Jackson Square

Jackson Square is a small triangular park at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Greenwich Avenue, and Horatio Street in the West Village. The park is named for Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, though the naming likely reflects the era's political geography rather than any specific connection between Jackson and the site.

The park's triangular shape results from the intersection of Greenwich Avenue, one of the few diagonal streets in this part of Manhattan, with the regular grid of Eighth Avenue and the numbered streets. These intersections, created where the old village road pattern meets the newer grid, are responsible for many of Manhattan's distinctive small parks and triangles.

Jackson Square features benches, ornamental plantings, and a small garden area maintained by neighborhood volunteers. Mature trees provide shade over the seating area, creating a pleasant pocket of green in the busy commercial corridor of Eighth Avenue.

The surrounding West Village blocks contain a mix of residential brownstones, restaurants, and shops that make this one of Manhattan's most walkable and appealing neighborhoods. The park serves as a natural pause point for pedestrians moving between the shopping streets of the West Village and the Meatpacking District to the south.

Jackson Square represents the type of micro-park that gives the West Village its distinctively human-scaled character: small enough to miss if you are not paying attention, but large enough to provide a bench, some shade, and a moment of green amid the brick and brownstone.