Find A Park > Rapkin-Gayle Plaza

Rapkin-Gayle Plaza

Grand St. bet. Crosby St. and Lafayette St.

Manhattan

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This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

What was here before?

Lenapehoking, the homelands of the Lenape, encompassed territory from Connecticut to Delaware. The village of Sapokanikan stood northwest of here near Minetta Brook where the Lenape farmed and fished.

In the 17th century, this site was part of the estate of Nicholas Bayard, Mayor of New York City in 1685-86, and a nephew of the last New Netherland director-general Peter Stuyvesant. In 1803, this property became Vauxhall Gardens, a pleasure garden and theater. By 1852, it was Board of Education property, first the home of Public Primary School No. 17 & 47 and then an administrative building. By 1925, the building was converted into commercial lofts. The lofts were demolished to make way for a parking lot in 1955.

How did this site become a plaza?

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