. By 1932 she was a star on Broadway, followed in the same year by her screen debut opposite John Barrymore in A Bill of Divorcement. On Broadway Hepburn originated the Tracy Lord role in The Philadelphia Story (1939) before taking it to Hollywood a year later. Hepburn won numerous honors for her acting. She was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won four Oscars for best actress. Hepburn was considered a trailblazer and role model for women's empowerment in style, attitude, and autonomy.

This garden is an appropriate tribute since Hepburn cultivated a love for flowers since she was a child in West Hartford. On Sunday afternoons her family traveled the hills west of the Connecticut River looking for Lily of the Valley, Bloodroot, Columbine, or Pink Lady’s Slipper. When she moved to her townhouse several blocks from this park, she transplanted wildflowers from her parents’ home to her backyard garden.