The first farm garden was laid out in 1902 in DeWitt Clinton Park. The park is located on 53rd Street near the Hudson River, in the infamous area the New York Times had just a few years before called “Hell’s Kitchen.”
Writing about his mother’s legacy a few years later, Henry Giscom Parsons noted the importance of these gardens for the health, wealth and education of the city’s children. He warned of the dire consequences of being unaware of how the natural world works: “If you do not learn from me — how I work and what I need — if you disobey my ordered plans — if you do not supply my needs, you stand alone.”
Prescient words 110 years ago, and today.
from Henry Giscom Parsons, Community Gardening Children’s Gardens for Pleasure, Health and Education (1910).
An early photograph by Jacob Riis.
And finally, a catalogue of the tools that these young farmers could use in the event they had to move a “large stone or log!”
Remember, these farm gardens were supposed to provide respite from child labor … 🙂
