The Magnolia Garden

A white wrought iron gate marks the entrance to the Magnolia Garden, a tiny public green space tucked between two brick townhouses on Fourth Street. In the nineteen fifties, this spot was a vacant lot filled with debris, slated for development. A local resident named Alice Lippincott purchased the land to prevent its loss to construction. She turned the space over to the neighborhood, creating a quiet place where magnolia trees bloom in the spring, shielded from the noise of the city.