Located within New York City’s historic Little Italy, the 20,000-square-foot Elizabeth Street Garden sits on a portion of the site of former P.S. 21. When the school was demolished in the late 1970s, the lot lay vacant and blighted. In 1991, the Elizabeth Street Gallery leased the city-owned site, cleaned up the lot removing debris, sowed the area with grass, planted trees from saplings and installed the magnificent sculptures and architectural artifacts that make the Garden unique. Recently, a group of passionate neighbors and local businesses came together to improve access to the Garden and program public events, with the mission of preserving the Elizabeth Street Garden as public green, open space.