Bleecker Park is a small

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

in Albany,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The park is triangle-shaped, bounded by Madison Place to the south,

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

to the north, and Eagle Street to the west. The Cathedral of Immaculate Conception is across Eagle Street from the park, while Madison Place, which is only one block-long, consists of

rowhouse In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

s primarily in

High Gothic High Gothic is a particularly refined and imposing style of Gothic architecture that appeared in northern France from about 1195 until 1250. Notable examples include Chartres Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Beauvais Cathedral, and ...

and

Italianate architecture The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, built in the mid-to-late-19th century. Across from the park on Madison Street is the

Empire State Plaza The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza (known commonly as the Empire State Plaza, and also as the South Mall) is a complex of several state government buildings in downtown Albany, New York. The complex was built between 1965 a ...

East Parking Garage, built in 1999/2000. The park features the oldest fountain in the city which is surrounded by a small circular garden, two circular beds are also in the park and each feature a shrub surrounded flowers, these small gardens make Bleecker Park "a most charming and restrained Victorian public garden" according to an article in the ''

Albany Times Union The ''Times Union'' is an American daily newspaper, serving the Capital Region of New York. Although the newspaper focuses on Albany and its suburbs, it covers all parts of the four-county area, including the cities of Troy, Schenectady and Sar ...

''.

History

Bleecker Park was established in 1835 by the erection of an iron fence. The Cathedral of Immaculate Conception,

Mother Church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metro ...

to the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany ( la, Diœcesis Albanensis) covers 13 counties in Eastern New York ( Albany, Columbia, Delaware, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren, and Washington ...

, was built across Eagle Street from the park in 1852. In 1863 the first public fountain in the city was erected in the park, a gift from William Fleming. Prior to 1867 Madison Place was named Madison Avenue and the current Madison Avenue was Lydius Street, Madison Place receiving its current name in May, 1867 and Madison Avenue in July, 1867. In 1986 as part of the 300th anniversary of the

Dongan Charter The ''Dongan Charter'' is the 1686 document incorporating Albany, New York, as a city. Albany's charter was issued by Governor Thomas Dongan of the Province of New York, a few months after Governor Dongan issued a similarly worded, but less det ...

incorporating Albany as a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, the Bleecker Park fence enclosure received a new coat of paint thanks to inmate labor from the

Hudson Correctional Facility Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudson R ...

. Bleecker Park was one of four places in the city to be awarded the ''Sense of Place'' award as part of fifth annual Albany History Fair in 2004.

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline Parks in Albany, New York Urban public parks