Namesake
Finn Square is an urban triangle located at the Varick Street intersection with Franklin Street and West Broadway in Tribeca. In 1919, the Board of Aldermen dedicated the triangle, after the Armistice, for Private Philip Schuyler Finn, who was killed in action on March 7, 1918 while serving in World War I as a member of Company E, 165th Infantry.
Although the park was created to commemorate Private Finn’s death, the site evoked memories of his father, Daniel E. Finn, known as “Battery Dan,” who was a Tammany Hall politician and Democratic leader of Lower Manhattan. The elder Finn earned fame when he prevented the construction of commercial piers in Battery Park, maintaining open space in the crowded neighborhood. He became a city magistrate and police judge in 1904, dispensing advice rather than harsh sentences. Admonitions such as, “Don’t try to compel a girl to love you if she prefers someone else. Get another to take her place,” to two youths fighting over a girl, or, “Don’t wreck or sell your body and soul for diamonds and automobiles,” to a prostitute, endeared him to New Yorkers across the city. No incident caused more amusement than Finn’s encounter with three bulldogs on his way to a court session in the Bronx. When they attacked him, he climbed a lamppost and yelled for help. Local papers carried the story and New York loved it.
Early history
In New York City, a “square” can be any shape. Finn Square is a triangle bounded by West Broadway, Varick Street and Franklin Street. The square was created shortly after World War I, when Varick Street was widened and given a southern extension past Franklin Street to meet West Broadway, which required the buildings on the east side of Varick to be cut back 35 feet.
Until 1998, Finn Square was a flat concrete paved space. Then the space was developed through Greenstreets, a joint program of the Parks Department and the Department of Transportation inaugurated in 1986 and revived in 1994 , to turn drab traffic islands into attractive green spaces with the help of community volunteers. Unlike much of densely built Tribeca, Finn Square is flooded with sun, being bordered on the east by the low-slung Con Edison station.
Four thornless honey locust trees, Gleditsia triacanthos inermis, provide a green canopy for the entire park. Hydrangeas, rose of Sharon, euonymus, day lilies, roses, English yew, grasses, hostas, and many flowering bulbs provide year-round appeal.
With the help of community volunteers, the park has thrived since 1998.
New York Herald, March 30th, 1919
Tied Grass, a 1977 installation work in Finn Square by Betty Howland
T.W.U., 1980 Richard Serra, installed West Broadway between Leonard & Franklin Streets, New York 1981-1982
An 11-foot-tall bronze sculpture, “9/11,” by Bill Barrett was installed for six months in 2011
Finn Square today. Photo by Travis Brown
Vision for the future
To repair the sidewalk and widen the plant beds which would accommodate the honey locust trees’ spreading roots
To provide more benches that invite community in to enjoy the garden
To continue to maintain and improve the garden
Meet our board
Patricia Markert Aakre has lived across the street from Finn Square since 1978. She appreciates the natural world, especially in the city, and enjoys planting bulbs in the fall, then watching them bloom in the spring.
Prudence Carlson, writer, art critic and author of a book on the two permanent gardens of the poet/conceptualist artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, has lived in Tribeca since 1976. Her care for Finn Square derives from a belief that every green space, no matter how small and scrappy, is an excerpt of Nature and thus a link to our shared Eden.
Jessica Raimi was a founding member of the Friends of Finn Square in 1998. She lives nearby and photographs the changing seasons in the garden.
Jeannette Rossoff enjoyed the seasonal changes of Finn Square while walking by during her daily commute. After moving to the neighborhood from the Upper West Side, she saw neighbors planting and weeding and volunteered to help.