DeWitt Clinton Park is a 5.8acre New York City public park in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, between West 52nd and West 54th Streets, and Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues.The park, which was one of the first New York City parks in Manhattan on the working waterfront of the Hudson River, is named for DeWitt Clinton, who had created a business boom of Hudson commerce when he opened the Erie Canal. It is the biggest city park in the neighborhood, and since 1959, the neighborhood has frequently been referred to as "Clinton". It is the only park on the west side of Manhattan to have lighted ball fields.The park was the first community garden in New York City.HistorySiteThe land for the park was part of the Striker and Hopper homestead farms which had been in those families for more than 200 years. The home of General Garrit Hopper Striker built in 1752 had been torn down in 1895. Another farmhouse called the Mott farmhouse built in 1796 on 54th Street was torn down in 1896. The city announced plans to purchase the land (called "Sriker's Lane") in 1896. Other buildings on the site were torn down in 1902 and a tent was placed on the site in 1903. In 1906 the hilly terrain was graded at a cost of $200,000. At the same time, the De Witt Clinton High School opened nearby on Tenth Avenue.
