Renwick Triangle

The Renwick Triangle houses fill this point created by East 10th St. and Stuyvesant St. It's a series of seven Anglo-Italianate style houses built in 1862 by James Renwick, one of the most prominent American architects of the time. Some of his other buildings are the Smithsonian Instituiton, the Grace Church, St Patrick's Cathedral, and St. Bartholomew's Church, notable because that's where I met my wife.

This short stretch of Stuyvesant St. is all that remains of the original, which once stretched much further across the island. The land was owned by the Stuyvesant and Fish families, and connected to St. Mark's Church, directly across the street. The road originally ran through Peter Stuyvesant's farm, to his manor. It lay just outside what was then the city limits, and became a marketplace for farmers and vendors, since they could avoid the city's market tax.

Besides Broadway, it's the only diagonal street remaining after the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 imposed a strict grid over most of Manhattan. Also, while we think of the streets of the Manhattan grid as running north-south on the avenues, and east-west on the streets, in fact it is at a 28.9 degree offset. Stuyvesant Street, on its diagonal, is actually one of the only NYC streets that runs true east-west.

In front of the building is the Abe Lebewohl Triangle. At 0.01 acres, it is one of the smallest parks in New York City. It was named after a Ukrainian immigrant who became a prominent member of the community and owned the famous Second Avenue Deli. He was killed in an unsolved murder in 1996.


Sources and more history:
Forgotten NY: Mr Stuyvesant's Garden: One Of The Few Diagonal Streets In NYC

Untapped Cities: Stuyvesant Street, One of Manhattan's Few Diagonal Streets

Untapped Cities: The 10 Smallest Parks In Manhattan