The manor house burned down in October 1778 and the family sold the remaining cemetery and chapel, which today is the site of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.

For street-pattern reasons this small plot of land had been turned into a sitting area in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration and called St. Mark’s Park, but by the 1970s it had become filthy and drug-ridden.

Marilyn Appleberg, president of the 10th and Stuyvesant Streets Block Association, found that the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation was responsible for the upkeep of the property.

In 1980 she, along with Beth Flusser and Abe Lebewohl, the owner of the nearby Second Avenue Deli, began a petition to save the park.

This section of the street was restored in 2011-2012 as a pedestrian plaza by the construction of 51 Astor Place and new park space implemented by the Department of Transportation.