2. Abe Lebewohl Triangle: 0.01 Acres

The Abe Lebewohl Triangle is located at the intersection of 10th Street and Stuyvesant Street, one of the few diagonal streets in Manhattan. The 0.01 acre triangle is also situated across the street from the Church of St. Mark’s in the Bowery, the oldest site of continuous worship in New York City.

Abe Lebewohl was an immigrant from the Ukraine, arriving to American in 1950 after escaping Soviet rule. His father had been exiled to Siberia, while Abe and his mother were banished to Kazakhstan. The family managed to reunite and entered Poland through western Ukraine, then to Austria, and then an Italian refugee camp where they spent five years before heading to the United States. Lebewohl was a beloved member of the community, the proprietor of the Second Avenue Deli, who according to the Parks Department “drew loyal customers from celebrities, tourists and locals alike with his Jewish culinary delicacies and generous and magnetic spirit.”

Lebewohl died in 1996, the victim of a robbery that remains unsolved today. The Abe Lebewohl park, which is just in front of the church, is about 16 times as large as the triangle.