Henry Street Settlement builds a rain garden within the Martin Luther King Community Park.

Thanks to a collaboration with Grow NYC and volunteers from several companies, the garden alongside the social service agency’s historic building at 265 Henry St. came to fruition last week. The garden collects rainwater from the roof of the organization’s building and diverts it to the green space. The project is part of a citywide initiative to ease the burden on New York’s sewage system and to promote environmentally-sound design. As we saw during Hurricane Sandy, large amounts of water draining from buildings can unfortunately cause untreated sewage to flood city streets and waterways.
Anyone in the community is welcome to visit the garden Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. It’s located at the corner of Henry and Montgomery streets.