El Jardin del Paraiso

El Jardin del Paraiso covers nearly an entire acre on East Fifth Street, identified by a large, octagonal tree house built around the trunk of a mature willow tree. This space occupies nine contiguous lots where tenement buildings once stood, including a former residence of poet Allen Ginsberg. Following decades of neglect in the mid-twentieth century, when the site served as a dumping ground for rubble and toxic waste, residents reclaimed the land to establish a community space.