c/o Joe Bly
One of the Upper West Side’s most beloved green spaces is celebrating 45 years in Riverside Park this weekend, and the whole neighborhood is invited to join the party.
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The Garden People, the all-volunteer group that tends the 91st Street Community Garden, will host “45 Years in Bloom: The Garden We Share” on Sunday, October 18, from 1 to 3 p.m., the organization announced. Members, volunteers, and neighbors will gather for live music, refreshments, and celebratory remarks surrounded by the garden’s fall blooms. All are welcome, and if the weather doesn’t cooperate, the rain date is Sunday, October 25.The garden sits on the Serpentine Promenade in Riverside Park, between 90th and 91st Streets on the park’s Promenade level. If you haven’t been there but it still looks familiar, that’s probably because it’s where the final scene of You’ve Got Mail plays out, as we noted in an old 91st Street Garden spotlight we wrote.
“We’re thrilled to mark this milestone celebrating 45 years in Riverside Park,” said Joanne Morse, president of The Garden People. “It’s hard to believe that what began with just a handful of volunteers in an empty lot has grown into a New York City landmark, delighting both Upper West Siders and visitors from around the world. We’re proud that our garden is able to bring joy, surprise, and awe to our neighbors, and invite the community to celebrate this moment with us in October.”
Founded in 1981, the garden was the first volunteer community garden established within a New York City park, according to The Garden People. Its story actually starts a few blocks away on Broadway. In 1977, neighbors began gardening on a vacant lot at 96th Street and Broadway under the auspices of the West 97-98 Streets Block Association, the conservancy says. When that lot was bulldozed in 1981 to make way for a new building, the city allowed the group to re-establish the garden at its current spot in Riverside Park. The gardeners formed The Garden People and brought their plants with them.
c/o Joe Bly
Riverside Park looked very different back then. Throughout the 1980s, the entire park showed the strain of years of budget cuts, and the conservancy credits The Garden People with bringing activity, color, and life to it during that period. Today, the garden is still maintained entirely by volunteers, with about 40 of them tending individual plots.
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The garden recently got its first major renovation. At the end of 2025, new brick paths and entryways were installed in the garden’s Rectangle and Octagon, paid for with donations raised through a community fundraising campaign, according to The Garden People.
c/o Joe Bly
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